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You think that's funny, but there's some truth to it.

When I was in Kindergarten I spent (what at the time) felt line an eternity coloring in a picture, choosing the colors, making sure I didn't go out of the lines, that is was literally perfect.

When I handed it in for grading, the teacher drew a big red X on it, wrote D-, and said, "YOU COULD DO BETTER!"

After that experience (which has stuck with me since) I pretty much gave up in school and even hobbies. By the time I got to highschool I just dropped out and homeschooled myself because I was so disgusted with the schooling system. I do feel that that Kindergarten teacher set the course for my cynicism.

Even at that age I understood that it wasn't the grade that mattered -- It was the fact that I put special effort into making something as best as I possibly could - The best of my ability - Knowing very well that I could, personally, do no better with all my potential - To only be told that it's still crap / garbage.

I'd even like to say it's why I'm currently under medication for obsessive compulsive disorder. Any task I try to tackle goes under such strict perfectionism that I never complete what I start - Because, well - "I could of did better." I'm self-doubting and incapable of judging quality since I was told my idea of high quality is actually low. The mind games behind it are sickening.

That woman's voice rings very clearly in my head every f**king day. I swear, I wish I could go back in time I would have just punched her square in the nose, knowing now that I wouldn't of really gotten in trouble at that age.

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chocolate crayons good

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Mmmmm... minty paste.

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sparkle pen?! What the.....what is this blasphemy?

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I never went to kindergarten as a kid. I turned out to be an excellent student and graduated college last year.

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You sound like you'd be a hit with the ladies....

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Well my own experiences would not make me reach that same conclusion. Don't get me wrong my parents did a good job of raising me, but cultivating a desire for learning wasn't at the top of the list and let's just say past 5th grade I don't ever remember getting help on my homework.

However for me the number one reason I went to college is I didn't want to do manual labor for the rest of my life. My dad owned a lumber yard that I worked on from 14 -22. If I had not gone that is probably what I would be doing today out in the humidity of Florida with the temperature getting close to 100.

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I like how you brag about only being in kindergarten a week, and that you went to college, but go on to say, "...attain an higher education."

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I think you're missing the point. Because you learned a lot when u were at kindergarten AGE, you were set early on a path for more educational success. You were pushed so hard at kindergarten u skipped a year, and now ur looking into a masters.

"For example, a 5-year-old with a good teacher would typically jump from the 50th percentile to the 60th, and, 22 years later, could expect to earn about $1,000 a year more other students who stayed average"

I imagine doing first grade when u were 5 would place u a lot higher than 60th percentile compared to other 5 year olds.

You PROVED the rule. GOOD teachers that PUSH children early help those kids achieve more later in life.

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I never went to kindergarden as a kid. I turned out to be an excellent student and graduated college last year.

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naps in kindergarten!!??!?!??

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Schools don't even have enough money now to pay current salaries, how are they supposed to give them raises? The school funding model is atrocious..

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all the public school teachers I know tutor on the side for $75-$150 an hour

if you want to give them higher salaries, it means higher property taxes. You down with that?

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I don't think the study involved directly giving the children a bad teacher, just tracking the quality of teachers throughout the children's lives...

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It's more likely the economists took data from someone else's experiments, analyzed them, then found patterns. All of the student's academic records are kept by the school district. It's easy enough to figure out who the better teachers were if students that had teacher A in kindergarten did better in later grades than teacher B (assuming the students were all of the same economic class, race, etc.). Then you just keep following the data to see where the students ended up at the age of 30.

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Mmmm... red headed demon women are the best!

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I cant really agree or disagree with these findings mainly because I haven't read the report. Based on personal experience though, I can't say that I agree or disagree.

I went to one of the worst schools in Orlando, FL (Orange County), located in the ghetto. In spite of this, I think I was taught things that were really interesting, even in kindergarten. Maybe it was my kindergarten teacher, but I learned more than just fingerpainting or coloring. For example, my teacher taught us about the different dinosaurs, including some obscure ones. Even though I had some bad teachers later on in elementary school, I ended up learning things every year that were valuable. Eventually, I went to an academically gifted magnet school in middle and high school (in a different district with "better education"), and I ended up going to a top 10 engineering school, with a graduate engineering degree no less. I am not sure what happened to my classmates from kindergarten, but I know that most of them had joined gangs by 6th grade. So, yes, my school and my teachers did affect me in a positive way, and I'm sure my parents did too. However, I'm not certain what portions of these factors caused my eventual outcome.

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Here here. I was in some class that met once a week for "gifted" students in second and third grade (moved after third grade, and you had to test early for the program at the school I ended up going to, so they said I couldn't join), learning all sorts of things I wouldn't learn until much later on, like boatloads of studies on ancient Egypt and Greece in third grade. THIRD GRADE.

After about 5th grade, I really didn't care that much. I felt teachers moved too slowly for most material. Carried on into college, where half the time I never opened or read the book since the instructors just gave us all the information in their notes. Still only graduated with a C average, but given how much slacking I did, I'm surprised at how little I had to do to obtain most of my grades. I was in a film and literature class that had 8 to 10 required reading books. I only ever bought two of them, and only ever read none of them, but still passed with a C+.

Makes you wonder how effective that instructor was if she has that many required books, but I could still pass her class with a C+ without reading a single one of them. Guess she's just good at preparing notes. I figure, why spend hours each night reading books I don't really care to read, when I can just sort of pay attention in class 4 hours a week and get the information I need?

Then there was my discrete math class. The class was a bit challenging, but not overtly so, but nearly everyone in the class felt the instructor was moving too fast and wasn't providing adequate help. He put all his notes online, described everything in detail, and had the most open office hours of any instructor I'd ever had while in college. He would bend over backwards to help kids, so if you were failing, it's because you either can't handle the material, or you simply didn't try.

After much protesting form the students, we went from clearing a chapter a week to a chapter every 1.5 to 2 weeks, and I stopped caring. I beat Mario Kart DS in the back of his class. Ended up with a C+ or B- or something, and that was with nearly acing all three of his exams, and doing half of the homeworks.

"But if you would have done all the homeworks you would have had a much higher grade!"

Yup, but if I could get an average to slightly above average grade doing NOTHING, what's the damn point?

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but while you don't know it, you're also learning social skills and problem solving through play.

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Some of the so called prodigies who are alive today wouldn't be that much of a prodigy if they only had the raw talent (genes) yet didn't have a supportive socio-economic background.

The genius kid got a more lucky break. I'm sure if he swapped places with ya, he wouldn't have achieved more than ya have.

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