EXCERPTS
Re: All-day classes: Too much, too soon, Editorial, June 9.
In response to your editorial, I wish to clarify some important points regarding research that I have recently begun on full-day kindergarten.
I have been working on a pilot that will hopefully lead to an examination of full-day kindergarten literacy curriculum and how it is produced.
The work done to this point is to determine how this can be accomplished.
The pilot, which the editorial refers to as a "study," inaccurately states that we looked at two full-day kindergarten classes. In fact, we only visited two locations to this point in our research; one half-day kindergarten and one daycare centre.
We have not had the opportunity to observe a full-day kindergarten setting.
Information we gathered to date is not nearly sufficient for anyone to use as a validation of their views, no matter what they may be, of full-day kindergarten.
A media release that was issued as part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Science last week inaccurately characterized our preliminary research.
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That media release was later retracted.
I am deeply concerned that reference to my preliminary work on this subject as being a full-fledged study rather than a pilot may jeopardize my ability to engage in this area of study at all.
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PROF. RACHEL HEYDON, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont.
- reprinted from the Windsor Star