and next year they'll change the lunch monitor to Jesus, Watching Over You!

Sigh, missing from the essay was any indication that this parent had removed her son from this abusive school.

The first 15 minutes were silent to ensure the kids actually ate. It worked out very well.

Lunch time is a great time for that.

Also making young children be silent while eating seems like a punishment.

Maybe between talking and eating the kids couldn't eat in 15 minutes.
But I think it would be better to lengthen the lunch time then.
Yes it is too short.

Their development is actually being thwarted by this age-inappropriate, over structuring of their time.

The well-meaning adults were teaching the kids math and reading at ages 3- 4. They were predicting that the kids would get to grade school and fall behind, as kids in the community had in the past. They were trying to give them a head start.

My mother explained that socialization and basic following of directions was what was appropriate at that age. Forcing them into skills they were too young to learn would not teach them the skills they needed most and would make them feel like failures before they even reached grade school.

It's interesting that the adults had internalized past children's failures in their community and were projecting the same result on children who had not (yet) failed. And they were potentially creating the result they feared.

Just look around and it’s clear, too many of Americans have very poor social skills.

Excellent comment.

On one hand the educators child psychologists are worried that young people don’t know how to engage in social interaction and on the other hand they pull a stunt like this in kindergarten. Give me a break. Kindergarten!! So yeah, these kids will be very good at passing tests, but will be very stunted emotionally and socially. What kind of adults are we hoping to develop?

We see them all around us.

or at least, it's a sign of sickness.

What is it that we're teaching, that leaves so little time for lunch? I'm skeptical, when as far as I can tell, kids coming out of school today are no better educated – if anything, less.

Something is very seriously wrong, and the adults in charge are either in denial about it or possibly are part of the cause.

Whew, what a mess corpotizing education has become.

No one questions the school. If school were so great they wouldn't punish you by giving you more school.

in the opinion of whoever was in charge, then they would delay recess time.

And I'd been in that lunchroom -- it was much quieter than a typical restaurant.

This is what happens when academics are prioritized over everything else, including letting kids be kids.

This stuff has been going on for a while now. My daughter started kindergarten in 1990, and even back then, it was a full day of seatwork, from what I could tell. She was SO not ready for that!

She barely made the age cutoff to start that year, and I would have waited another year to send her kindergarten if I'd had any idea what it would be like.

This school sounds even worse. At least my daughter was allowed to talk to the other kids at lunch time!

That is insane!

I'd prefer to have my kids go to a lesser school that provided more time for socialization, and didn't put so much pressure on the kids.
School should be more than just course work. It's where they learn to be part of the community.

If kids are allowed to talk the entire time at lunch, you would not believe the amount of food that is thrown away. Then, parents are upset that their child didn't eat. It's a catch 22 situation.

you give them a longer lunchtime. For heaven's sake, it's not that hard!

I can see maybe the first 15 min quiet eating of a 30 minute lunch before a 30 or more minute recess. Finland is the happiest country and they don't even start school until a year or more after our kindergarten age.

One of the best things about retirement from school is now I can go to lunch with my wife or spend 30 minutes at home and not worrying about the kids coming back to my classroom or skipping the last period of the day....25 minutes was our lunch time. Just enough to wolf down a sandwich or nuke leftovers from home. hit the bathroom before the kids come back to class and sometimes run off a few extra copies of assignments or missed work from the previous day the kid was out sick etc...I can't imagine a kindergarten kid not being able to talk during lunch...but then it is NC and not the brightest lightbulb in the pack.....Save us from these idiots!