(AmericanProsperity.com) – In a recent survey, nearly eighty percent of United States teachers have said that children are not prepared to start elementary school as they were in previous years. Almost half of the teachers blamed the COVID pandemic disruptions and virtual learning for these setbacks.
The teachers were asked, “From your experience, how do you think school readiness among children has changed in the last few years? Children are more ready for school than they were a few years ago? Children are just as school-ready as they were a few years ago? Children are less ready for school than they were a few years ago?”
Seventy-eight percent of U.S. teachers said American kids are less ready, four percent said they are more ready, and eighteen percent said that they are just as school-ready.
American educators have noted that there is a significant amount of four and five-year-olds that can’t go to the toilet independently, wash their hands, identify numbers and letters, read simple words, or even identify their own names.
When compared to the Netherlands, the UK, Brazil, India, and South Africa, the United States’ perceived lack of preparedness was far worse.
Seventy percent of American teachers said that young United States students are less ready because they didn’t attend Pre-K which isn’t widely available in every state of the United States. Fifty-seven percent of teachers said that poverty could be a factor and that parents aren’t teaching their kids enough to get them “school-ready.”
State Assembly Education Committee Chairman Michael Benedetto said “Parenting means so much. Home life means so much. Eighty percent of learning comes from the home.”
The president of Theirworld, Justin van Fleet, who conducted the survey, called for more action and funding for early education. “Without urgent investment into children’s early years, the youngest and most vulnerable in the United States will begin their lives at a severe disadvantage,” he said.
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