K is the new 1st Grade

     So reports the Chicago Tribune today, in a feature story that suggests  an earlier than ever education is becoming the norm.

     I have one memory of my entire kindergarten experience. One.

     There are some large blocks of wood that the children are using to create stuff to stand on and climb on, and something happens and I fall..Or the blocks fall on me...or something like that. That's it. My memory tells me they were BIG blocks, that you could create a play house out of them, but perhaps they were smaller and looked like these.

     I know the kindergarten was held  at PS-109, the New York Public School down the street from where I lived....a building that is still there, and still a school. I don't know if there are kindergarten classes held there.

    

     Oh....one other thing: I met Steve there, who became my best friend through elementary school, and is still my friend! This is us as Laurel and Hardy at Halloween, probably around 1959 or 1960.

     So if the kids today are learning real stuff...like geography and math and writing in kindergarten, good for them!

     Personally it was a fall down and meet Steve experience.

[UPDATE: Steve emailed me about the blocks:  "The blocks were big, and dark green. We used to build forts with them." And NOW I can visualize them even better. Great times...I think?]