The following is an excerpt from a letter sent by the principal of Greenwood School to the parents of all incoming kindergartners We have decided to institute a policy of all day kindergarten instead of half day kindergarten for all students at Greenwood

The principal of Greenwood School in his letter to the parents of all incoming kindergarten students has mentioned about a new policy of all-day instead of half-day kindergarten being instituted for the benefit of its students. The policy being mentioned in the letter is based on many assumptions which undermine the main objective of the principal of aiding students to achieve their highest levels.

One of the assumption on which the policy is based is that the low and high achieving students will be placed together so that the high achieving ones can help the low achieving ones to improve but which may not occur. The principal seems to have overlooked the fact that he is talking about kindergarten students who are little chaps and cannot be entrusted to take such a huge step of helping others to achieve higher grades, while on the other hand, it may lower the grades of the high achievers by them being influenced with the low achieving ones. The policy might have been stronger if the principal might have mentioned that this method would be tried for a month and if it doesn't give anticipated results then they would look for an alternative.

Another assumption that the principal makes here is that by moving through the same syllabus at a slower speed will help the students to accommodate their learning differences but as these are children we are talking about, they may easily loose interest if the speed is too slow which would affect their grades altogether. Thus, if it was mentioned that the speed would be slowed only to the extent which would help the slow learners to catch up without affecting the interest of the students in curriculum, then the argument would have been stronger.

The principal is also assuming that only by increasing the duration of stay of kindergarten students in the school will they be able to achieve their highest levels or else the time would otherwise be wasted at home or in day care. Here the principal is not only assuming that the time would be wasted when not spent in school but is also ignoring the fact that children of such a tender age need to spend more time with their parents as that would flourish the attachment between them which is more important.

Therefore, some of the assumptions on which the principal based his argument are porous and do not strengthen his institution of the new policy for the kindergarten students. However, had the principal clarified those assumptions his policy would have been much more stronger.