If you had an opportunity to redo kindergarten would you?

Oh man, I could ace that now!

@ETpro I’m hoping that I can get better scores instead of these “requires more effort” quips in my report card.

Kindergarten was great. Cool teacher (a very friendly Jamaican woman) the nobility of being the only kid in the class who knew how to tie shoes, and my daddy picking me up from the school bus.

People have regrets about kindergarten?

That’s way too early to start regretting things, guys.

I wish I had a happier childhood is a valid thought. But how much do you really control at that age? What change can you hope to exact with a do-over?

@talljasperman Have those “grades” really affected anything in your life?

That nap time, though. Damn if only that were a high school class. I regret all those days I didn’t want to nap. I remember one day I was sent to the principal’s office during nap time because I decided to give myself a haircut instead.
I was a wreck in kindergarten. I had anger problems and would always throw tantrums. I got suspended so many times that they contemplated sending me somewhere else. If I were to restart it, I’d be less stressed out and throw less temper tantrums. And I’d make sure to share my crayons, too, or something.
I was also known from spontaneously leaving the classroom unannounced, so at least I had a sense of adventure. I’d probably keep taking hallway strolls.

Not the kindergarten I went to. I went to a kindergarten in Colon, Panama, and I remember being chastised for coloring the Panamanian flag with the red and blue in the wrong places. Hated that place.

I hated kindergarten. My experience was not flooded with nap time and snacks. I pretty much just felt like a loner the entire year and was almost held back for not being emotionally ready for first grade.

And when I finally found some solace in playing with plastic dinosaurs and puppets, they took them away. What the hell were you thinking Mrs. S? I was finally enjoying myself.

Man, taking naps on cute little mats, drawing all day and eating pudding in the afternoon?

PUDDING IN THE AFTERNOON, MOTHERFUCKER.

I’m there, dude.

As long as I don’t have to go home, I’m good with it.

No, it was traumatic enough.

No, but maybe I would give primary school a go again hopefully being more focused this time.

In kindergarten, I once drew a person with legs and arms poking out of its head and was told by the teacher I was drawing him wrong. Another time, I refused to let a playmate look at my new toy binoculars and was made by the same teacher to sit alone outdoors and think about how selfish I was. I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I’ve never forgotten either of those awful incidents—and that was many, many, many, many, many years ago.

If I could go back and change either of those incidents I probably wouldn’t, because who knows, maybe I was a budding Picasso. And as for the binoculars, they were a brand new birthday gift and I damn well wasn’t ready to share ‘em.

Kindergarten was in the days of combat grade killer nuns. I was extremely fortunate in that my kindergarten nun had this great love and enthusiasm for classical music, and we were drenched in it. I suspect that her passion for music and her enthusiasm in indoctrinating us at the exclusion of nearly everything else was probably why she was not around the next year for my sister’s kindergarten class. It’s another one of those instances where I’m forced to admit that mine has been a life of extraordinary good luck.

No. My KG wasn’t like that. My teacher had a crush on my dad all through high school, and was jealous my mom landed him. KG was where I got time out, stayed closed indoors, got judged for my fingerpainting participation. At home I could chase chickens, fingerpaint mud all over the side of the barn, run hard as my spindley little legs would go, twirl, sing, cat5ch frogs and crickets. I wasn’t forced to eat a snack if I didn’t want one.
The only thing I wanted from KG was to learn to read, and they didn’t start that until first grade. KG was a waste. I was glad to move on and get to the nitty-gritty.

I never went to kindergarten. My mother and my brothers and sisters taught me at home until I was old enough to go to first grade. However I did have to attend kindergarten for one day to take a test to see if I was ready for first grade.

I loved being around kids my own age and I brought my Hot Wheels Cars with me and made my first friend who told me that the teacher pulled your ear if you got in trouble. At the time I thought that was hilarious. Me and that friend remained close all the way through high school.

@Nimis I would like to see where I went from good kid to little brat… and counter where the change occurred… Kindergarten has a list of social skills that I believe would be useful if I can master the basics.

No, I did not like some of the “anti-creative” rules in my kindergarten. We had to color in the line and with crayon strokes that all went in the same direction. I also got in trouble for coloring in a picture of a watch with the “wrong” colors.

@answerjill Heh. I was friends with a girl in kindergarten, and one morning we had an activity, where we had to write our names with play dough. My friend made the letters of her name too thick, and was told to restart. I mean, what the hell. Isn’t it good enough, at that age, that we can spell our names? Does it matter how tick or thin the fuckin play dough letters are lmao.

If I went back to kindergarten with all the knowledge that I have now I would have a lot of fun tormenting my teacher. And that would be so sweet. My kindergarten teacher was the meanest person that I have ever met and I’m 63 years old. That bitch hated me. I don’t know why. Perhaps it was because I was such an ugly little kid. One day at nap time she yelled “Who was talking?”. No one said anything and then she said, “I think that I know who was talking” and she grabbed me and marched me into her office. Then she grabbed my face so that my mouth was all contorted and said “I’m going to punish you for talking now but in the future if I ask who was talking and you raise your hand and tell me that you were talking then I will not punish you”. Then came the day of the Halloween party that we were going to have right after our nap time. Again she asked “Who was talking?” And I raised my hand thinking that I would not be punished but I was given the worst punishment. Besides grabbling my face again she made me sit in her office looking out her window at all of my classmates having fun drinking punch with cake and cookies. The mean look on her face is forever embossed on the back of my brain. The only thing that I learned from kindergarten was that teachers lie so I learned to lie also.

@Symbeline In first year psychology I had to buy plasticine and make a cheaply made brain with tiny labels. As soon as I got my grade I chucked it in the trash. In fact everyone did that.

I got a black mark on my kindergarten report card becaise I did not know how to tie my shoes. Now I do!
I’d go back!