[kwhitefoot]

> my kindergartener only gets like 20 minutes of recess

What? In Norwegian kidergarten (barnehage) there are no formal lessons at all. The whole point of barnehage is to turn young animals into cooperating members of society not to teach them mathematics and reading, that comes later.

So the whole day is some kind of play time with intervals of helping to lay the table for lunch, having stories read to, going for walks in the woods, and a hell of a lot of playing outside in the rain, snow, mud, climbing, falling, etc.

And also it is the most effective way to teach a language. My English speaking children were able to speak Norwegian from a standing start at three years old within six months and indistinguishable from the natives within a year with no classroom instruction at all.

[jhbadger]

In part because the US has created "pre-school", which children attend for a year or two before kindergarten. This is more like the traditional kindergarten that you describe -- it is intended to get kids to learn to get along with each other, play nicely, sing songs, etc.

[bombcar]

This is 100% it right here. When I was young, kindergarten was preschool (sometimes actually called that) and was also not mandatory. You could start school in first grade, and some schools didn't even have kindergarten.

Now preschool has standardized tests (!!!!!) and expected outcomes and kindergarten is worse. And 3K has been invented to be what preschool (and before that, kindergarten) once was. Of course, you can't go to 3K or 4K if you're not potty trained, which puts additional time crunches and restrictions on things.

Maybe it helps overall, but I'm not entirely sure it does.