Crap, I wore my computer glasses home and left my regular glasses in my desk at work. There's not a big difference in prescription, but I think that puts the kibosh on going to the wine tasting down the street (which I was already losing the will to go to just because I'm tired).

Things I would like in my current work situation for $300, Alex.

Right?

When I was in third grade, the class came to a consensus that we missed naps and we should start taking them again. The teacher was down with it, so we did. That was nice.

In reality, I don't think I could deal with a nap at work. The nap would be fine; waking up and needing to work some more would suck.

OMG, my local public affairs show is so shitty -- they literally cut to black in the middle of a sentence talking about James Gandolfini's death and started playing "Don't Stop Believing."

PreK in NYC has naptime, but not K. And in PreK only the morning and full-day classes - Dylan was in an afternoon class so no nap. (Which worked out fine since he gave up naps around age 2.)

Interestingly, K is also technically optional in NYC public schools. There was a proposal to make it mandatory a couple of years ago, but it failed on the basis that making K mandatory would mean giving schools enough money for all the extra classrooms and heaven forfend we should support universal early childhood education with slightly higher property taxes.

Huh. In SF they're pushing for universal pre-K.

We have "Universal Pre-K" in NYC too but it doesn't mean what it sounds like. It's a subsidy program for low-income families to send their kids to private preschools (or, more often, private daycares where part of the fee can be paid by a UPK subsidy). And those programs extend through age 6, so they're also a substitute for kindergarten if necessary.

I skipped kindergarten, but I'd already gone to full day nursery school at age 4 for the socialization and adapting to daily routines. Aside from the aforementioned hijinks-averting age diference, it also meant that I was in the same class as my best friend when I transferred schools (met him the first day of 2nd grade and we've been friends ever since) and I was able to meet my closest circle of HS friends when most of us took German together. Since I'm still good friends with them almost 30 years later, I'm pretty glad it happened that way even if I might have had a better chance at top honors in the class of 88.

When I went to pre-school it was a co-op overseen by the school district. To send your kids there, you had to volunteer to work in the classroom some number of hours. There was an actual teacher, to be sure, and when I was a substitute teacher and was assigned there she was STILL the teacher. She was pretty awesome. Mrs. Gonzales from Holland.

It was two year deal, or could be, I know I went for two years. Then half-day kindergarten. Then first grade that shared a room with a kindergarten class because the school was overcrowded or understaffed, I don't remember exactly, I was 6.

I grew up in the country, so it guess it would be different than a sub/urban setting.

And in New York, UPK is just three hours (or something -- it's like a half-day kindergarten time), so if you're sending your four-year-old to daycare all day, the UPK subsidy doesn't cover much.

Geez tommy. How awful for the people in the pool.