Actually, they do a lot of work in kindergarten. They learn to read, do basic math, study social studies and science. It's not all play, nap and storytime that it was when we were kids. I also agree that Sept. 1 is too early of a cutoff date. My daughter will make it by 10 days this year. I'm really glad she wasn't born 2 weeks later, because she's very smart and is already bored with Preschool. Maybe they should change it so that they could do some sort of evaluation of the kids born between, say Sept 1 & Dec 1. Some will be ready and some won't. I don't think it's right to make them wait another whole year if they could possibly be ready.