Complicating the issue – and confusing parents further – is the fact that our expectations for young kids have changed drastically over the past generation. One recent University of Virginia study, “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?” compared kindergarten teachers’ approaches in 1998 versus 2010 and found that teachers in the later years had much higher academic standards, spent far more time on teacher-directed instruction, and less time on play, science exploration, art and music.