This study examines the manner in which a group of kindergarten children viewed their kindergarten experience, how those views changed over time, and the extent to which those views were affected by background variables and preschool experiences. Eighty-three randomly selected urban kindergarten children were interviewed three times over a 7-month period. Photographs and drawings were used to elicit children's preferences in relatively unstructured interview sessions. Interviews were recorded and content analysis was conducted to extract from the children's words a sense of the ways children viewed the schooling experience. Categories of response were developed and analyzed with non-parametric statistical techniques. Variables such as family income and parents' education were treated as independent variables and replies to interview questions were treated as dependent variables. Among the results, children appeared more able to tell what teachers are to do in school than what they themselves are to do. Change in children's perceptions of student role was toward more disciplined behavior and greater orientation to cognitive activity. Children's views of school, student and teacher roles, impulse control, sex differences, amount of time spent in day care, preschool experience and student role, and impact of peer group are among the topics discussed in conjunction with the findings. (Author/RH)