This paper contends that, historically and today, "readiness" functions as a key symbol in discourses of early childhood. Schools and teachers need to make "ready" for different children in a very different world than that in which many people grew up. The interest in the paper, however, is not only in individual difference but in the kinds of differences in children's linguistic, social, economic, and cultural capital, in what capital different children "bring to school" and are able to use in schools, and in how this affects what they take up from what schools make available. Although the main focus is literacy, the paper uses examples which also touch on numeracy and technology. It is in the tradition of "kid (and teacher) watching," as there is much to be learned from being in classrooms. It is organized in three parts: first, two children are introduced and followed through a morning in the last months of their preschool lives, raising questions about what might await them in school; then a number of classrooms and events where teachers have consciously constructed a "permeable curriculum" are examined; and finally, the two children are looked at again to see what they are making of school and what it is making of them. The paper argues that early childhood curricula and pedagogical practices need to be informed by a commitment to social justice for socioeconomically disadvantaged and culturally diverse communities of children who are present at school, "ready or not." (Contains 22 references.) (NKA)