In Room 102, where Ms. Rigo retreated after guiding her first graders onto their buses, the phone rang. It was a parent upset at being expected to provide a binder for homework. The family couldn’t afford it.

The college project, this year adopted by all five first-grade classes, has pleased some parents and puzzled others. One, Lora Collins, a Kansas State graduate, thought the college talk was useful. For many local families, she said, “it is just not in their mind, in their thought process, to think about going to college.” A few have not been so receptive, complaining that students should be focusing on reading, writing and math.

Another first-grade teacher, Jennifer Agnew, said she “had a couple of parents who were like, ‘Their thoughts and feelings will change, why should we be talking about this now?’”

Young children simply cannot understand what college is, according to Marcy Guddemi, executive director of the Gesell Institute of Child Development. “You may as well be talking about Mars. It’s totally meaningless.”

As for older children, they can grasp college but developmentally struggle with making choices, she said, so early planning may not be fruitful — or fair.

“We are robbing children of childhood by talking about college and career so early in life,” Dr. Guddemi said. “Kids being pressured to think college, to pick a college, that everything you do is for college, you miss the here and now.” Also, she observed: “Not every child will go to college. That is just a fact.” Equating degree-earning with success may set up some to feel like failures.

How you view the early start on college planning depends on where you sit.

Ms. Rigo became convinced of its importance after working as a teacher’s assistant in the Chapel Hill public schools, where parents were professors, doctors and lawyers. Census data show three-quarters of adults there have college degrees. At Johnsonville Elementary, most of her students would be the first in their families to attend college.

“When I came here,” she said, “I realized they were not getting the same message.”