I just found out my kid's kindergarten class is teaching Russian 40 mins per day.

[ForgedCrank]

168. There can be

various reasons for those issues that I won't speculate on. The range of causes is almost infinite, including the most common one being that kids usually just can't stand being locked up in school.
However, the average 5 year old can learn all of the basics in school, and at the same time completely memorize entire sets of cartoon episodes, songs from the radio, rules for their favorite games, and thousands of other things of interest, and none of that inhibits their ability to learn basic core skills at the same time. Learning doesn't have to be laser focused with set boundaries, that's not really how the brain works. It's not like a memory card that will only hold XXX amount of information. The more that little brain is willing to accept, and the key here is the willing part, the better off they are all around.
Learning some Russian basics won't hurt a thing. In fact, it will help overall if the kid is actually interested in it.
In the end, you are the parent and that is an honest and valid position. I just hope you will be open to seeing it from a different perspective because it really can be a very good thing.