<p>Interesting piece today in the WSJ -</p>
<p>[Protect</a> Our Kids from Preschool - WSJ.com](<a href=“http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121936615766562189.html]Protect”>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121936615766562189.html)</p>
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<p>Good thing or not, my kids were in daycare since they were 2.5 months old. They absolutely loved their daycare experiences.</p>
<p>I’m an only child who didn’t go to preschool or daycare–I spent my days alone with a retired family friend. I remember my childhood as being pretty lonely and to this day I have significant social anxiety; I’ve often wondered if going to preschool could have helped head that off. I find it really interesting, then, that some studies have actually found poorer social skills in preschooled kids than non-preschooled kids.</p>
<p>My kids loved daycare, too. I remember loving my daycare, which Mom put me in a few months before starting kindergarten. I loved being around other kids. My kids remember their daycare, too as a wonderful experience because of being able to play with others.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to preschool or daycare. And my parents- uneducated themselves, and rather dysfunctional- forgot to sign me up for kindergarten. In all likelihood, I sat in front of the TV all day until I started at public school at 6. </p>
<p>I did manage to get a PhD and have been a professor at a top 20 and an Ivy League school.</p>
<p>I looked forward to having my third child at home with just me, during his preschool years. He begged me to let him go to school where there would be other kids to play with. Sigh. We didn’t do “all day”, but we both definitely benefited from his time with peers.</p>
<p>I don’t think the question here is whether or not daycare is good. Daycare is a necessity for many families, especially single parent families. I think the issue is that for many children, their very best environment is at home. Should we be mandating that every child go to preschool? Every tax payer pay for every child to go to preschool? Lurking behind this big push is, of course, the working parent need for child care. That’s a separate issue. If what we’re talking about is educational gains, then I think it’s a good idea to look at the impact of preschool objectively. This piece is the first I’ve seen to really seriously question whether or not preschool actually helps kids academically.</p>
<p>My own kids went to daycare, stayed home with me, had babysitters and went to preschool - it was basically a continually moving target for us as to what worked when. My kids cooperated with preschool, didn’t complain but also didn’t learn a thing. They did their learning at home with us, basically by reading with us and talking with us. When I visited their preschool classrooms I remember thinking how the various activities would very likely turn off a great many kids to learning.</p>
<p>I went to preschool at age 3 and 4 and had a wonderful time and even learned quite a bit. I’m sure I would have been fine at home as well, but my home was pretty terrific – attentive adults, tons of books, music of all kinds, siblings, etc. This quote from the article:</p>
<p>“Kids with loving and attentive parents – the vast majority”</p>
<p>does not jibe with my experience. Loving, sure, but attentive is a lot harder to find, depending on what attentive means to you. It’s hard to overstate just how empty a lot of American homes are in terms of productive activity and interaction for small kids.</p>
<p>In my opinion, even kindergarden is not necessary, and a note of making 4 years old “ready” to read is totally humorous. The push should be in Junior High and HS, not when they are 4-6 years old. In some other countries, they start at 7 in first grade without any testing or requirement to read or kindergarden, they have only 10 grades insted of 1+12=13 and know much much more upon graduation which shows in international math and science competitions. The point is not how early we start them in school and how long we keep them there but rather the quality and focus of education that we provide. Spending tons of $$ on education for 4-6 years old children is questionable, let them be kids, let them play instead of keeping them in classrooms, that is what very valuable and irreplaceble at this age. I do not mind daycare in which they make friends, play, have fun, and some organized activities that promote age appropriate creativity, but we can easily wait until they are 7 to start their formal education.</p>
<p>There is also the safety issue. Some preschoolers are safer at a school than they are at home, where they may be left alone all day, abused, asked to caregive for even younger children, and/or may not get enough to eat. This issue goes way beyond teaching young children to read. Different socio-economic groups have varying needs from pre-school programs. All kids benefit from some academic enrichment, whether at home or school, but some kids also need food and shelter. Should this be provided by the state and called “preschool?” That’s part of the debate, IMHO.</p>
<p>I think the word preschool is not well defined here. Does preschool mean child development center?</p>
<p>“oving, sure, but attentive is a lot harder to find, depending on what attentive means to you. It’s hard to overstate just how empty a lot of American homes are in terms of productive activity and interaction for small kids.”</p>
<p>Kids also want to interact with other kids.That’s something hard to do in most homes because unlike the olden days, people don’t have those many kids now. In addition, the physical structure of most neighborhoods and the fact that so many kids are in daycare means that kids can’t even play with other kids in their neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Somehow there’s a fantasized ideal that kids should be doted on constantly by attentive parents. This idea is ridiculous. Throughout history, adults did mainly adult things, and kids played with each other when they weren’t doing chores. Mothers didn’t stay at home devoting themselves virtually 24/7 to playing with and teaching their kids. The mothers were managing a house and helping with farms – which meant doing lots of hard work.</p>
<p>I think it wasn’t until the 1950s that the ideal became a stay at home mom who was doting on her kids. I had a stay at home mom who did her best to play with me, teach me, take me to educational and fun things, and I remember being very bored until I finally went to daycare and then kindergarten. Once they are around age 2 or so, I think that most kids would prefer the company of other kids to spending hours on end in the company of adults.</p>
<p>As usual, Northstarmom nailed it.</p>
<p>I heard a report on a radio talk show that the best predictor of “success in life” (in quotes because that encompasses so much and I don’t know how they measured it) is how well-adjusted kids of 3 or 4 years old are socially. That is, when they revisit these kids at 18 years old, it is the well-adjusted kids socially who are thriving. Now, because I only heard this reported from experts talking on an NPR station, I can’t cite it. Nor can I tell you how they measured these things.</p>
<p>One thing I do know is when I watch my daughter (16 months) in the company of her peers at the day care my wife runs, I know instinctively she’s having a much better time and learning much more about other people than if she were home alone. And it is important to remember that if children of that age aren’t having fun, their brains aren’t growing quite as quickly and they aren’t learning as much; that much is scientifically proven.</p>
<p>My kids went to preschool for better blocks, messier art projects and other kids. Also because Mom would have gone bonkers if she hadn’t had a break a few times a week. They had a mix of preschool (just a few days a week) and going to another family for daycare and having babysitters come to the house while I worked part time.</p>
<p>Agree with Riverrunner - the question is all about context. For some kids, just providing a sane safe place where they will get a healthy meal is a huge improvement in their quality of life. At least in real time. The gains don’t seem to be carrying forward for Head Start kids. That’s really troubling. </p>
<p>We seem to have something of an educational crisis going on. I think the article poses some very valid questions about “universal” preschool programs being sold to us with the argument that they will help kids academically. Our resources are finite in what we can invest in education. We really need to use our resources intelligently. </p>
<p>Other models - the Finnish one is fascinating - seem to be far more successful than what we have and what we seem to be moving toward.</p>
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<p>I agree - if it’s TV all day vrs. daycare, I’d choose daycare. That said, my kid definitely benefited from being home in that she had her own ideas about what to do all day.</p>
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<p>I agree with this. Does anyone else of a HS aged kid feel, as I do, that the pressure slacked off year by year until middle school was really undemanding?</p>
<p>“In some other countries, they start at 7 in first grade without any testing or requirement to read or kindergarden, they have only 10 grades insted of 1+12=13 and know much much more upon graduation”</p>
<p>There’s plenty we can learn from this model, but we should also bear in mind that the overwhelming majority of Finns, if they moved to America, would be upper-middle-class white people. Our upper-middle-class white kids are already doing just fine. It’s our working-class and poor children, especially minorities, who are suffering.</p>
<p>I think the early childhood years are crucial to one’s development. I don’t think it is an either/or proposition between school and home. Both have benefits. So much learning takes place during these years…intellectually, emotionally, and socially. </p>
<p>My own kids went to preschool two mornings per week as three year olds and three mornings per week as four year olds, along with some other parent/child playgroups. The rest of the time they were with me (including going to other group activites such as ski classes and dance classes). I feel that their experiences at their wonderful nursery school were instrumental in their later success and development. I also think the nurturing at home was instrumental. Some kids don’t get that at home. Both are valuable experiences. I believe all kids should have some preschool experience prior to kindergarten. Those who have not, often have difficulty adjusting to kindergarten, in fact. </p>
<p>So much of what one learns happens during the first five years of life. Preschool is an appropriate setting for some of that learning to take place. For some kids, it may be the only place as they don’t get it at home. For others, it will balance the enrichment that happens in the home as well.</p>
<p>There’s daycare and then there’s daycare. How many hours a day/days a week? How many children per caregiver?</p>
<p>S1 first went to a family daycare. the woman was lovely and loving. She took care of 6 children, usually with the help of one or more of her children. The kids ranged from infants to 3-4 years old. It became clear, however, by the time S1 was 2.5 that he wanted to be with kids his own age, so we moved him to a daycare center. It was extremely expensive but also extremely well-run. He loved it.
For S2, we tried having someone come to our house but it was very lonely for both the care-giver and for S2, so after less than a year, we moved him to the daycare center his brother had attended. He loved it there, too.
They both went from about 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, five days a week.<br>
Our district has a two-year kindergarten. It is used mostly by low SES families who are very happy to be able to send their children to what is essentially free daycare.</p>