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Wednesday, October 28. 2015

Preschool

Preschool, aka Nursery School, is glorified child care. Nothing wrong with it, nothing wonderful about it either. Hanging out around the olde cabin is good too.


Expectations of sustained effects from scaled up pre-K: Challenges from the Tennessee study


Preschool Helps Kids. Sometimes. Briefly.

Posted by The Barrister in Education at 15:01 | Comments (12) | Trackbacks (0)

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Around here, if your child doesn't get into the right preschool, they won't get into the right private elementary school, which means they won't get into the right prep school, which means they won't get into Harvard. Their entire life will be determined by which one of the Ivy preschools they go to.
#1 Jim on 2015-10-28 18:21 (Reply)
You need to move out West. The East Coast is so strange...when I lived out there, everyone wanted to put their kids in private schools, spent loads of money, even those in top-performing public school districts. Even the summer breaks were organized things...sports camps, academic camps, music camps. The kids never get a break out there.

In the West, most put theirs kids in public schools...or in private schools for religious reasons. Sure, some put their kids in private schools for the same reasons you are talking about, but the system is MUCH smaller and most people don't care either way.

Much more relaxed atmosphere. You would enjoy it.
#1.1 MissT on 2015-10-28 19:21 (Reply)
I can attest for a fact that you can be accepted to Harvard without having gone to a single fashionable pre-school, K-12, or prep school.
#1.2 Texan99 on 2015-10-28 23:17 (Reply)
Youngest never went to pre-school. Didn't want to learn anything from me. So when he was 4, he stayed home and played...with toys, video games, watched tv. I really didn't have anything organized going on at home as I was working from home at the time, and he was well-behaved enough that I did not need to supervise.

Flash forward to kindergarten. They did assessment tests before school started. My youngest placed in the 'low' group...kids with the least skills. He barely knew the alphabet, could write one letter - the first letter of his middle name, could read nothing. I was fine with it. He would learn at his own pace.

Six weeks into kindergarten the kid had taught himself to read. Yes, taught himself. He had learned the basics of phonics...not even the whole alphabet and just figured out the rest for himself. His teacher was shocked. She had no idea.

Kids learn all on their own. You just need to present them with opportunities. The most I did for my kids was read to them every day and talk to them. Pre-school is unnecessary. The kid may learn the alphabet and how to write his name, but that's about it.

Better to let them be kids and not put so much focus on academics too early.
#2 MissT on 2015-10-28 19:17 (Reply)
Preschool is a gift to the union teachers & staff (and non-union) and a gift to the voters who want free stuff. In return they are expected to vote for the "free stuff party". It isn't about the children or education and never was. So the study is totally wrong! It is fulfilling it's (true) mandate 110%. It is a success story... well, unless you pay taxes.
#3 GoneWithTheWind on 2015-10-28 19:31 (Reply)
Greg Cochrane at West Hunter has some criticisms

https://westhunt.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/pre-k-revisited/
#4 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2015-10-28 21:22 (Reply)
"Nothing wrong with it". There most certainly is. It's parents who should be raising their children, teaching them the importance of family through word and experience, and developing their social cues from engagements with loving adults and siblings.

That's what best develops integrity, courage, confidence, loyalty and honor.
#5 DrTorch on 2015-10-29 08:41 (Reply)
Yesiree.
#5.1 jma on 2015-10-29 09:25 (Reply)
Mom can;t be a 24-hr slave to kids or she'll go nuts
#5.1.1 bd on 2015-10-29 09:59 (Reply)
Slave? What's this slave bit? If you don't want to spend the first five years helping your child form a moral, intellectual base, then don't have a child. Helping a baby's mind develop, watching the changes, is the most rewarding job one can undertake. And it truly doesn't last very long all things considered.
#5.1.1.1 jma on 2015-10-29 13:55 (Reply)
That's great in an ideal world, but not every child has loving parents (or siblings for that matter).

A few years past preschool it doesn't seem to matter either way, so if it helps the (usually) mom to have preschool/daycare for a few hours a day, there seems to be no harm done.

However, I don't like the idea of a mandatory state-run system.
#5.2 tnxplant on 2015-10-29 11:45 (Reply)
So, advocate Heckman argues that the low performance is due to parents dropping out. It's hard to believe that kids doing well are statistically more likely to be pulled out by their parents, far more likely it's the kids NOT doing well that will leave. With them in place, the performance would even be worse.
#6 jay on 2015-10-29 10:36 (Reply)

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