Posted on 11/01/2005 7:54:15 AM PST by SmithL
As taxpayers, parents and educators debate the value of public preschool for every child, a new study by UC Berkeley and Stanford researchers finds for the first time that middle-class children -- not just kids from the poorest families -- receive a boost in language and math skills from preschool.
But its darker findings bolster earlier, more controversial conclusions that preschool can hinder social development.
The study, "How much is too much? The Influence of Preschool Centers on Children's Development Nationwide," was released today and comes as Hollywood movie director Rob Reiner leads a group of universal preschool advocates pushing for a June 2006 ballot measure that would tax the wealthiest Californians to fund preschool for all who want it. The study, with its good and bad news, is likely to fuel arguments on both sides of the preschool debate. Universal preschool advocates can seize on the findings that preschool benefits most children in language and math. Those who think scarce preschool resources should continue to go to the poorest children can point to the negative effects on social development, especially for children from the wealthiest families. The study looked not only at aggressive behaviors but also at a child's ability to cooperate and negotiate tasks in a classroom.
"If preschool is expanded, more isn't necessarily better," said UC Berkeley child development research director Margaret Bridges, an author of the study who expressed concern about the negative effects on social development. "Cognitive benefits are great, but we have to pay heed to what's going on with kids emotionally and socially."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I don't know that you can draw that conclusion from that correlation. It could say as much about the environment specific to those pre-schools as it could about whether it was specfcally academic preassure. It could be that away from mom and dad they are in a less disiplinary environment. Also, what happens when you compare them with the kids a grade ahead. Do those kids naturally exhibit similar behavior? It could simply be early onset of natural child development.
Cathy's answer in #12 is on point; I fail to see the relationship in your answer. Without proper supervision and instruction by the pseudo-parents, yes, I can see how negative traits are exchanged and learned. It isn't a case where 4-year-olds are not developmentally ready to be in a setting with other four-year-olds. It is the setting that is wrong. Parents of a single child would still be well-served to seek playdates for their child and have him or her socialize with other children.
Jedi preschool?
... and having a concerned, loving mother helped too! Good for you!
later read...
Exactly. Being sent off (from the child's perspective) "on one's own" too early can harm a child by putting them in an unnecessarily stressful situation for which they are not ready.
My daughter called pre-school: "pretty school"
Obviously, she loved it!
Universal preschool
They are trying to indoctrinate our children at a younger age. The appeal for working parents is "free childcare". I hope to God this doesn't pass.
This is an amazing statement, for one brief moment, a leftist pulls off the mask and admits they are willing to hurt middle class kids so that they will be more equal in result to poor kids.
I was lucky enough that we could keep our kids at home until Kindergarten. We did go over the basics with them but my children did take the first half of the school year to catch up with the rest of the children. I think it frustrated the teacher more then it did us. However they never ever had complaints about behavioral problems.
"Gee, just maybe early years spent at home with Mom, and Dad after work, are best after all?"
So true. Decades ago, during the Cold War, the Russians figured they might get ahead by starting their kids in school at age 4 instead of the traditional 5. (It also got Mom and Grandma back into the factories and fields.) But a few years later, these early starters began to stall in school, essentially wasting an entire year. What they discovered is that you can't actually hurry the process.
Japan has discovered that its high-pressure elementary and secondary schooling results in kids who essentially waste years at college, partying. In our own country, we wonder why so many of our youth are having trouble accepting the responsibilities of adulthood. I believe studies show so many are wasting away their twenties, unable to commit to anything.
Has it occurred to any of these groups that maybe children need a real childhood--with all its trappings of unstructured time, uncritical appreciation of creativity, and unconditional love--and that if they don't get it in the childhood years, they will try to get it in their later years, whether it be the fourth grade, college years, mid-twenties, or later? The saying, "It's never too late to have a great childhood" has an ominous connotation here.
Maybe we need to get off our children's backs, not put more on them.
Because they are picking up bad habits from other children, instead of good habits from adults.
It probably works best, when it is the adults with the bad habits, and children are picking up better habits at the preschool.
My daughter called pre-school: "pretty school"
That's awesome, my daughter loved it too..now she's in college doing great...it was my son who couldn't deal. "Pretty school" that's sounds like something my daughter would have said...so cute!
It was the PRE-SCHOOL that didn't deal well with my oldest son!! :) (he turned out great too)
"Maybe we need to get off our children's backs, not put more on them."
Amen to that. We were just talking at the dinner table the other night (yes, we eat with our kids!) about how glad we were that our kids would rather be outside running around not sitting in front of the TV. They have their activities, but they are limited - so my kids want to be making up games and running races and digging in the dirt all the time - and I think that is great. I have to drag them in for dinner.
Daughter has been home with my wife since the day she was born (she's 5 now). No social problems whatsoever - she also reads at a 2nd grade level and does 1st grade math.
Day care, ezpecially government-funded daycare, is a detriment to children, I don't care what any study says. Parents are to raise their children, not $8 an hour babysitters.
My advice to parents with kids in daycare is to cut whatever isn't vital out of your budget, and have one of you stay home with the young-un. Everyone will be better off for it in both the short and long term. Sacrifice the 2nd car, the vacations, even the morning coffee - your kids' safety and well-being are more than worth it.
Amen to your post. Keep fighting the good fight, it's worth it!
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