Preschool Options: Why The Type Of
Early Education You Pick Might Not Matter
A
One morning, my husband dragged
himself out of bed at 5 a.m.
and rode his bike to a nearby preschool. The school was empty but a sleepy line
started forming outside the school’s doors -- he was the sixth person to join
it. Eventually, my husband was invited inside, where he handed a stranger an application
and a check for $50 and promptly left. So began our son’s preschool application
process for the 2013/2014 academic year, 12 months in advance.
B
It wouldn’t be New
York if preschool admissions were easy. But
upper-middle-class parents keep ranking schools and agonizing over which
educational “philosophy” is right for their kid. The kids who truly need early
education have parents who can’t afford it. Compared with kids who skip
preschool, kids who attend usually have more well-to-do, encouraging parents
who read and do puzzles with them at home. Children who don’t go to preschool
are usually from more disadvantaged families, which means they watch lots of TV
and are yelled at more than they are praised, which some researchers believe
can stunt cognitive development.
C
Research suggests that preschool only benefits children from
these disadvantaged families (families below the poverty line, uneducated
mothers, or racial minorities). The preschool acts as a kind of “equalizer,”
ensuring that for at least a few hours a day, these kids get the same
high-quality interaction with adults as more advantaged children do. In other
words, a bad home situation becomes a much smaller problem when your kid goes
to preschool; when you have a good home environment, preschool doesn’t really
matter.
D
So if preschool doesn’t really matter for advantaged kids,
then the type of preschool matters even less. Waldorf, Montessori, Reggio
Emilia, Catholic school? Some approaches may be a better fit for certain
personalities: Waldorf schools, which teach through imitation and imagination
and don’t ever give tests, might mesh
well with artistic children; the Reggio Emilia approach is a project-based
philosophy in which children spend days, weeks, or even months exploring a
particular topic, like seashells; and the Montessori method teaches skills
through the use of special manipulative materials, perhaps good for an
engineer-to-be.
E
So if you’re providing your child with a stimulating
environment at home don’t stress about preschool. Instead, take to heart
the words of social psychologist Richard Nisbett, co-director of the Culture
and Cognition program at the University
of Michigan. When I asked
him how important it is to send your child to the best preschool, he told me
that as far as he knows, “It doesn’t make a damn bit of difference.”
Adjusted to
(1)
drag
– dokopat se, přemoci se
mesh – zapadat, hodit se
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Type of preschool isn’t important
2 Children who attend preschools don’t really need it
3 Preschool equalizes knowledge and skills
4 Our son’s application
5 Which preschool to choose?
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 How do upper-middle-class parents from New York apply for
preschools?
2 Who really needs to attend a preschool? Why?
3 What does the article say about disadvantaged
families and their upbringing?
4 What types of preschools are mentioned? How are they
compared?
5 Who is Richard Nisbett? What does he say?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 application
2 preschool admissions
3 families below the poverty line
4 manipulative materials
5 stimulating environment
4) Answer the following questions.
What types of preschools do you know? What is
their education philosophy? Describe Czech educational preschool system. What
rights do children with special educational needs have? What possibilities do
disadvantaged preschoolers in the Czech Republic have?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)
WENNER
MOYER, Melinda. Preschool Options: Why The Type Of Early Education You Pick
Might Not Matter. Huffington Post [online]. 2013 [cit.
2015-09-22]. Available at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/20/preschool-options_n_2516420.html
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