From this story in the local paper is is now assumed that
pre-kindergarten is now recognized as a valuable component of a child’s early educational experience
Is it really and truly valuable and necessary as a matter of fact (educationally and not as a matter of lifestyle convenience) for toddlers to be “prepared” via Pre-K for kindergarden?
Has this been determined to be a fact, or is this a editorial supposition masquerading as a fact?
Just a way to start brainwashing the kids as soon as possible. Kidding. Not really. Me and my friends started kindergarden cold. We did fine.
A lot of what you learn in those classes is basic socialization… I’m sure if the kids have already spent time in a classroom environment, it’s easier to start teaching them things in kindergarten. As far as “lifestyle convenience” goes, I think that matters to. If a parent can’t stay home, I can see the argument that the kid is better off in a structured environment, learning something, and being with other kids instead of being put in front of the TV by a nanny or what have you.
Depends in part on your reading of “determined.”
I don’t see how it could hurt. For most of human history, children were left with their siblings and perhaps their grandparents while everyone else worked in the fields. The situation of a stay-at-home parent is a new one and apparently not bound to last very long. At least in this situation, the kid gets to learn something.
The linked editorial doesn’t say “a necessity”–it says “a valuable component”. There’s a difference. 
I don’t think anyone would disagree that preschool is a “valuable component” of education.
Second, the point of the editorial is not “whether pre-K is necessary”. The point of the editorial is “who should pay for the Pre-K program at Delmar Elementary School–Delaware or Maryland?” Just pointing that out…
I have never heard any reputable mainstream educators state that pre-K is a scientifically proven, research-validated, test-score-boosting “necessity”.
My personal experience is that I never had preschool, and I turned out okay. Back when I was in kindergarten in 1960, kindergarten was basically playtime, so you basically spent your kindergarten year learning about socialization and your ABCs. First Grade was where you started reading and writing.
But.
By the time my three kids hit the Decatur school system starting in 1989, the school system had turned up the amps on the educational process, and they had the kids hit the ground running from Day One learning reading and writing in kindergarten. The kindergarten teacher had the kids copying sentences off the blackboard into journals by Christmas. Kids don’t have a year to spend learning their socialization and ABCs in kindergarten anymore, so if your kid arrives for kindergarten not already knowing those, he’ll be left behind, badly.
Actually, most schools hold kindergarten screenings in the spring for the following fall, and if your kid needs work on something like using scissors or number recognition, they’ll give you a schedule to follow for the summer.
So as to whether it’s a “necessity”, the answer is “yes, given the current academic climate”. When your kid’s college sends your incoming-freshman kid a flyer saying “These are the things we’ve found that freshman in the dorms find helpful to bring”, and you ask, “Are these things really necessary?”, well, it depends on how you look at it. If you don’t want your kid to be the only kid on his floor unable to make his own popcorn, you get him a teeny microwave. And if you don’t want your kid to be the only kid in kindergarten who can’t cut with scissors or who doesn’t know what to do when the kid next to him won’t share the glue, you teach him.
If they are going to the babysitter or to a nursery or daycare, they might as well go to school.
I agree with Duck Duck Goose. It’s essentially a requirement now, in the current school system, but wasn’t always. This, of course, may vary by your school district’s or state’s standards, but here in Illinois, they’re expected to be reading by the middle of kidnergarten, if they couldn’t when they arrived there in the fall. Some of the older teachers will still tell you it’s not a big deal if they’re not, but I’ve found that simply to be not true. If they can’t read by the end of kidnergarten, they’re WAY behind in first grade, where they’re already beginning cursive writing and their multiplication tables. Everything is bumped up a year to two years from when I was in school (I was born in 1974, also in Illinois.) My son was doing algebra in fifth grade, and he’s in the LOW math group.
Frankly, I suspect that this is part of the reason our kids are doing so “poorly.” Their little brains aren’t ready for this. If we left 'em alone and let them play for a couple more years, they’d be more neurologically developed and would just soak the stuff up like a sponge. (a la Waldorf). Panicking at their lack of knowledge in high school and trying to rectify that by cramming it into their little skulls when they’re 4 doesn’t seem to be making things any better. But that’s another rant for another day.
I was tangentially involved in this a couple of years ago. In Missouri, studies found that 25% of new students weren’t ready to begin kindergarten. They were assesed in six categories.
Symbolic development – the ability to express and understand ideas
Communication – the ability to use words to describe feelings (i.e, abstract concepts) as well as objects. Also, the ability to follow directions, scribble with some intended meaning, etc.
Mathematical and physical knowledge — ability to rank or categorize objects, know the difference between “more” “less” and “same” and explain what the child is doing
Working with others and learning to learn – a variety of social skills
Conventional knowledge – knowing first and last name, birthday, counting to 10, etc.
Back in the good old days, children were supposed to learn these things from their parents, older siblings, or even by playing with the other kids on the block. Working parents, smaller families, etc has removed a lot of the supports a typical kid used to have.
So, “is it necessary?” Not if you’re doing all those things yourself. In fact, there’s a national program called “Parents As Teachers” specifically designed to help parents make sure their children get experience in the proper skills. But one way or another, there are things a child should know/do by the time kindergarten rolls around.
My first schooling was kindergarten, but I absolutely will not consider not having my 3-year-olds in a Pre-K nursery.
Why not? As others have said, socialization. When one-income families were common, mothers would all take their pre-K kids to the playground, or gather at one another’s houses, and they’d sit and chat while the kids played with one another. These days, even though (fortunately for me and our kids) my wife (and myself for that matter) are at home, most of our friends, and the parents of our children’s potential friends, are not. If I want my little ones to have a peer group to play with, nursery school is the best option. And if they actually learn something, all the better. The educational TV that today’s little kids are plopped down in front of is garbage compared to the Sesame Street and Mister Rogers I was raised with.
In addition, it certainly doesn’t hurt our sanity that for six hours a day, someone else is looking after our 3-year-old.
I’m still of the mind that kindergarten shouldn’t be a necessity and isn’t necessarily valuable for kids. I’m a relative youngster and I’m probably one of the few in my generation who didn’t attend kindergarten, and yet I did very well in school.
I can’t see that pre-K would add all that much to the learning of a kid who is getting enough educational stimulus at home.
Everyone to their own. But remember, when my father was a kid, a typical American child had only ten years of formal education (no kindergarten, no middle school/junior high) and the last four of those weren’t considered a “necessity.”
Exactly. Some may need kindergarten, but we should recognize that some do not. Looking back I’m very glad I was able to avoid it. I spent time playing in the woods that my peers spent in the classroom and still was the best reader in the class entering first grade.
Substitute a few things (I’m ten years younger and we live in the Twin Cities) and this is my experience as well. My son learned to read in Kindergarten. Now, I know a lot of Dopers taught themselves to read before school and turned out just fine, but I think we can agree that most of our kindergarten classmates hadn’t (I suspect Dopers are sort of outliers in this area) - and we spent a year playing house, making sure everyone knew their ABCs and their colors and to count to twenty.
I can’t imagine what it would have been like for him to have started Kindergarten without both knowing how to sit for two or three hours (and important Kindergarten skill), being able to socialize with kids his age (used to be done in the neighborhood because almost everyone was a stay at home mom - now seems to almost require some structure), and already knowing very basic literacy and math concepts.
A very excellent kindergarten teacher told me that Kindergarten was for the children to learn the basics. She went on to explain that she did not mean the ABCs. She meant things like socializing properly with others, sitting still when necessary, listening, answering clearly, and so forth. She said she fully expected each new crop of 5-year-olds to include some who were already reading and some who had no idea of the concept of the printed page, or of any kind of counting. “We take them where they are and try to give them what they need.”
Some 5-year-olds are not yet ready to even begin to read; their minds have not matured to that point and it is as useless to insist that they do as to expect a 6-month old to be potty trained.
Although I was a stay-home mom, we sent both our girls to a half-day pre-school. They went first for 2 days a week, and then for 3 days. It was primarily because there were almost no other children in the neighborhood for them to play with. It was not good for them to be 24/7 with just me.
In contrast, there was no such thing as pre-kindergarten when I was a kid, but there was an entire Levitt-type post WWII development in which virtually every little bitty house had at least one child and most had more. The streets were full of children. Later my parents moved to a larger house in a more established neighborhood, but there were still about a dozen or so kids near my age. I learned to read before I was 4 anyway.
I went to pre school for two years before kindergarten. I feel it was a great help on the socialization front. There were no kids in my area near my age. The closest were my brother’s age and his almost five years older than me. I don’t feel modern curricula move too fast … I always wanted to move faster. I finished the algebra book by the end of sixth grade. Through various twists of fate, I ended up graduating from college in May summa cum laud, one month before my twentieth birthday. While this obviously can’t be solely attributed to preschool, my fututre children will surely go.
Each situation is different. If your circumstances allow for socialization and early learning of the basics, then, no…it’s not necessary. Working parents frequently don’t have the time to work on these skills to the point where the kid will be at the same developmental level as kids who do attend preschool or kindergarten. Sometimes you have to hand it over to someone else.
Forcing a kid to socialize before they’re ready isn’t such a hot idea, either. Some kids are a little slower to develop confidence, and forcing them into a situation where they have to perform before they have a good sense of self could do more harm than good.
Of course, some people have no choice. The kid needs to be in someone else’s care while you work and you simply have to hope for the best.
Gotta look at each case as an individual matter; each kid as an individual student.
Chiam,
I think that you are confusing “Pre-K” with “academically oriented”. The two are not synonyms. “Pre-K” really just means preschool or nursery school today, but with some awareness of age appropriate learning … which means the kinds of things that you are talking about.
I do not have the cite handy but years ago read a study which compared kids who had been in an “academically oriented preschool” (work sheets, phonics, counting, etc.) with a “play oriented” preschool (blocks, drawing, duckduckgoose, singalongs). Indeed the academics were more often reading at KG entry. But both groups werre reading comparably at the end of first grade and the play group did better on measure of socialization and of creativity.
Today most Pre-K and even most good KG programs recognize that hands on play is the best way for this age to learn.
Best choice for the individual is of course best individualized. Truth be told, on my days home my kid is better off if she spends an hour or so in preschool. Lots of guided play and then home to a Dad more ready to focus on her rather than hoping that she’ll watch a video for long enough for me to get a little work done.