Four Reasons To Ditch Academic
Preschools
Posted by janet on Nov 13th, 2010
I’m still scratching my head that I actually witnessed this… Years ago, I was investigating
preschools for my first child and made a scheduled visit to one of the most popular schools in
the neighborhood, chosen by parents I consider to be intelligent and thoughtful. As I entered
the classroom and discreetly sat on the floor behind about fifteen 3-4 year olds, a teacher stood
at a chalkboard to present a lesson on ‘shapes’. She drew a square and asked, “What is this?”
One of the preschoolers raised her hand and shouted “Square!” The teacher gave a brief nod of
approval and continued drawing, this time a circle… A few hands shot up, and she pointed to a
boy. “Circle!” the boy exclaimed. To my astonishment the teacher frowned, shook her head and
corrected him. “No, round.”
Huh? A trick question? Preschoolers need this?
There were other dismaying interactions between the staff and children in the time I spent at the
school. The director manipulated the 2-3 year olds to move onto a climbing structure by pointing
to the sand and saying, “There are sharks in the water!” while smiling smugly at another teacher
on the playground. Later she admonished a boy who found it difficult to stand still during the
long graduation performance rehearsal. “If you do that tomorrow, I’ll embarrass you in front of
all the parents!”
Needless to say, I passed on that school. Eventually, I lucked into finding a jewel with an
educated staff, child-centered philosophy and developmentally appropriate educational
curriculum – play. Although the name of the school did not include the words “creative children”
as the first had, this was a center where creativity was truly nurtured, and where preschool-aged
children were understood and respected.
Our child’s first school experiences can color his or her perceptions about school and learning
for years to come. Child development experts and early childhood educators agree that the
preschool years are a time for the development of social skills and hands-on sensory learning that
is experimental and exploratory. Here are a few of the reasons our kids don’t need academic
instruction in these first school years.
1. We can’t rush development (or nature)
Kindergarten has evolved from being a time for play, socialization, cartons of milk (loved them!)
and afternoon naps to structured lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic. The Gesell Institute
for Human Development recently “conducted 40-minute one-on-one cognitive assessments with
1,287 children ages 3–6 at 56 public and private schools in 23 states” (as reported in The
Harvard Letter). They then compared the results to identical studies published in 1925, 1940,
1964 and 1979. The conclusion: Kindergarten has changed, but children haven’t.
Teaching academics earlier is not helping children develop cognitive skills any sooner. “Marcy
Guddemi, executive director of the Gesell Institute, says despite ramped-up expectations,
including overtly academic work in kindergarten, study results reveal remarkable stability around
ages at which most children reach cognitive milestones such as being able to count four pennies
or draw a circle.”
Funneling academics down to preschools to “better prepare” children to deal with an already
overly academic Kindergarten experience is a waste of time, and this “miseducation”, as Dr
David Elkind refers to it in Miseducation- Preschoolers at Risk, can cause “damage to a child’s
self-esteem, the loss of the positive attitude a child needs for learning, the blocking of natural
gifts and potential talents.”
2. Stress, discouragement, shame
Even if we have the most brilliant child imaginable, why risk setting him up to feel confused,
embarrassed, and possibly even inept? The boy who enthusiastically answered “Circle!” at the
preschool I observed may have felt all those things — even when he gave a perfectly acceptable
answer. Giving a toddler or preschooler lessons in academics either at home or at school can
create unnecessary stress and feelings of failure.
If there is one thing children need to prepare them for Kindergarten it is self-confidence, and
plenty of it. Self-confidence is fostered in these formative early years when parents are patient,
trusting their children to develop naturally and autonomously according to their inborn schedule
and individual pace. Yes, there are preschoolers who are drawn to memorizing letters and
numbers, and there are self-taught readers. Those abilities continue to flourish without formal
instruction in preschool.
3. Untrained staff, weak philosophy
Since an academic preschool program is counter to the expert opinion and research about how
children learn and considered developmentally inappropriate, it reflects a staff that is either
lacking in early childhood education or bowing to outside pressure. In my experience, pressure
often comes from parents who fear that their child will not be prepared for Kindergarten and
might fall behind. The director of a wonderful NAEYC accredited preschool my younger
children attended often dealt with parents who expressed concern that their child wasn’t learning
anything, “just playing”. I admired the way the preschool held strong to its developmental
philosophy and took care to ease parents’ worries by educating them about cognitive
development, child-centered learning and the power of play.
4. Missed opportunities.
The first years are the once-in-a-lifetime window of opportunity for children to follow individual
interests, explore, invent and discover, and revel in a love of learning while establishing the
secure roots necessary for a successful education. As educator Susan Westley explains in her
Tallahassee.com essay lamenting the replacement of play with academics in Kindergarten, “It is
akin to taking a pink rose bud and prying apart the petals to bring forth a beautiful rose. It
doesn’t work. Children, like flowers, need to be given the freedom to grow at their own pace and
blossom when they are ready.”
Parents may not have the power to effect changes in Kindergarten, but we do have the ability to
choose a positive preschool atmosphere for our children in which curiosity is encouraged, the
focus is on enriching experiences rather than performances, and children have plenty of
questions, but no wrong answers.
NAEYC indicators for an appropriate early childhood program:
– A wide variety of materials with which children can play and experiment
– Children making choices about activities
– Teachers with training in early childhood education
– Each child’s interests and abilities considered in the teacher’s plans so that each
child can experience success and joy in learning
Young children learn best through direct sensory encounters and not through a formal
academic process. Learning should be the outcome of hands-on experience, especially play.
– NAEYC
“Respect your child by letting his interest lead the way”
– Magda Gerber