I thought most of the ideas I came up with about how competitive parents are with their tots were over-the-top. As usual, I didn’t come close to reaching the heights that some parents go to:
Manhattan’s top schools for 2- to 5-year-olds offer some of the finest education a preschooler can get, with on-staff child psychologists, movement and music specialists, artists in residence, custom-tailored programs and computers. Children enjoy individual attention from directors with 20 years’ experience and multiple degrees in education and early childhood development. Classes have three teachers for 11 to 20 children. To insure matriculation at a good private kindergarten, most have on-site testing for the ERB, the preschool equivalent of the SAT.
From http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/edlife/112GOLT.html
(Link via The Rittenhouse Review.)
Jesus, people, they’re two. Yes, early education is important. But I think we’re getting crazy here, trying to make sure that at two they’re ready for Harvard (which is what this early education is about, at core).
At a recent birthday party—as far as I can tell, preschool is all about finger painting and birthday parties—I was discussing with a few other mothers how we all came to decide on the preschool we were at. I mentioned that I was very pleased with its progressive approach—let the kids go crazy with playing and painting and singing, and no academics. One of the preschools I’d visited must have had the alphabet on every wall, plus the letter and number of the week, plus the word of the day. Now, maybe I’m blasé because Sophia already knows her alphabet and numbers, but I figured there was time enough for all that.
“Oh no,” said another mother. “In fact, I’m kind of disappointed that (our preschool) doesn’t have that. By the time they get to kindergarten they’ll be behind.” (emphasis mine)
Behind?
In kindergarten?
If that’s true, the problem doesn’t lie with our kids, folks. It lies with our education system. Susan Ohanian, by the way, goes into this in some detail in What Happened To Recess And Why Are Our Children Struggling In Kindergarten?
Of course, I have plenty of thoughts about school these days and what an acceptable approach is. Which I’ll get to in just a sec.
In our schools here in Florida, our kids noticed 4 distinct groups in order of accomplishment: gifted kids who went to preschool, normal kids who went to preschool, gifted kids who didn’t go to preschool, and normal kids who didn’t go to preschool. This is pretty much the way things stayed throughout grade school. If you want your kid to hobnob with the bright kids, I’d say preschool is pretty important.
You probably didn’t want to hear that.
Hi Diane,
I stumbled onto your musings by accident….I enjoyed your rants on school! As a family of radical unschoolers (I have four children, happily pursuing their interests) I couldn’t help but notice this:
“The net result of all this reading has been that my ideas of what a good education is all about have changed radically. I used to say that the kids could never know until they were in their 20s that Daddy dropped out of collegeâ€â€now I’m all over the idea that they should make their own way in the world, pursue their own goals, don’t follow the beaten path! ”
I just wanted you to know, there are a lot of us nutty unschoolers out there. I have an email list for newbies, called unschoolingbasics (yahoo group) if you feel the need to question a bunch of unschoolers. 🙂
Just be warned, we ARE convinced it’s the best way to really learn.
I also recommend the message boards at unschooling.info and unschooling.com if you’re interested.
Happy wanderings,
Ren
unschooling resources
http://geocities.com/moonwindstarsky/unschooling