I just watched the first thirty minutes of a documentary about Manhattan parents working to get their children into preschool.
Preschool.
Apparently, the right preschool is the key to the right private school and the right university.
Just getting the application is extremely competitive. These parents are pouring over applications, whipping out a thesaurus to figure out just the right word to describe their three-year-old, and forking over thousands of dollars just for application consultants. If they get the privilege of having their toddler attend one of these schools, they'll spend about $20,000 in tuition for a year. I imagine that the process will continue for the future admission to other private schools and universities.
I never went to preschool. I went to public schools through high school, and then attended a local, large, public university.
Now I attend a private law school, the first private school I've ever attended, but it is true that most of my friends here attended private schools before they came here.
When did just being a regular child become not good enough? I feel like I did okay for myself without all of that craziness...
I had to turn the documentary off after 30 minutes. Just watching it was stressing me out...I wonder if those cute little toddlers feel any of that stress, too!
7 comments:
You bet they feel the stress.
When did "being a kid" become "bad"?
We have neighbors who have several children who just have fun in the yard all summer. I am afraid it has become a lost art to just be a kid.
How I miss the thick dust squeezing up between my toes when I was 4 walking over to my grandmother's home.
Even though it isn't as bad out here, I still know what you're talking about. Whenever I tell people that I am not putting my kids in preschool, they always give me the "you're a bad parent" look. The sad part about it, is that kids really do need to know more now, before they can enter kindergarten than they used to. We have come to expect too much from our little ones!
I get the same thing, Em! It is CRAZY! Uh, no, I'm not sending my two or three year old to preschool this year, they're too busy playing and using their imaginations. Sheesh....
We live in a crazy, crazy world.
The right preschool program can be helpful for a 4-yr old with special needs (such as poor social skills, separation/social anxiety, or a handicap).
Some school districts are so 'broken' that there is little quality education available in public school. But many parents choose private school even though the public options are good. I guess it is a prestige thing. And also a parental insecurity thing. Maybe somehow, sending your child to private school makes up for being less available to your child and less engaged in their daily life.
No program that adults devise can replace the growth and development that comes from being home with a mom or dad who nurtures, is available to answer all the 'whys,' facilitate exploration and help them develop a solid sense of self-worth and the worth of others.
Children can easily learn their basic numbers, letters and colors at home before they enter kindergarten. Repeated studies show that children who enter kindergarten without mastering those basic concepts catch up to their peers very quickly and show no difference in skills or mastery in future years.
And look at you. As you said, you didn't attend preschool, went to public school from kindergarten through college degree, and now there you are- with a prestigious scholarship, attending a well-respected, nicely-ranked law school.
And another thing. Preschool for a 2 or 3 yr old is really just day-care.
You're supposed to send your kid to school before Kindergarten?!?! uh oh... apparently I need to buy some parenting books and study up in the next 3 or so months. Our poor little girl...
(seriously though... I second what Aunt Meredith said. Parents are just overcompensating for the lack of time they're spending with their kids.)
I'm pretty sure it was Freakanomics, but it might have been another book, anyway, he laid out all the statistics and came to the basic conclusion that until Jr. High-ish it made absolutely no difference. It was 100% genetic. Anyone that was behind very quickly caught up and leveled out where expected according to their genetic background. No testing, curriculum or teaching methodology seemed to matter.
Lesson is that we need better genetic engineering and less preschool :).
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