I am still trying to decide if it is worth the expense of sending my son to preschool. My husband and I have pretty much decided not to at this time. But, I can’t help feeling guilty every time I talk to other moms who are sending their kids.
Most of what I find online says preschool is wonderful and great for social development. But, most article’s do not site anything scientific and what studies I have found are on low income kids. This one is not and it actually found a negative effect on social development. The effect was positive for academic development but if I send my son to preschool it is not going to be for academics.
I haven’t had a chance to read the actual study which is linked at the end of the article. But, I would love to hear your thoughts or if you know of any other research on the topic that would be very helpful too!
I didn’t read either article ( yet) but most article do sight academics as the main advantage to preschool attendance and ass a preschool teacher that’s what I would agree to as the main benefit.
Some kids NEED preschool for socialisations skills and developing a confident self identity and some already have it in spades. It is certainly not essential schooling and as mum you are the most wualified one to make that decision for your child. To ease the guilt just use other group situations at times. Things like library story times are amazingly like preschool in terms of education, learning to sit still and music and dance. Not to mention literacy! A local playgroup can cover arts and craft easily enough too.
I thought it was interesting that while preschool is GOOD for poorer families, it was the middle-class white people that had the least benefit, both socially and academically. Preschool can be bad for middle class families when the alternative is quality time with their mother- one who isn’t a dead-beat drunk and as a middle class woman, has a decent education and vested interest in their child, as most middle-class stay-at-home moms (or dads) do. That’s what I think this boils down to. I would argue Doman’s point, that mothers make the best mothers. That’s not always possible when mom has to work, but I would argue that it’s the gold standard whenever possible.
They also touched on the quality of the preschool. The reason Mexicans may have benefited more by preschool is because they go to programs like headstart, while white kids go to the neighbor’s preschool- one which might be awesome or could be nothing more than a babysitting service. There’s a wide discrepancy in quality while headstart is more uniform. And while I often cringe at the “just let them play” crowd because they don’t want any school time at all, I do agree that children need time to play and a good preschool will have a good balance between academic support, structured play, and free play with adult supervision.
Children really do gain a lot from being with their peers though. My kids get plenty of that at home, lol. But if I had an only child, I would make a special effort to involve him in community outreach programs, like the nature center class that’s awesome only I couldn’t help my kids with their craft projects while juggling the baby so we stopped. But story time at the library is central to our week! It motivates me to read before we take the books back and keep checking more out.
Knowing kids the way I do. I worked in childcare for over a decade. I can certainly believe the detriment of preschool socialization. My son goes to a nursery for a few hours a month without me. First thing he learnt to do was be shoved and shove back. He has never excited any physical violence until the moment he was pushed. If I had been there I would have recommended that he walk away instead of shoving back.
I think there are benefits for kids to develop self identity and to play with friends at preschool. But these things can be achieved through a variety of other means such as sports classes, Sunday school, play date etc. When a parent is there to model and guide social behavior kids can learn a lot more positive or acceptable behaviors.
Hispanics usually do have large families and the kids often have plenty of cousins to play with. So I can see how they get many social benefits. White middle class families often have kids that attend story time, play dates, gymnastics, mommy and me classes, swim classes, dance classes, and church. So they get the social interaction there.
Lower income or isolated families just don’t have these opportunities for their kids.