Day Care

» Carrie Henderson Weston - Your Opinion

What is your opinion? Do you think that preschool should be provided free of charge to all who want it? Do you think that standardizing preschool curriculums will have a positive or negative effect on students? Should preschool and any education for children under 5 be geared for learning to read and to do simple math, or should it simply teach socialization skills?

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» Barbara Pytel - Your Opinion

In response to Your Opinion posted by CarrieSoVery:

I hail from Iowa and our school happens to have a preschool in our building. The opinion of the parents and staff is that it is wonderful. It is offered for two years and many parents opt to send their child for only one year. And, yes, taxpayers do pay for this but parents are also asked to contribute a fee. The preschool has had amazing results with children but especially children diagnosed with autism and developmental delays. Interventions are begun sooner and are very effective. On the other hand, my personal opinion is that reading/phonics should not be begun too early. Our preschool does not teach children how to read. That is reserved for kindergarten.

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» Carrie Henderson Weston - Your Opinion

In response to Your Opinion posted by pytel:

I agree, I think that sometimes the freedom and peace of childhood are interrupted too early for our little ones. I think that at times parents are comparing their children to others in academic ways and forgetting that their kids are amazing just for their humor and smile. I think that it is one of the hazards of living in the day and age that we do.

In our Pre-K classes, phonics and math are only taught for those students who are in Early Fives, who's parents and preschool teachers agree are ready for the academic rigors. We have parent teacher conferences for all of the preschoolers, but our philosophy is to get parents used to coming in for the conferences that they might have dreaded when they themselves were kids and to encourage them that their kids are doing really great.

I think that the positive of having a preschool in an elementary school such as yours is that if kids- especially the ones with developmental delays or autism continue on in the school, they are more comfortable with the environment, and former teachers can provide a resource over the years.

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» Lynn1969 - Universal Preschool

I believe wholeheartedly that access should be made available to preschool for all who are interested in accessing it. It should be free for those that can document inability to pay and low-cost co-pays should apply to all others.

In my state, public preschool is only available (in most districts) to students who are high-need/underserved.

I also think that we DO need to focus on pre-reading skills in pre-school (as early as 2 or 3). Phonics and letter/number recognition are easily integrated into play, music, art, etc. If we want our children to successfully read by Kindergarten, these early skills are essential.

-- posted by Lynn1969

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» Carrie Henderson Weston - Universal Preschool

In response to Universal Preschool posted by Lynn1969:

I agree-- something that my co-teacher always says is that if you make the lessons fun enough, then the kids don't know that they are learning. I think that the most important thing though is to teach that school is fun, even if they are not to the level of the other kids, which is sometimes hard when they see their friends having more sucess than they are with readig, or tying shoes, or counting.

One of the main points of Proposition 82 is that the curriculum of these state-funded preschools would be regulated by the state, which is what many are worried about. They fear that preschool would lose its individuality and force teachers in a box. I think some people are also worried that this is another way that the government is insinuating itself in the lives of our children earlier and earlier and are wondering if this is really appropriate. Now, the role of the government in situations such as these is probably something that would best be debated on the Social Issues board here at Suite101. My question to my readers is if you think that by regulating preschool that this individualism will be lost, or if this will be good because then parents will have more assurance of finding a quality center?

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