The Death of Preschool

In the November/December, 2011 issue of Scientific American Mind, there is an article titled, “The Death of Preschool”, which discusses the prevalent direct instruction, that is teaching academic knowledge via formal classroom settings, among some private preschools in the US. As the article points out, there are more and more affluent families sending their preschoolers to those institutions to learn academic knowledge earlier in hopes to get into Ivy League schools, or have better achievement in the future. However, is early childhood education mainly involved with academic learning better? And what is it better at?

Apparently some neuroscientists and developmental psychologists hold a relatively different viewpoint. For decades, the United States applied the play-based approach for preschoolers or even elementary school pupils. Yet the crucial reality seems to have made it go the opposite way. The US Congress enacted a law-No Child Left Behind- in 2001, in which the ultimate goal of this project is to aim to enhance children’s academic knowledge so they can pass the standardized tests through well-designed curricula. Hence, schools failing to meet the benchmarks shall face penalties. I agree that letting children start to learn some knowledge earlier is necessary; but depriving the opportunities of playing may not be beneficial to their certain cognitive and physiological developments as said the scientists such as Bruce McEwen and Alison Gopnik and her colleagues.

Unfortunately, many parents are short-sighted. They think academic achievements equal to success in society. We have seen quite a few horrific homicides which showed those murderers were highly educated but lacked of good social skills. They did not know how to handle relationships well. Therefore, when their partners asked to end the relationship, they thought it was the end of the world and had to take extreme measures to ‘solve’ their problems. At the end of the article, Bruce McEwen advocates, “Appropriate experiences can hone neural pathways that will help the child during life; by the same token, stressful experiences can change the brain’s architecture to make children significantly depression, anxiety disorders-even cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.” As neuroscience indicates, toxic stress can severely damage the hippocampus, a critical brain area to learning and memory.

I sometimes hear my elementary school students complain about their tight schedules. Their parents arrange all sorts of after-school classes for them to attend. Some of them even told me being a student is not fun at all; and the adults do not understand how they really feel. Sadly, not many parents will listen to what their kids are trying to tell them. In my opinion, I would suggest that early childhood education be geared towards direct instruction based on play-based learning approach in a step-by-step fashion. That said, balance in everything we do in life is relatively important, including child education both at school and home.