14 May 2010

Not ready for kindy

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Preschool.

I have always been deeply concerned with the undue haste to enrol young children in daycare and kindergartens. There are many reasons for the rush to put junior in playgroups and preschools, and these days children as young as 3 are being enrolled as if that’s the most natural thing to do.

Many parents do feel they have no choice because of the increasingly competitive society we live in. How else to ensure one’s kids have a better shot at success if not by starting them early in kindergartens and programmes to master skills in numeracy and literacy? Besides, double-income parents also need to park their kids somewhere while they are at work, and where better to do this than in a place where a child learns something ‘useful’?

Academic readiness and preschool academic learning are often points of contention, and even experts are at odds. One longitudinal study concludes that later academic achievement is predicated upon early mastery of math and language, and therefore the earlier the better for formal instruction. Others dispute this as insignificant benefits (or not lasting) and what’s more, these gains were made at the expense of social, emotional and even physical skill development.

Of course there are extenuating circumstances where the need for early learning is greater than the ability of some parents or caregivers to provide. In a broken home or where parents are disadvantaged or inhibited by illness or poverty, it is right to direct the child in need to a place where she finds holistic development and age-appropriate education. But for others, you will want to think again before packing your 3 or 4 year-old off to preschool or an academically oriented kindy. Ask yourself:

• Is it necessary? As parents, we need to consider if we really ‘can’t help it’ and if sending our kid to preschool or kindy is the better deal. We who are parents – moms and dads – are what our children need more than anything in the world. If so, then our children deserve our life’s investment, ie, our time and affection, and all that nurture spiritual, intellectual, emotional and physical development. Pity the child who has nothing but her parents’ left-over moments to remember them by.

• Is it time? We know our children better than any other person and we should resist peer pressure and social conventions from dictating how our kids are to be raised. All children are different and not every child is developmentally ready at the same time. Even if research concludes that early learning skills ‘benefit’ young children, ask yourself: how is it better to place your child in the hands of a total stranger when you can home-preschool and teach junior yourself in the home? Besides, the early years of bonding and training will do your child a world of good.

• Is it something you can’t do? It has been said that some parents are simply not good with children and this is why the task of teaching is contracted out to professionals. Yet if parents love their children enough, they will only get better than when they started out as new moms and dads. If parenting is an art, a child is the canvas. What kind of lasting impression do you want to leave with your child then? For your child’s sake, don’t stop learning. Read, expand your horizons, talk to other parents, study, observe, and develop skills. Every small step you take in becoming a better mom or dad is a step ahead in the right direction.

[Saying NO to kindy: click on the PRESCHOOL:A RESPONSE tab to read more dissenting views]

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15 October 2009

All eyes on preschool education…

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Child Development; Preschool.

Politics and by-elections grab so much of our attention some of us may have missed this remark by the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who is also our Education Minister. It appears the Ministry of Education is concerned that a mere 67% of children starting Year One have had a preschool education.

A news report had the DPM saying MOE was looking to increase preschool enrolment up to 87% by 2012. One way of doing it would be to make preschool education “a part of the education system.”

This was a follow-up to an off-the-cuff comment a month earlier that the Education Ministry may want all pre-schools to be absorbed into the national education system – take a deep breath now – to boost young children’s grasp of English.

“My idea is that we should make learning of English at pre-schools a thrust in the early education process,” he said.

Note that this came after the government announced it was reversing its 6-year old English for Science and Math policy.

It is not clear how preschool is to be absorbed into the school system or whether it would mean mandatory preschool for all Year One children; but it is this sort of news that raises red flags.

I’m sure the MOE means well. After all, the rest of the developed world is ahead of Malaysia with regard to education and we’re following their lead. Should preschool become mandatory, Malaysia would be in good company with countries that have lowered school starting age (England, Scotland, Netherlands) or have integrated early childcare and preschool education with compulsory primary schooling (Sweden, Greece, Northern Ireland). Sweden for instance is often held up as an exemplar with the highest quality of early childcare and preschool education offered by a state, including a well-developed after-school childcare system for school-age children (well, so UNICEF declares).

Is this supposed to make us feel good? It might interest some of you to know that I previously opposed  talks of mandatory preschool  in an NST article I wrote way back in 2000! Looking at it again, my views have not changed. Of course, since then more research have surfaced questioning the mistaken notion of separating children from their own parents at an ever younger and younger age. The prospect is just too horrible to imagine for parents who have had to deal with 2 or 3-year old kids traumatised by preschool education! Whatever happened to schooling readiness?

A UC Berkeley/Stanford report in particular finds that the earlier a child enters a preschool center, the slower his or her pace of social development. Cognitive skills in pre-reading and math do improve when children first enter a preschool program (at ages two and three) but this happens to the detriment of social and emotional development.(Read more here)

I do believe there are many ECE teachers who are wonderfully committed to helping young children succeed, and I say keep up the good work.  Yes, make schooling – preschool, playschool, kindergarten, primary school, etc – affordable and accessible. Do everything possible to ensure care and education is  available especially to at-risk children and disadvantaged families.  But give parents a choice. Our children don’t need a nanny when they already have their own mother and father.

Related posts on preschool and early education:

A child’s work is play
Preschool for a headstart?
Kicked out of kindy
Life in the fast lane
Finding balance in a hurried world

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3 December 2005

Preschool for a head start?

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: schooling.

I get nervous with all the hype over preschool. California’s initiative in pushing for the Preschool for All Act, if successful, could help make Universal Preschool a reality. The fact that advocates are talking about compulsory preschool for 4-year olds as if it would solve social ills and correct educational deficits, is disturbing.

Here in Malaysia, the education ministry too harbours similar ambitions but infrastructure and funding at this moment are major obstacles in the way. I’m glad for that. Some zealous educators point to Head Start as evidence that preschool works. Wendy McElroy sounds the alarm in an article in Foxnews titled, Will Universal Preschool Give All Kids a Head Start? and points to new studies that show otherwise:

McElroy also has this to say about government’s dangerous presumption:

I understand there is a place for preschool, but I certainly don’t see why the state should usurp the role of parents and take over their kids at such an early age or at any age. Compulsory preschool! This then is the bigger issue and it is utterly appaling to me. Is not the damage done to families by state-sponsored schooling already self-evident?

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22 June 2005

Kicked out of kindy

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Child Development.

Take a look at this news report from the Baltimore Sun about the first nationwide research conducted by Yale University’s Child Study Center on preschool expulsion:

After surveying 52 state-financed prekindergarten programs in 40 states, the study found that about 10 percent of teachers had expelled at least one child in the previous year and a handful of those teachers had expelled as many as four children. The estimated total of students kicked out of preschool was 5,117 out of a total estimated enrollment of 766,907. In Maryland, about 38 of approximately 6,390 state-subsidized preschoolers were kicked out, for an expulsion rate that was below the national average.

The study also found that the likelihood of being expelled increased with age, as 4-year-olds were 50 percent more likely to be kicked out than 2- and 3-year-olds, and 5-year-olds were twice as likely to be expelled as 4-year-olds. Black children were twice as likely to be expelled as white or Latino children and five times more likely than Asian-Americans. Boys were expelled at more than four times the rate of girls. The researchers reported that children were expelled most frequently because of antisocial behavior, particularly aggression toward other children, such as kicking or biting.

Preschool/Pre-Kindergarten expulsion is not as uncommon as you think – even in Malaysia – and I know of parents who have had similar experiences and who finally decided to homeschool. One case involved a preschooler who was ADHD who obviously demanded more out of his Kindy than the teachers were prepared to provide. He was expelled from 3 other schools. Another was a mother (who’s now an unschooler) who couldn’t get her daughter’s Kindy to ease up on the academic in favour of a simpler curriculum.

In any case, I have my reservations about kindy anyway. My views are that children at the ages of 3 – 5 years are best nurtured at home. Why the hurry for pre-K and Kindy anyway? Expulsions are all about keeping pre-K and Kindys in the good books of parents and prospective students, which as a business proposition seems the way to do things. But for the child who is expelled, there is nothing but trauma, and possibly a long-term disdain for formal education or learning in general.

Whether early childhood education or kindergarten is necessary or not has been debated for years. Sheri Oden has published a book called, Into Adulthood: A Study on the Effects of Head Start which cites encouraging findings on a 17-year follow-up study on 622 adults who did or did not attend Head Start (using the HighScope Curriculum). Since I haven’t read the book, I can’t say much except that the study suggests effective outcomes involving children at risk and those from low-income homes.

I am not saying there is no place for pre-K or Kindys, because extenuating circumstances and a host of other factors do require specific attention. But I’d like to think they must be the exception and never the norm. Parents need to know that just because “everyone’s sending their kids to Kindy” does not make a done thing the better deal.

Meanwhile, the controversy rages.

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