And I’m saying this data is one-sided towards what is being measured. You are measuring for hard data about knowledge/literacy. How about a child’e emotional/social intelligence? How about preparation for being school, away from home? How much money are we really dumping into this? Is this seriously a drain on the education budget? If t…
And I’m saying this data is one-sided towards what is being measured. You are measuring for hard data about knowledge/literacy. How about a child’e emotional/social intelligence? How about preparation for being school, away from home? How much money are we really dumping into this? Is this seriously a drain on the education budget? If that’s so, it speaks much louder to our priorities as a nation that we have to argue about giving children a head start.
I am not the one measuring. But the people who do measure do measure factors associated with social and emotional development, such as avoidance of criminality. Mona's piece mentioned this, citing "higher rates of disciplinary problems" for the pre-K group in the Vanderbilt followup and also:
"in Canada’s Quebec province, the adoption of universal pre-K in 1997 led to serious negative outcomes when the kids reached adolescence. Teenagers who had been placed in daycare showed marked increases in anxiety, aggression, and dissatisfaction with life compared with those who had spent their early years in parental or other care. Even more worrying was the sharp increase in criminal activity"
I am a big believer in social-emotional learning, after having parents who were themselves too academics-only focused. But precisely because the social-emotional component of learning is important, daycare that does *not* make a pretense of academics, but instead focuses on the basics of giving kids a safe space (which includes enforcing basic social rules like no hitting), might be more feasible if the goal is to have programs for everyone, including the kids who aren't a disciplinary fit for intensive pre-K programs.
(My own kid, prone to act out due to a speech impediment, was not a fit for the tony preschools around us at first. Some kids aren't, and not necessarily "those people's" kids, either.)
And I’m saying this data is one-sided towards what is being measured. You are measuring for hard data about knowledge/literacy. How about a child’e emotional/social intelligence? How about preparation for being school, away from home? How much money are we really dumping into this? Is this seriously a drain on the education budget? If that’s so, it speaks much louder to our priorities as a nation that we have to argue about giving children a head start.
I am not the one measuring. But the people who do measure do measure factors associated with social and emotional development, such as avoidance of criminality. Mona's piece mentioned this, citing "higher rates of disciplinary problems" for the pre-K group in the Vanderbilt followup and also:
"in Canada’s Quebec province, the adoption of universal pre-K in 1997 led to serious negative outcomes when the kids reached adolescence. Teenagers who had been placed in daycare showed marked increases in anxiety, aggression, and dissatisfaction with life compared with those who had spent their early years in parental or other care. Even more worrying was the sharp increase in criminal activity"
I am a big believer in social-emotional learning, after having parents who were themselves too academics-only focused. But precisely because the social-emotional component of learning is important, daycare that does *not* make a pretense of academics, but instead focuses on the basics of giving kids a safe space (which includes enforcing basic social rules like no hitting), might be more feasible if the goal is to have programs for everyone, including the kids who aren't a disciplinary fit for intensive pre-K programs.
(My own kid, prone to act out due to a speech impediment, was not a fit for the tony preschools around us at first. Some kids aren't, and not necessarily "those people's" kids, either.)