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Preschool Pros and Cons
Does Your Child Need to Go?
By Kelly Burgess
"I don't think children need preschool, and a lot of the research claiming that they do has been debunked by other research," says Myers. "A lot of the push for preschool plays on parents' fears that their child won't be ready for kindergarten. But if you just get out in your community and find other children to play with, that will be sufficient. Kids just need attention from their parents."
It's that lack of parental attention due to changing social trends that has made preschool a necessity – but not for children, for their parents, says Diane Flynn Keith, the founder of UniversalPreschool.com, a forum opposing government-mandated preschool. "The change in our social and economic structure over the past 40 years has established a parental need for daycare," says Keith. "Because so many parents are employed, they can't stay home and care for their own kids. [This gives] parents and children few opportunities to engage in early learning experiences together. Parents need preschools to expose their little ones to early learning activities that they don't have time to provide themselves."
Keith says preschools are institutional settings and that can have negative implications for the developing young child.
"The artificial environment of a preschool classroom, the supervision by transient, impassive strangers (teachers and aides) and indoctrination with standardized curriculum has been shown to be harmful to the intellectual, social, emotional, psychological and physical development of young children by early childhood researchers and educational psychologists," says Keith. "Individual needs are diminished or neglected for the sake of group management. A child's curiosity and questions can only be dealt with when itis convenient for the instructor."