Parents Beware: Preschool May Cause Harm

So, what is a parent to do? On one hand, you've got the New York City Department of Education unveiling standardized tests for kindergarten through second grade students, some of which are as long as 90 minutes.

(And if you think you shouldn't worry as you don't live in New York City or your child attends private school, think again. The New York City Department of Education has a mighty, mighty PR machine, and they are bound to convince the nation to follow suit, or at least try to convince the nation.)

On the other hand, an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal by two researchers at a libertarian think tank are warning parents to protect their children from potential damage caused by preschool. These two researchers are urging Barack Obama to forgo support for preschool, and to focus instead on fixing the dysfunctional K-12 system by providing vouchers for everyone.

They cite, among others, a Stanford study positing "that children who spend more than 15 hours per week in preschool were less motivated and more aggressive in class." Considering that 70% of America's children are in preschool, well, that leaves us with a whole lot of aggressive and unmotivated kids.

So, there you have it: standardized tests beginning to reach into the early grades, while preschool is being discredited. Yikes, that's an odd thing to write--preschool being discredited.

Certainly, parents who send their kids to private schools are used to the testing part, in light of the tests given to determine admission to the many highly competitive private elementary schools.

For those who ask why we can't manage to provide reasonable minimum instruction in arts at the elementary levels, not to mention middle and high schools, answers to that question are embedded within these two articles.

My daughter is attending a preschool come September for 15 hours per week. It's a school she attended last year for three hours per week, which was extended into a nine hour per week summer camp. The preschool is a wonderful, loving environment in which my daughter thrives. I had no idea that this would lead to her becoming aggressive and unmotivated.