Many of our preschools have no academic program at all.
Over the past several years, the Carnegie Corporation of New York has brought out a series of reports that discuss how we currently educate our children -- and how we ought to do it. The latest report, "Years of Promise: A Comprehensive Learning Strategy for America's Children," builds on an earlier report, "Starting Points," in emphasizing the critical importance of the early years in developing children's capacity for learning.
We used to think that people were born with a fixed amount of brain power. Now we know that the right kinds of stimulation in the early years dramatically affect a child's intellectual capacity. "Starting Points" describes studies that led scientists to conclude that young children have intellectual potential they will lose unless they use it. And in his new book, The Schools We Need (Doubleday, 1996), E.D. Hirsch, Jr., connects neuroscientists' discoveries about the way the human brain develops in early childhood with the importance of excellent preschools: "Children's brains can make far more synaptic connections than can adults'. Shortly after birth, the brain makes connections at an incredible pace. As puberty approaches, the number tapers off" One researcher compares the process of development to the work of a sculptor: "We chisel our brain from the larger stone, so to speak." And as Hirsch observes, the "greatest chiseling" takes place in the early years.
What do these insights about the brain's development mean in terms of what a preschool program should be like? According to "Years of Promise," children should be laying the foundation for the kinds of things they will be expected to learn when they enter school: "These include the comprehension and use of new words; a basic understanding of the relationship of print to spoken language; the understanding of numerical concepts; [and] the ability to draw representative symbols and pictures .... " Hirsch goes further. Citing the example of the French preschools, the ecoles maternelle, he asserts that children can learn content in preschool and should be encouraged by the school program to do that.
But as "Years of Promise" points out, a great number of our preschools have no academic program at all. They are staffed by temporary employees with no professional training. And of course most preschools have a high turnover rate. These limitations explain why Head Start programs did so little good in the long run. The lack of academic focus in most preschool programs is partly a matter of money. "Years of Promise" estimates that even a college-trained preschool teacher starts at about $5,000 a year less than an elementary school teacher. Preschool teachers must be willing to subsidize their students' education by accepting poor pay, and trained professionals are, understandably, often unwilling to do that. However, there are also philosophical reasons for the weak academic content of most U.S. preschools, as Hirsch points out in The Schools We Need
Many of the people who run preschools would not favor introducing academic content even if they could hire top-notch teachers. In this, they are following progressive educators who believe that it is wrong to push children. As Hirsch reminds us, progressives say that children should be allowed to learn "naturally," and if they are not ready to learn -- why, let them play. This, Hirsch says, is ideology rather than psychology. There are no developmental reasons why children should not be encouraged to learn content when they are in preschool. Quite the contrary, according to a Yale neurobiologist whom Hirsch quotes: "It's crazy .... Americans think kids should not be asked to do difficult things with their brains while they are young. 'Let them play; they'll study at the university.' The problem is, if you don't train them early, it's much harder." Use it or lose it.
The implications of this casual attitude towards childhood learning are much more serious for poor, minority children that for youngsters who come from middle-class homes where their parents can afford to offer them all kinds of stimulation. Being baby-sat does not help poor, minority children who need to catch up so they can start school ready to learn. On the other hand, Hirsch cites studies showing that French preschools, with their strong academic content, are successful in reducing the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children.
There is no question that early learning is important for children's intellectual development. The question is, are Americans serious about providing it? Working mothers want their children to be looked after in safe and pleasant places. But American taxpayers are not convinced that most of these places are educational. When they hear about using public funds to pay for preschools, they think they are being asked to subsidize babysitting. If we are convinced that preschools are important for the development of young children -- and I think they are -- we need to begin by rethinking our ideas about preschool education. Then maybe we can convince the public.