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This article focuses on the academic and intellectual aspects of preschool, but the more important aspect is socialization. I once volunteered at a preschol an

by gnosis 14y ago

This article focuses on the academic and intellectual aspects of preschool, but the more important aspect is socialization. I once volunteered at a preschol and quickly saw that much of its benefit was not academic, but rather it taught kids to play kindly with and respect other kids, wait their turn, interact with a wide variety of people outside their immediate family, and be more comfortable in social settings.

rtpg 14y ago
This sounds like the most important thing you can teach your kids early on. Parents seem to be (in general) bad at this, at least some random preschool teacher might be more "willing" to scold the kid/praise them reasonably.
kragen 14y ago
This sounds like a strong argument against preschool: if you need to learn to respect other kids, wait your turn, and be kind, a bunch of five-year-olds is probably the worst possible place to turn to for help.
- gnosis 14y ago
  You might be surprised at what some five-year-olds are capable of. Besides, it's not like the kids are left to fend for themselves. Preschools have teachers whose job it is to help children learn this.
- PeterisP 14y ago
  In practice, the results have been the opposite for us. When we threw in our two-year-old together with a bunch of others in the kindergarten, it took just a week or two to see big progress in understanding concepts such as sharing, ownership, anger management, empathy - both for pain of others and emotions of others, and a skill that I can't name - "understanding what will be the obvious reaction of others to your action X". If our home had a bunch of kids with 1-1.5-2 year gaps, as is "classical" for homo sapiens development, then that wouldn't be an issue; but since he currently is our only child, then he needs a place to learn appropriate socialization norms with his peers, as opposed to adults, in whose company many socal details are very different.

by gnosis 14y ago

rtpg 14y ago

This sounds like the most important thing you can teach your kids early on. Parents seem to be (in general) bad at this, at least some random preschool teacher might be more "willing" to scold the kid/praise them reasonably.

kragen 14y ago

This sounds like a strong argument against preschool: if you need to learn to respect other kids, wait your turn, and be kind, a bunch of five-year-olds is probably the worst possible place to turn to for help.

gnosis 14y ago
You might be surprised at what some five-year-olds are capable of. Besides, it's not like the kids are left to fend for themselves. Preschools have teachers whose job it is to help children learn this.
PeterisP 14y ago
In practice, the results have been the opposite for us. When we threw in our two-year-old together with a bunch of others in the kindergarten, it took just a week or two to see big progress in understanding concepts such as sharing, ownership, anger management, empathy - both for pain of others and emotions of others, and a skill that I can't name - "understanding what will be the obvious reaction of others to your action X". If our home had a bunch of kids with 1-1.5-2 year gaps, as is "classical" for homo sapiens development, then that wouldn't be an issue; but since he currently is our only child, then he needs a place to learn appropriate socialization norms with his peers, as opposed to adults, in whose company many socal details are very different.