Universal Pre-school May Make Things Worse

A recent study by early childhood researcher Dale Farran looked at pre-school education in Tennessee.  The findings were surprising to her and her Vanderbilt University colleagues.  

As National Public Radio reported:

“Farran and her co-authors at Vanderbilt University followed both groups of children all the way through sixth grade. At the end of their first year, the kids who went to pre-K scored higher on school readiness — as expected.

But after third grade, they were doing worse than the control group. And at the end of sixth grade, they were doing even worse. They had lower test scores, were more likely to be in special education, and were more likely to get into trouble in school, including serious trouble like suspensions.”

The only surprise to me was that they were surprised.   A number of studies have found that “academic” pre-schools show early so-called gains that invariably turn into longer term deficits.  I explicated the developmental and neurobiological bases for this seemingly counterintuitive result in my book, but suffice it to note that sitting still and being “taught” is lousy education.  

These practices are developmentally inappropriate, create stress, erode genuine curiosity and are adult-centric.   Among the key findings, “more likely to be in special education” may be the most troubling.  Because these children were expected to do things for which they were not yet ready, they may carry the burden of being “stupid” forward throughout school and life.

In the wonderful book, A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Roberta Golinkoff and colleagues argue convincingly that placing children in a setting too advanced for their developmental (not chronological) age may actually delay or inhibit their mastery of reading, comprehension and other skills. Pressing children quite likely will create children and adults who consider school a chore rather than a joy.

 But despite all of this, we do it anyway.  Similarly compelling evidence is provided in other books, including Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It by Jane M. Healy and Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture by Kirsten Olson.  

I had the pleasure of knowing all these folks during my years as head of the Calhoun School.

The sin of omission may be even more harmful. Stretching from progressive education’s earliest roots to the books cited above (and dozens more), the evidence is unambiguous – early childhood education should be play-based and social.  Pre-school and kindergarten are the years when children are developing social skills and learning to be members of a community, albeit a rather small one. Pre-school and kindergarten are not the time for “dosing” with pre-academic medicine. Early childhood programs that require children to sit still or do school work are depriving them of the social and neurobiological experiences that are the very foundation of later cognitive and social development.

Children who least need pre-school in America are the ones for whom it is already readily available. 

Privileged children have the luxury of play-based, developmentally flexible pre-schools like the one at my former school. Many of these families also have time to arrange play dates, play groups, or other social activities. They also have homes rich in print and oral language and engaging toys for their toddlers to freely explore. For these folks, pre-school is a lovely extension of a set of advantages that accompany privilege. 

In less privileged communities, families don't have these advantages. For them, the need for pre-school is inarguably greater.  Without pre-school, these children are too likely to remain in environments where oral and print language is less abundant, where resources don't allow for creative toys, and where parents are too overwhelmed by just making ends meet.

There is a strong racial - racist - aspect to early childhood education (as everywhere else).  It is assumed that poor children of color “need” more structure and discipline, thus schools for them are designed with rigid expectations, punishment and silence. 

I have often cited, with undiminished anger, the glib response of hedge fund multi-millionaire Whitney Tilson when he was challenged about the abusive, “tough love” discipline in charter schools he championed.  “Because they need it!” he answered;  “they” meaning poor brown and Black children, in stark contrast to his own very white daughters who attended a very white, very expensive Manhattan private girls school where any similarly “tough love” treatment of students would bring an immediate swarm of entitled parents to the Headmistress’s office to remind her who was paying her salary.

Unfortunately, politicians and policy makers don’t know or don’t care about studies like Vanderbilt’s and others.  The overwhelming consensus is that education is a race and the earlier we start “academics,” the better children will do.

I’d like to applaud the growing calls for universal pre-school, but I fear the ironic and disastrous result will be Tennessee outcomes.