education
Why Preschool Is So Important Experts discuss the importance of early childhood education.
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BY MELISSA WICKES
ids play together, sit in a circle with their teachers, and sing songs, eventually enjoying a snack. Maybe they discuss the weather or the calendar or learn about letters and numbers. From the outside, you’d be forgiven for seeing preschool as a nice-to-have, rather than a necessity—and, for those not in public pre-K programs, a potentially expensive option. Indeed, some parents have argued that preschool is a glorified day care, that anything taught there can be learned at home. There is, however, more going on in that classroom than the untrained eye might observe. Educators and child development experts say early childhood education offers kids advantages long after they leave the colorful walls of their preschool classroom. Research shows that the benefits of preschool are tangible and visible in more ways than one. Preschool not only provides more opportunities for children, it helps them learn how to face social interactions, according to Rina Patel, a former preschool teacher and director of the early childhood enrichment program Book Nook in Manhattan. There are, as a result, big differences between at-home learning and in-school learning. “There’s a different expectation at home when there is a parent with a child versus a teacher with a child,” Patel says. “Children do naturally develop skills, but at home they are only exposed to a 20 February 2022 • siparent.com
certain amount of materials, toys, or learning products. School is open to a whole different variety of learning materials.” TRAINED TEACHERS AND GROUPS OF PEERS Schools provide teachers who are professionally trained to be molding young minds and are equipped with certain skills parents alone may not have. An important aspect of in-school learning is instilling in kids the ability to interact successfully with other people. It may seem very straightforward, but getting along with others, especially at 2-4 years old, is not so easy. Being in a classroom with multiple children their own age allows children to develop social and emotional skills that cannot be learned solely at home, Patel says. At preschool, children become accustomed to being in group settings, separating from parents, and making decisions on their own—even if those decisions are as simple as, “Do I want to build with LEGO or finger paint today?” All of the social experiences children undergo in preschool contribute to their overall confidence, according to Tovah Klein, Ph.D., author of How Toddlers Thrive and director of the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development. “People think of it as the ABCs and 123s, but it’s much, much more than that,” Dr. Klein says. “Children gain a lot of confidence continued on p. 22
