Preschool Necessity Controversial
Enrollment Numbers Rising
One has to wonder: how necessary is preschool for children prior to their enrollment in kindergarten?
Preschool is Beneficial
"Even the best parent, with a PhD to boot, may not know how to teach a 3-year-old his colors," Diane Laney Fitzpatrick said in an email interview in October of 2008.
According to Fitzpatrick, a former newspaper reporter and editor now doing freelance work for various parenting web sites, many parents believe that their children need some type of preschool to keep them from starting off elementary school behind other kids.
"Many moms don't want to be the only ones whose child is staying at home," Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick believes that the most important reason that parents put their children in preschool is for the benefits of socialization.
"A child can be put into a social setting while at home, but at preschool it happens effortlessly just by showing up," Fitzpatrick said. "The child is put together with kids not of his choosing and he then has to figure out how to get along with different personalities, learn to share, communicate, and play with others."
Preschool not Necessary
Not all parents believe that preschool is the way to go. Contrary to statistics showing the increasing numbers of children being enrolled in preschool, there are in fact still a lot of moms that choose to stay at home with their children.
Barbara Frank, a mother of four and author of home schooling books, believes that preschool is anything but beneficial, and possibly even harmful, for children.
"I think the primary influence on my thinking about preschool is that my generation did not have preschool and we've done just fine," Frank said during the fall of 2008 in an email interview. "None of my children went to preschool, or school at all, and they are doing very well."
Frank believes that a child being home with a parent of someone who loves him or her is far superior to preschool. She said that children of all ages need freedom to learn and that the classroom is not a place of freedom.
"I think most parents believe the hype that preschool is necessary so the child doesn't fall behind his peers," Frank said. "Most studies refute this, and in actuality, you often see that the children who were in preschool burn out in school by about the third grade."
One Not Always Better than the Other
Fitzpatrick argues that whether preschool is more beneficial than staying at home with a parent really depends on the child, the parent, and the atmosphere at home.
"If staying at home means sleeping late, watching TV, interacting only with adults, then no, staying home with a parent is not more beneficial," Fitzpatrick said. "There are homes, however, where the parent is engaged with the children all day long – where there is a variety of activities, other children to play and interact with, and a healthy schedule for the child. In those cases, the child may be getting everything they could get from a preschool plus the added benefit of being home with mom in a secure, comfortable environment."
And so the question remains: is preschool a necessary step for children?
Frank would say no, while Fitzpatrick would argue that there are benefits to both preschool and being a stay-at-home mom. Making the decision is no easy easy task for any parent because, of course, it's not easy to know what the best thing is to do for someone you love.
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