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March 24, 2006
Preschool for All
I have rarely gotten into the political arena in my writing, but today I break the rule. I have seen a couple articles recently about how awful having a preschool program for children (proposed by Propostion 82) will be. I must take exception to this characterizaation.
I read a study recently. I know, I need to get a life, but it was an interesting study about kids and parents. The study indicated that the amount of time a mom spends with her child, birth to out of the house, in planing and learning activities is 26 minutes a day. I would say for teenagers you may be lucky to get 26 seconds, but for want of a good discussion, we'll go with the study results.
26 minutes is not much time to learn language, reading, writing, ethics, or anything else a mom wants her child to learn. She's also busy making sure food is on the table, the house is clean, she may be working, or her child needs to go to the doctor and she becomes the taxi. She may want to spend more time, but there are more and more demands on that time.
A few days after reading this study, I was out visiting our infant/preschool program. The whole time I was there I watched infants, toddlers, and preschoolers receiving one on one to small group interaction with adults. The focus was learning and playing. For three and a half hours a day, five days a week children are acquiring skills-language development, learning how to problem solve, and interacting with others. Three and a half hours is a whole lot more than 26 minutes a day.
I am not advocating taking over the loving and caring role of moms. I'm a mom, and I would never give that up. I want that for their needs as much as mine, but could I use some help for their learning? You bet. Even as a mom who is knowledgeable of what happens in schools, with four children and a full time plus job, I didn't always have enough time to help my children with all of their learning needs. You do the best you can, but it may not be as much as could be provided in another way.
I don't know if Prop. 82 is the absolute best way of doing this. All bills are flawed in someone's view. I'm sure there are questions to be worked out if it passes, but I can tell you I absolutely support access to quality preschool for all children.
Posted by Dr Joni at March 24, 2006 07:40 AM