What Preschool Isn’t: Waterford UPSTART and Any Other Online Program!
No one can deny the importance of early learning. We have years of research by developmental psychologists and early childhood education researchers built on findings to help us understand how preschoolers learn. We need to fund adequate preschools so students get a good introduction to the joy of formal learning.
Researchers have known for some time that preschool is important for learning. In 2003, W. Steven Barnett and Jason T. Husted critiqued studies demonstrating the importance of three preschool programs. The benefits of the High/Scope Perry Preschool program, Abecedarian Early Childhood Intervention program, and the Title I Chicago Child-Parent Centers are well-documented.
Head Start, a federal program created in 1965 to assist children from low-income families has also seen gains in the children it serves, but the program has always been under attack by policymakers who resented paying for the program. While middle class and the wealthy have access to good preschool, the poor struggle to find affordable preschool that give children access to beneficial early learning.
What’s great about preschool? Children get to play and learn with other children. It’s a step beyond a playdate. They collectively acquire knowledge with activities that they CONTINUE READING: What Preschool Isn’t: Waterford UPSTART and Any Other Online Program!
