Comments on: Pre-School Encounters

By: Activities For Preschoolers

Activities For Preschoolers — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:22:33 +0000

Yes, picking a preschool that is going to live up to your expectations involves some thorough research.

You definitely want to know about the curriculum and structure as well as the environment and professionalism of the educators.

After all, preschool is much more than just ‘babysitting’ children and letting them run around-it is setting them up for success and interaction with life.

By: Fiona

Fiona — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:58:32 +0000

ugh Glad we have govvie-run preschools here In Canberra.

Cheese? WTF?

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:12:01 +0000

We might have gotten lucky. Our infant room is attached to a preschool and not only is it pretty great, it’s very low cost all of a sudden. A new company bought out the folks who were running the place before, so the center is no longer affiliated with the county. It’s a private operation. They’re paying teachers less and brought in their own staff and let go our favorite teacher. We were heartbroken. But we had to admit the new folks were great. And they lowered the price by about 30%. So we might stay on for preschool. No religious affiliation at this place.

Anyway, even when you find a good place, the management can change in one short month, so you just never know. We seem to have lucked out.

By: Lauren

Lauren — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:55:51 +0000

This continues to strike a chord with me. I live in a good-sized community (C-bus, OH) and was FLOORED when we were preschool shopping. All I wanted was secular and struggled to find one last year. Now my oldest is old enough to attend a program in our school district. I’m so thankful that the public schools aren’t pushing ideals/ethics/whatnot onto our children. My next son will be enrolling in the same program next year. Hooray for separation!

By: Vanessa

Vanessa — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:05:31 +0000

Well, out here in the Chicago suburbs there isn’t much competition.

We think we found a great little school here. I really fell in love with it. But as we went into the older class (it’s montessori, so the 6-9 year olds) and I somehow mentioned I was an artist. This inspired the woman giving the tour to tell me the main teacher of that room does all kinds of artsy stuff including a raw foods diet.

Sigh. That doesn’t bode well. I’ll investigate if that’s just her sacred cow or if she’s into all kinds of that stuff.

By: Theresa

Theresa — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:16:44 +0000

Great post. Some of the secular schools could use a bit more skepticism, both regarding their own special snowflake-ness and the yuppie woo.

you wrote: “However, we don’t want to send them to “school” to learn, and then tell them that what school teaches is wrong.”

For me, ideally, kids and parents should feel free to evaluate and disagree, intelligently, with facts & opinions that are presented in school. We should be aware of the content of the lessons (not just about religion — how about American history?). A good school will leave you space to disagree, e.g. they may encourage grace, but they ought not to tell your kids that they’ll burn in hell if they don’t say grace.

I dunno, I’m the mama of a 2-year-old who doesn’t talk back yet (at least not intelligently) so I may be over-idealizing here.

I admit I would be uncomfortable if my son, who goes to a Jewish nursery school, suddenly wanted to do blessings at home. But my response (assuming I kept my head) would be “Mummy and I don’t do that, but you can if you want to.” If he asked why, I could give details.

Even for me, there is a limit to how much religious content I want in the classroom. Our present school has a mix of religions among the students, and they spend just a couple of hours a week on Jewish topics — Shabbat and some holiday stuff. I could not handle running interference with a classical Hebrew school where half the day is spent on Torah, Talmud and laws.

By: Deb

Deb — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:18:14 +0000

Wow. We have government run pre-schools, every 4 year old is entitled to 4 half days but it’s not compulsory and they pretty much have to take you at your local one. They’re attached to Primary schools and have a curriculum, but it’s all life skills and getting used to the school environment. So unless you want to go private, we don’t have any of those concerns.
Having said that, we live in a very small town and I’m nervous about my little girl going next year because of the amount of bullying. Much as I really seriously don’t want to, we might end up homeschooling for Primary school.

By: Squillo

Squillo — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:08:46 +0000

I’m right there with you. The school we finally settled on for our daughter had all the right elements: high marks from like-minded friends, convenient location & hours, great facility, plus our kid loved it at the very first visit.

However, the info packet included a permission form to give her “homeopathic remedies” for minor bumps & bruises. I told them we don’t do homeopathy, and a hug, a sip of water and a band-aid would be our preferred treatment for minor boo-boos.

The teacher–who is otherwise quite wonderful–once told me that she attributed my daughter’s independent spirit and strong will to her astrological sign.

There seems to be no escape from woo, at least where I live (the next closest preschool is a Waldorf.) I’m not too concerned about what 2 years of preschool will do to my kid. I’m more worried about the local elementary school adopting curricula that are based on shaky evidence.

What are skeptically-minded parents to do? Start our own preschools, I guess.