Thursday, January 24, 2008

Preschool Explusions

I've just read an article on ABC news about preschool expulsions being on the rise. They talk about preschoolers acting in antisocial ways, biting, hitting etc.. They give really "interesting" reasons for this behavior - crowded classrooms, poverty, poor parenting and poorly trained teachers are the top ones.

I'm just stunned that anyone actually thinks that antisocial behavior in the preschool crowd is unusual. Kids are antisocial, our jobs as parents is to socialize them, to teach them how to behave in public. We do that by modeling behavior in our own homes.

I vividly remember how my children's behavior would deteriorate when we had too many play dates. Preschoolers copy everyone around and if they are surrounded by more unsocialized preschoolers than socialized adults, then their behavior only deteriorates.

Parents need to wake up. Preschoolers belong at home with loving parents where the ratio of adult to child is not 1:20, or worse. I pity teachers who have to manage classrooms of preschoolers. They are outnumbered and I don't think they stand a chance.

To think that some politicians are deluded enough to think that universal preschool is the answer to our education woes.

I worry about all these kids who spend all day long in child care from the time they are babies. I wonder how well they are socialized.

1 comment:

Lydia Netzer said...

Unbelievable. First bring on the unreasonable expectations, and then make them as failures at age 3for not meeting them. YIKES. The depressing thing is that some people will say, "Well, they need to learn how to get along in the world!" Yes -- LEARN. Not immediately perform!