Letter from the Post

I think what Mr. Sullivan misses about the preschool years is the kind of learning involved. Preschool children don't learn like other children. The preschool years are auditory not visual, and therefore the amount taken in is three times what third to twelfth graders are capable of taking in. The preschool child is emotionally freer to absorb.

The mistake most people make about preschool involves curriculum. When the day is spent with two color sheets, three two year old songs, fifteen minutes with a plastic kitchen, a puzzle made for a two year old, then it's a waste of time altogether.

Preschool should involve a presentation of the world in all its disciplines. It's a time for pre-reading, pre writing, and early arithmetic, art, art appreciation, earth science, story history, Bible stories, music and intro to foreign language, it's not preschool; it's babysitting.

Washington Post

Preschool Isn't The Only Answer

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

According to E.J. Dionne Jr., the proposal to guarantee preschool for every 4-year-old in California would be a cost-effective investment [op-ed, March 3]. He cited economist James J. Heckman's argument that remediation for missed early childhood investments is costly.

However, extensive empirical evidence summarized by Darcy Olsen in the article "Early Childhood Education: A Caveat" shows that preschoolers' edge in achievement over that of children who did not attend preschool disappears by the third or fourth grade. The same held true when using national data to compare full-time and part-time kindergartens.

Mr. Heckman's work also omitted discussion of the Tennessee teacher-student database. Analysis of its 6 million records shows that a good teacher (measured by improvements in student achievement) is the most effective resource, regardless of student background or socioeconomic characteristics. Nor did Mr. Heckman acknowledge the many schools that have significantly improved the achievements of at-risk students without major increases in funding.

Mr. Heckman stressed the importance of noncognitive skills that can be taught to young children, including patience, discipline and motivation, and that these skills pay off in the long term by leading to reduced dropout rates. However, these skills can be taught in kindergarten.

Further, American fourth-graders test higher in math and reading than fourth-graders in many developed countries. By eighth grade, scores fall to average. By 12th grade, they are near the bottom. This strongly suggests that educators should focus on third- to 12th-grade students rather than diverting scarce resources to preschool.

JOHN A. SULLIVAN
Arlington