George Morrison

Preschool Education of Tomorrow

Like much of the rest of the nation, I am interested in presidential politics! I enjoy following the claims, counterclaims, arguments and slick repartees of the candidates. So, on the evening of the Florida primaries, I flipped through the channels, anxious to know who won and which of the candidates would drop out of the race or stay the course. I caught Hillary Clinton’s “victory” speech from Davie, Florida. (Yes, I know no delegates were involved!). What I thought was significant was that in the midst of declaring “victory,” talking about the economy and health care, Hillary also proclaimed “I believe that every child has a God-given potential that we could help to develop if we have universal pre-kindergarten…” The crowd roared and applauded its approval.

Hillary’s remarks help confirm what many of us have known for a long time. All across America, there is a ground-swell of public support for universal preschool education. Early childhood teachers, parents and society view the preschool years as a cornerstone for later success in school and life. As a result, the preschool years are playing a more important role in the educational process than they have at any other time in our history.

Why is Universal Preschool Popular?

A number of reasons help explain:

• Parents are frustrated in their efforts to find quality and affordable child care for their children. They believe universal preschools will help solve this problem.

• Parents see the public sponsorship of preschool as a relief from the financial cost of paying for preschool.

• More parents of young children are in the work force than ever before.

• High quality preschool programs help prevent and reduce behavioral and social problems. (See the research on High/Scope, the Chicago Child-Parent Center Program, and the Carolina Abecedarian Project).

• Publicly supported and financed preschools are one means for ensuring that no children, regardless of culture, socioeconomic status or language are excluded from the benefits of early education.

• Preschools promote early academic learning, and prepare children to learn to read. A recent headline in the Washington Post declared “Most Kindergartners Now Can Read a Book.” The article described how the Montgomery County, MD School district has reached its goal of having all students reading by the end of kindergarten.

A sense of the growing popularity of preschool programs is revealed in these data:

• State-funded pre-k programs currently serve 20 percent of three and four year olds in the U.S.

• Nationally, about 70 percent of children in state-funded pre-k are served in a school setting. For- and non-profit childcare centers, Head Start centers, and faith-based providers serve the other 30 percent.

• Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma make pre-k available to all four year olds.

• New York, Illinois, Iowa, and West Virginia have multi-year plans to implement pre-k for all four year olds. (Illinois’ plan includes three year olds as well.)

Additional information on the status and growth of preschools is available from Pre-K Now (http://www.preknow.org/advocate/factsheets/snapshot.cfm).

For Preschool Teachers and Teacher Education

The growth of universal preschools has a number of implications for teacher education and training. The first issue is how to find all the preschool teachers necessary to educate America’s three and four year old children. The early childhood profession will have to do a better job of recruiting young adults and convincing them of the benefits of choosing teaching as their initial career choice. I envision that teaching preschool could be likened to two to three years of community service in which young adults transition from high school to college or transition to another career. Today, it is unrealistic to think that someone will or would want to devote their entire career to teaching preschoolers. So, we have to face the reality that people will move in and out of teaching. Rather than think of this as a failure of the teaching profession, we should embrace it as one model for teaching young children.

A second issue relates to how to provide preschool teachers with high-quality, on-going training and education. One way to achieve this goal is through on-line mini-courses combined with on-site, face-to-face mentoring and coaching by trained professionals. Current models of teacher training tied to college credits or some national credentialing system are just not effective. We can, and must, do better.

Third, in case you haven’t noticed, teachers’ unions—the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA)—are strong supporters of public preschool programs. They tout the benefits of preschool for children and society. They also see preschool teachers as a new source of members! The AFT is actively organizing child care workers and bringing them into the union fold. This also means higher wages and benefits. These other benefits can include on-going professional staff development tied to increased pay and career ladder advancements. These union efforts help attract people to teaching.

For Montessorians

Some in the early childhood profession, including Montessorians, are in a state of denial about the inevitable growth of preschool education. They bemoan the ascendancy of “low-quality” preschools and early education. They frequently cloak their opposition to preschool education wrapped in the banner of “developmentally appropriate” practice. Ask parents of four-year olds who are joyfully and productively attending public preschools their thoughts of how “appropriate” they are!

Montessorians, who don’t want to be left behind, have to get on the preschool train. One way to do this is to proactively collaborate with the public schools to provide the preschool education they want to provide. Many faith-based and other non-profit agencies already do this. A wonderful example of this private-pubic collaboration is KIDCO Child Care, Inc. in Miami, FL. President and CEO Nilsa Velazquez-Martinez operates four sites serving more than 500 children. In addition to providing care for infants and toddlers, Nilsa collaborates with the Miami-Dade Public Schools to provide education for preschoolers. Such models as this will require that Montessorians re-think many of their long-held beliefs that there is only one way to do Montessori. In the Winter 2008 issue of the Public School Montessorian, Lakshmi A. Kripalani challenged Montessorians to “…get rid of the rigidity that has been handed over to us by the followers who were limited in their in their perspective, basic understanding of her principles and vision in refusing to seek further knowledge.”

If Montessorians don’t want to change and board the train, there is always another option open to them. Go out of business. Several weeks ago, I participated in a meeting with faith-based preschool administrators in which they examined the “going out of business” option as one of many that confronted them in the real world of expanding universal preschool. Change and collaboration were the preferred options.

The Future of Preschool

The future of universal preschool is bright indeed. The further growth of preschool education for three and four year-old children tied to the public schools is inevitable. Growth to the point that all children are included will take decades, but it will happen. Most likely, states will focus on programs for four year old children first and then, over time, include three year olds.

Currently, there are three obstacles to the full implementation of universal preschool—money, space and teachers. The biggest of these issues is money for funding. Getting enough teachers to teach preschoolers and the space to house preschool programs is related to money/funding issues. One of the realities of public schools is that they are funded by you and me—the taxpayers. The proponents of universal public schools understand this economic reality. Thanks to the taxpayers of America, there will—eventually—be enough money to support universal preschool for all children.

At the same time, the number of preschools is increasing, the nature of the preschool experience is changing as well. Preschool as it was known a decade ago is not the same as high quality preschools are today, and ten years from now, they will be vastly different from what they are like today.

Just as the kindergartens of today are more academically based than they ever were, so too will preschools become more academically based. In addition to literacy, math and science, technology will join the mix. As the saying goes, “You haven’t seen anything yet!” And, while we are thinking about the future, can public school programs for infants and toddlers be far behind? You can bet on it!

George S. Morrison, Ed.D. is Professor, Early Childhood Education at the University of North Texas and Senior Contributing Editor of Public School Montessorian.