This is exactly what we should change in Early Childhood “Education”
“They didn’t teach me anything!” Want to evaluate the quality of your child’s preschool? You could hardly ask for a better endorsement than this one, captured at the end of a three-year-old’s first day of school. In fact, if you visit a classroom and find a preschool teacher lecturing - or children hunched over desks, all engaged in the same teacher-directed activity - run for the hills. That’s because young children don’t learn in the same way older children do. They learn through play. They learn through interaction. They learn through discovery and exploration; through trial and error. The best early childhood teachers are rarely the center of attention in their classrooms. They aren’t there to lecture and drill, but to observe, plan, guide, question, and support the needs of each individual child. Never confuse a lack of stereotypical “teaching” in these classrooms for a lack of LEARNING. Or rigor. Indeed, high quality early childhood classrooms are learning laboratories second only to the home in terms of their life-changing potential. And if your child doesn’t come home covered in paint once in a while, or with grass stains on their pants, you’ve probably chosen the wrong program. Instead look for an endorsement like our hero’s: They didn’t teach me anything, but I had fun. And maybe tomorrow there will be more time to talk about possums. This happy little learner was shared to TT by carliewinkels. #earlychildhood #earlyyears #eyfs #parenting