David Elkind, "Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk"

[DadDude]

All, I've started into David Elkind's book Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk, which lumps "academic" preschools together with at-home early education methods like Doman's.  (It's all "miseducation" because the children are being taught too early.)  Has anyone read this?  Have you got any reactions?  So far, it seems to be long on bald claims and stereotyping, and short on data or rigorous argumentation.

[susankhan]

No,  I have not read this article at all.  I must say that I started education very early with my oldest now 13.  I have seen so many advantages later on as an outcome of WHAT she was taught early on in life.  I also found this article today about how early education   does play a MAJOR roll  check it out at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Case-for-320000-nytimes-1374672440.html?x=0&mod=pf-college-education
I must say that I never saw any negative effects what so ever by teaching my daughter early    I suggest that all the love, care, time , the parents on this board dedicate their to their child/children is so beneficial now and in the long run.  Don't be scared away as there is always someone out their that will not agree with you .   But you as the parents are doing this from love and for your children.  You are not being selfish but giving them a gift that many parents either don't know about or just don't want to take the time to devote to their children.  I must say I am so proud of ALL of you for doing what you are doing .  Keep up the amazing job.....
Kindly,
your friend
Susan Khan

[2010BEBES]

susankhan,

I read the article you link and at first had problems understanding it. In sumarry i pick up that the kindergarte teacher (and I deducted that the mom teacher on early age) has a lasting effect on the child.as an adult.

quoting:
"How much do your kindergarten teacher and classmates affect the rest of your life?
..... Great teachers and early childhood programs can have a big short-term effect. But the impact tends to fade. By junior high and high school, children who had excellent early schooling do little better on tests than similar children who did not"....

But then they realize:
"We care about adult outcomes."

Results:
"Students who had learned much more in kindergarten were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds."

I think that being the parent or family member doing the teaching this is something the kid will appreciate much more and alqays remember with joy.

   

[TmS]

I get really sick of some of the misinformation that floats around regarding early education.

My mother in law is very, very anti us teaching our son (and she's a school principal) because apparently children who are taught to read before school end up with no imagination. She got this from a colleague who's had "too many upstart parents thinking they can teach their kids".

Now I am living proof that this is not the case - I was an early reader and I have always had a great imagination.

I cannot understand why people are so frightened of babies learning. Is it because their own learning experiences were so unpleasant they can't imagine the joy and bonding of sharing these lessons with our children?

I have even been accused of being a pushy parent and I am quite far from it - My son will do and be whatever he chooses to do and be  - I teach him to read because it is good for him, he enjoys it and it is a very special time for us. Yet people would rather me sit and watch rubbish cartoons with him and fill his head with nonsense and confusing images that mean nothing in the real world so that he can "be a kid".

I'm at the point where I don't tell people what my son can do because it is easier than dealing with their condescension and ignorance.

There are some many more things that preschoolers really are at risk of that people don't talk about and here they are rubbishing quality education......

I really just can't understand it.

[susankhan]

I guess my point of listing this article is to let parents KNOW there are really no side effects from teaching young.  I talked about my own experience as my daughter is NOW 13  a little in the above post   I just want parents to know that I personally feel that what they are doing now is not going to hurt the child later on  

[DadDude]

Based on the research I've done, our personal experience so far, and talking to you all, I see no reason to believe that we're doing (regarding his education) is at all damaging to our boy.  So I'm not really worried about that at all, not nearly as much as I was, say, two years ago, soon after we started this.

The reason I asked about Elkind's book was that I'm including some replies to its arguments in my essay.  So far his arguments are very poor indeed--below average, as our critics' arguments go--but I'm not that far into it.  And his Ch. 2, a rogue's gallery of bad-parent stereotypes, is annoying and offensive.

[trinity papa]

Hmm from what i read from the link,.... its merely stating that good teachers and good classmates helps the individual students and the class at large, to do better in life ..... and the finger is pointing at good teachers seems to have the biggest casuation.

Which i highly agree, if you meet a terrible lousy teacher you can get turn off a subject, or unable to hold the class attention and hence focus, this means the class can get rowdy etc, hence why good teachers should be paid more and not so good ones fired. But unfortunately, not many people are teaching pre schoolers, because the pay, because requires lots of patience, and not many people are jolly ho ho enough to pull the class attention. And most importantly most people don't have passion, and that could in itself kill the child's interest.

But of course early education is good, it tells the child there is always something to learn, just have to make it exciting.

[2010BEBES]

I get really sick of some of the misinformation that floats around regarding early education.
..
I cannot understand why people are so frightened of babies learning. Is it because their own learning experiences were so unpleasant they can't imagine the joy and bonding of sharing these lessons with our children?
..
I'm at the point where I don't tell people what my son can do because it is easier than dealing with their condescension and ignorance.
..
I really just can't understand it.

TmS,
I totally understand you I am also frustrated and decided not to talk about early education to my nieces. Their answer always is "Let them 'be themselves' and they will learn at school when they have to".. As if giving them the loving education means they will not 'be themselves'.
I think we have to realize that we are a priviledge group of persons that know the value of learning especially at an early age. Maybe you are right and they had a terrible experience while learning themselves. About me, my mom allrays remember and tolda me that when at preschool (3 or 4 yrs old) she wanted me to stop studing and I told her 'No, this is very important, in spanish 'Esto es muy imputante (not spell wrong but i express it like that).
I enjoy learning even at this age and sharing it with my grandson is a wonderful gift I received from God.

[TmS]

Hi susankhan,

I hope you didn't think I was rubbishing your article - in fact I thought it was great.

A good teacher is worth their weight in gold, they are unfortunately few and far between. In my entire schooling life I had three brilliant teachers a lot of very average teachers and a handful of really bad teachers.

I was not at all surprised by the findings stated in your article we all know that the first 5 years of a child's life are very influential and obviously their first educational experience will have a big impact - hence why so many of us are educating our babies.

The facts outlined in your article are the main reason my husband and I intend to home school. If we could be guaranteed good quality teachers, in well resourced rooms, with a good teacher to student ratio, every year of son's education we'd consider school but we know that it is unlikely we'd get that for even half the time.

I may need to have a read of this David Elkind's book so that I can properly refute his arguments. I've never met a child who was exposed to gentle and loving early education that came to harm from it. If he were talking about pushy and forced education only I could go with that easily but from DadDude's description that's not it at all.

It's a touchy subject for me because Australian's have a tendency to have what we call "tall poppy syndrome" - instead of seeing  a young child loving education they see that their child is missing out and instead of rectifying that they rubbish it. "let them be kids" as if learning to read will make them an adult or steal their childhood away and a whole bunch of other myths.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure you hadn't misinterpreted my original rave

[susankhan]

Oh No ...  I did not feel that way at all   I want to read the book now to give dadude what he was asking for .....  He has put endless time and effort into his child's education and I look at him as a roll model   Thank you Dadude for all you have done...

Susan Khan

[Niniedney]

I think that most of these people are assuming we push early education upon our children. Which is not true. It is done in a fun loving way! I often times feel upset for not putting more time into our early education activities. But then I remember that every little bit counts. And this way I am never pushing too much! Hahaha

[Krista G]

I just went to Amazon to view the book and you can read the whole book in the preview mode.  I just read a little bit of it and will be curious to hear your opinion, DadDude.  I crafted a long response to a blog post he made in the past and when I went to publish it I lost my response.  Maybe that was meant to be because he obviously will not change his opinion.

He seems to be a direct enemy of early reading and he refuses to believe that young children can read at all.

[Krista G]

Here is the link if anyone wants to read it online.

http://www.amazon.com/Miseducation-Preschoolers-Risk-David-Elkind/dp/0394756347/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280518187&sr=8-1

[TmS]

Thanks KristaG,

I just read the parts of the book that were available to me without signing in, so I didn't get to read the real crux of his argument (if he was ever actually going to state one) however I think I read enough to get a general idea.

The key word I guess is "pressure" and that is where a lot of people misunderstand what we do for miseducation.

I have never pressured my child to repeat a word, I have never asked him to read for people like a performing seal and I do not teach him because it makes me feel good about myself. I am an acrobatics coach and I teach my child acrobatics because he was teaching himself and I personally would prefer it if he tucked his head under in a forward roll, does making sure that my son does what he would have done any way in a safe manner make me a pushy mother who wants a superkid?

I was taught to read and count by my sister and believe that my well above average IQ was a direct result of learning to read and do basic math at a young age. I never struggled with a single concept at school, my first algebra lesson was anti-climactic because when the teacher wrote y+2=9 I instantly saw that y=7 and couldn't understand what all the fuss was about, in fact I went home and accused my father of lying to me stating "you said algebra would be fun and challenging" he said "I guess you'll have to wait for calculus" which ended up in pretty much the same fashion.

The only regret I have about learning before school is that my schools could not satisfy my needs to learn and were unable to provide suitable challenges for me. But then I was at a Catholic school run by nuns and when I finished my work (in about 30 seconds) I was expected to sit still and wait for the rest of the class to catch up (ten minutes later). We all know this wouldn't happen these days. Never the less I will be homeschooling to ensure that the love of learning is never quashed in my son.

I have seen children who didn't learn to read or know any alphabet when they get to school and many of them don't enjoy learning to read and why would they? A five year old child (that's kindergarten age here and when our children are traditionally taught to read) can create complex sentences and create great stories why would they be interested in learning "the cat sat on the mat" (or in fact "a - apple") when they are capable of telling you all about dinosaurs and when they went extinct etc. Why should a child's reading language be so far behind their vocalised language? Learning the two together means the two are always at the same level, meaning books of interest are always available.

Would a tiger mother teaching her child to pounce at an early age be accused of being pushy or simply be categorized as a mother teaching her child survival skills? The bushmen teach their children to "read the news", they learn all about their environment how to read animal tracks, how to find water, what plants you can eat - are they miseducating by teaching their children to "read" so young.

It is the job of the parent to unravel the world for the child  -to break it down into bite size chunks that the child can deal with and to ensure that by the time they are on their own they are able to survive without us. I believe that in today's world that means reading, writing, maths, languages and physical education etc.

As for his argument against teaching swimming - well tell that to all those parents who have lost their toddlers to drowning. Gymnastics - if my child was balancing on a wall instead of a beam would that make it alright? If he was swinging off tree branches instead of parallel barres is that alright? Kids love hanging upside down and bouncing on trampolines and balancing so by formalising the environment in which they do these things it becomes pressure? We no longer live in a world where our kids can go hang outside and get physically superb just by being kids and the advantages of co-ordination, strength, balance and body awareness extend into all facets of life.

Those of us who understand Doman's vision of children reaching their potential, understand that we don't test our children - so how can what we do in such a gentle and loving manner be considered pressure? If my son loses his ability to do maths and read I wont care because I know he has had wonderful times learning with me and has learned the most most valuable education lesson of all - how to learn.

Any way I've had my rave and I think we all know that there is a huge difference between teaching your child and pressuring your child and those of us who know the difference know that David Elkind's book is irrelevant to us.

[Krista G]

Well said, TmS.  Perhaps it is the desire that no one ever be smarter, stronger, wiser, faster, etc that people like David fear and they label it as pressuring children.  What I have read of his arguments about early learning are almost comical. If reading to my child books that have larger words so he can learn to read them while I read to him is miseducation then I don't know what parents are supposed to do with their kids.
 
Good point on the swimming, too. 

Imagine that parents that love their kids enough to put them first and spend time with them and play with them and talk to them and treat them with respect are considered pushy parents?  If that is what a pushy parent is then I am proud to be one.  And I mean pushy in the sense that I push other things aside to create loving and lasting bonds with my kids.  I have 6 kids and I taught them to read at 3 and younger. According to Mr. Elkind that is too early.  Then why do my children love to read so much?  I have to tell them to stop reading so they can do other activities.  They read independently and we read together.  Each one of my children loves books and loves to read.  As a matter of fact, as I type this my 6 year old is reading over my shoulder waiting for me to shut down so we can go cuddle in bed and read our LIttle House Series.

Enough said.  If only all parents were as committed as the parents on this forum can you imagine what the world would be like?

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