What's the Good of Early Schooling?

How do youngsters benefit from an under-Six group? The answer comes through knowing what makes life better and days brighter, more glowing for a young child.

One of life's great joys for the young is independence. Under-Six children look so small - some people call them "little shavers" - but they want so deeply to feel big. Some adults are not aware of how strong the child's urge for independence is at this early age, but parents know. Independence is what most of the battles at home are about. A youngster wants to do a job, to lift something, to go somewhere... We keep saying (and we will say it through the years): "You're too young"... "You're too little." Every boy and girl's never-ceasing battlecry is the very opposite: "I am big enough!"

Even though it leads to many arguments, the young child's great push for independence is a Godsend. It is a trait to be nourished. Later in life, we will call this quality "ambition" and "drive." It is what moves the child (and later the man or woman) on into more and more, better and better ways.

What's the good of early schooling? An under-Six group is one of the best devices for fostering independence. The simple fact of going off to school; of saying "Goodbye" to one's parents (knowing you will see them again soon); of having one's own work to do…. If young children could use the words, the boy or girl who has this kind of independence would say: "This is really living!"

Another true delight for the young is to have a friend or two. This social side of under-Six boys and girls surprises some grown-ups who are out of touch with small children. It is no surprise to mothers and fathers. When you live with young children you know how the pace of their life picks up, how their tone and spirit are better when they have friends.

This is the second good deed of the under-Six group: it provides other children! That sounds simple but it is a basic contribution. The group provides children and space and safety and tolerance of noise so children can be children. The group makes it possible for all to work together and laugh together and do the "together-stuff" that children do.

Do not make light of this. Don't pass it off as "kid stuff." Finding a friend, working with a friend, keeping a friend are fundamental life-jobs. Here are the beginnings - in the under-Six age. Children have to get the hang of working with others. Learning how to get along is a stormy path. It is full of fights, with some tears and sometimes of being bossed and left out, but: Children always come back for more! Young children need friends their own size and their own age. If they could use the words, every boy or girl who has good friends would say: "This is really living!"

There is another contribution of early schooling: It helps young children to be better disciplined. And young children like that. They like to know where they stand.

Under-Six groups seem like easy-going places. When you visit your child's group, you may not think that "discipline" is one of the great concerns. Discipline doesn't stick out the way it does in an upper school, but the discipline is there. A child has to learn to respond to Teacher, a new authority who isn't Mother or Father. A child has to adjust to the others in the group - a great curb on selfishness. And every group has its basic rules: things that can't be touched, places one can't go, times when activities stop, behavior that isn't allowed...

Our homes teach discipline. The young child who comes from a well-organized home to a well-organized group has a leg up on becoming the kind of good human we need on this small planet of ours. We need young citizens who are not wild or impulsive, who do not think only of themselves.

One more benefit from early schooling: every under-Six group no matter what its name - nursery school, kindergarten, child care center, Head Start - is honest-to-goodness school. No matter what its name, it teaches facts. It teaches skills. It helps young children make sense out of this world.

An under-Six group has to be a teaching place. Young boys and girls are the most curious animals alive! They are always into something. Always asking. Always touching. Always watching, wondering and thinking.

Many adults miss the point that an under-Six group is "real school." They are misled because the group looks so different from schools for older children: no desks, no blackboard, no pencils and books. But parents know that school is going on. They can tell because their children come home smarter. And that should be no surprise when you think of what happens in early schooling: the tens of stories children hear; the tens of songs they sing; the tens of pictures they see; the trips, the animals, the visitors to the classroom; the activities; the continuous language...

Young children don't sit at desks like older children, they don't listen to lectures. They don't have homework, but: their brains are working! A group is the right place for hungry minds... and for thirsty eyes and ears... and for bodies ready to soak up information. If young children could use the words, the boy or girl surrounded by such richness would say: "This is really living!

"What's the good of early schooling? Under-Six groups help young children to play well! That is the hardest point of all for many grown-ups to understand. Play? "Play" sounds wicked. It sounds like a waste of time. Like fooling around. Why go to school for that?

But if you are close to children you know: play is what their life is all about. Or if you prefer: Don't call it "play." Call it make-believe. Call it imagination. Call it creating. Whatever name you give to it, play is a strong and very deep urge in young children.

One of the best things about under-Six groups is that they respect this imagination. They help it to flow. The companionship of other children spurs it on. The firsthand experiences - the trips, the visitors, the animals - stimulate imagination. Materials and supplies free it: the blocks, the sand, the clay, the paints... When young children play, they feel: This is living! And the rest of us can be glad, too. Our world needs as many creative, imaginative, inventive people as it can get.

Should every child go to an under-Six group? No. Each family has to make its own decision in light of many considerations: its finances, the quality of the groups near home, the needs of the whole family. But every young child does need to feel increasingly independent. Every young child does need companions. Every young child needs a growing sense of discipline. And continuous stimulation. And magnificent opportunities to be as creative as only the young can be.

A good under-Six group is a simple means of making all this possible. It is a means of making the young child's life better and the days brighter, more glowing.