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| Three-year-olds Ellen, left, and Ann, right, enjoy going through numbers and tracing workbooks while two-year-old Lauren gets a head start with her sisters. Head start for me, but maybe a late start for other competitive moms. / Courtesy of Jane Han |
By Jane Han
I recently read an article in a mainstream Korean newspaper about two-year-olds in some of Seoul's richest neighborhoods being tutored in writing, math and science. We're talking two-year-olds.
I then looked at my own two-year-old at home who just happened to be eating her freshly picked booger. Satisfied with the size, she flashed a big cheesy smile.
At that moment, I honestly didn't know what to think.
I simply could neither picture nor imagine my daughter being involved in anything remotely close to a structured class with a textbook in front of her.
I mean, how on earth is that possible for any two-year-old?
Apparently, it is.
We all know Korea is the planet central of private education, so it looks like the experts make it possible ― somehow ― for these fidgety diaper-wearing tots to sit through.
The standard of education is different for every country, every culture and down to every family.
I know three- and four-year-olds in Korea almost certainly know and exercise a lot more academically than their peers here in the U.S.
I'll be honest. When I talk to friends back home, there are times I feel a teeny tiny bit anxious about where my kids stand.
Ellen and Ann, who'll be turning four in June, can read some numbers up to 10, identify some letters in the alphabet and recognize their names spelled out in English.
But yes, that's about how long the list goes.
And then a few weeks ago, a friend told me about Kumon Learning, the world's largest tutoring center focusing on math and reading, right here in the U.S.
I was immediately interested.
Kumon is very common in Korea, but I didn't know kids here do it too.
I checked out their homepage and quickly found that there were two centers within a three mile radius of my house, they accept students starting at age three, and each subject costs $150 a month.
I was tempted.
The thought of my girls breezing through math problem sets and spelling out vocabulary words made me feel good.
I let myself be in that moment for a little bit. Yes, that feels good.
But the reality is, tutoring doesn't turn all kids into math and reading whizzes.
After a few days of pretty serious contemplation, I came across an article, which I'd like to think of as a sign from above.
The article's bottom line is that early teaching is likely to do more harm than good.
Two different researches done at two different labs pointed to the same result, but I'll share one that was done at MIT.
The research team's goal was to see whether a group of four-year-olds who are given the same problems would develop different solutions depending on whether they were taught directly or not.
For one group, the experimenter presented a toy with four tubes and began playing with it together with the kids. She pulled out one tube, which made a squeaking noise, and acted surprised, while continuing to engage with the kids.
In the second group, the experimenter acted more like a teacher by showing how the toy works right from the start.
The two groups were left alone to keep playing with the toy.
The result showed that the first group of kids turned out to play and focus longer while discovering the features of the remaining three tubes in the toy compared to the second group.
As this particular research demonstrates, skeptics of early teaching argue that structured developmental programs take away children's interest in learning, curiosity and creativity, all of which are essential to succeeding academically.
Now, with all this information, do I want to go ahead with math tutoring for my three-year-olds?
Not so quickly.
Instead of forcing an hour of solving math problems they have no clue about, playing in the playground and running wild doing all kinds of wacky things preschoolers are supposed to do will ultimately help them go further in life.
I admit I was shaken a bit, but am glad that I reaffirmed the education philosophy I have for my kids ― too much too soon is no good.
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