Don't rush formal lessons for toddlers

By Walt Gardner

Pressure to prepare children for the realities of the global economy has turned nursery schools in South Korea and the United States into mini test-preparation factories. In the process, great harm is unwittingly being done.

In Seoul’s affluent neighborhoods, two-year-olds are tutored in math, science and writing in the belief that doing so provides them with a leg up. But research has shown that this strategy is counterproductive. Toddlers need time to engage in unsupervised play. It’s there that they learn invaluable social and emotional skills.

The U.S. is no less guilty. A major evaluation of Tennessee’s publicly funded preschool system found that children exposed to academic skills so early in life performed worse on tests measuring literacy, language and math by the time they entered the second grade. The over reliance on drilling destroyed their enthusiasm. In short, emphasis on academic skills too early had unintended consequences.

Despite the evidence, parents in South Korea and the U.S. can’t shake the guilt they feel if they don’t join in the frenzy. It takes courage to resist. Complicating matters are cultural beliefs and values. What influences parents in one country does not necessarily play a role in another.

If there is one factor, however, that transcends national borders, it’s the importance of the interaction between teacher and child. That’s largely dependent on the kind of training teachers receive. For example, Finland, which is known for the quality of its schools, doesn’t begin formal reading instruction until children are seven. Teachers there believe that the basis for the beginnings of literacy is that children have been spoken to and have been listened to.

Whether teachers in South Korea and the U.S. can resist the pressure to produce quantifiable outcomes in nursery school is another question. The obsession with accountability continues to grow.

Walt Gardner writes the Reality Check blog for Education Week in the U.S. Write to walt.gard@verizon.net.