Pre-School Education

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32005, 4 June 1969, Page 12

Pre-School Education

Sir,—l am glad Harvey S. Deane thought to add “if they only make the effort” to his reference to parents and pre-school education. I was most impressed by the recent remark of the president of the Play Centre Association that play centres and kindergartens could, with support, furnish the opportunity needed by Maori children to prepare, in language in particular, for primary school. I am sure the most useful survey that could be undertaken would be to find out how many children need pre-school education to give them a good start at primary school. After all, there are all sorts of parents and should we in these days allow the sins of the fathers to be visited on the children and hence unto succeeding generations?—Yours, etc., G. C. SUGGATE. June 2, 1969.

Sir,—Mr Deane writes that pre-school is not vital to primary education, implying that parents should lift their five-year-olds from the protected home enviroment to a classroom situation where, with 30 others, they are dependent upon one strange adult, and to a lunch-hour melee where, with several hundred others, they are' isolated in a vast playing-field ill-equipped to encourage positive, creative play. As long as they “know the alphabet”—have learnt by rote 26 sounds quite inapplicable to this experience—the gap between home and school

has been bridged! “Parents are the best pre-school teachers, if they make the effort,” I agree—in the play centre. Here, they help their own and each others children to grow accustomed to strange adults and strange children; tp learn, to understand them, and be understood by them; to become confident, contributing members of a homogeneous group. Here, I suggest, responsible parents are helping to start train children towards an active, participating citizenship tomorrow.— Yours, etc., CHLOE M. BAKER. Sir, —Harvey Deane appears to be, condemning the existing pre-school services for what he personally finds them useful for—“toddler-dis-posing.” The value of a kindergarten education comes through despite a parent’s incentive for sending his child. The kindergarten supplements the home education by extending the child's knowledge in a variety of ways, through a programme full of learning situations; it provides greater play space, more facilities and equipment; it helps the child accept rules, grows in independence, express ideas verbally, share, control emotions, perfect skills, learn through curiosity and imagination; it provides for physical development; and, certainly of high importance, it encourages social development. The kindergarten is not there to improve children’s grades on entering school. It does not formally teach numerical counting, alphabetical or spelling drill, because children have not the knowledge and experience behind them to cope with these abstract concepts until they reach the later infant school age.—Yours, etc., M. WONG. June 2,1969.

Sir,—ln reply to Harvey S. Deane (“Play centres do no more than their name implies, kindergartens are little better”), play is to work and to grow. Equipment provided is a certain selected material, not a haphazard collection of toys. In play centre the child is learning to live alongside all kinds of people and new experiences, which is very different from home, although it has a close link with home —new people, new ways, new material; in fact, a new world to conquer. A child growing in confidence and trust in himself reflects in his friendliness towards other children and their acceptance of him. So I consider play centres very important—not a toddler disposal unit for a few hours a day. Play centres offer opportunity for parent involvement, and understanding of the patterns of growth for all children. I cannot see where else to bridge the gap between home and school. — Yours, etc., JOY M. McKENZIE. June 2, 1969.