”
Report shows link between lack of preschool and crime
”
trumpeted the Dispatch headline on Feb. 10, and my blood
froze.
It would be fair for readers to assume that I was experiencing a
rush of guilt.
“Report shows link between lack of preschool and crime” trumpeted the Dispatch headline on Feb. 10, and my blood froze.
It would be fair for readers to assume that I was experiencing a rush of guilt. After all, my children had attended little to no preschool, or school for that matter. Perhaps I had unwittingly consigned them to a life of crime.
Nick attended the most preschool of any of my children: two mornings a week for six months at the Child Laboratory Nursery School at Solano Community College. Oliver attended a few sporadic sessions of Kinder Tots and Camper Cubs with Gilroy Parks and Rec. Anne, poor deprived soul, attended a scant three weeks of three mornings a week of Camper Cubs at the ripe old age of three.
To be sure, quitting was her idea. I picked her up from Las Animas Park one day, buckled her into her car seat, and began to drive home. Without preamble, she announced, “I hate my Camper Cubs.”
“Why, dear?” I asked, my heart constricting.
“They don’t let me pick up rocks,” she replied. “They say I’ll get dirty.”
I persuaded her to finish the session, since I had already paid for it, then Anne’s experiment with preschool ended.
But actually, the headline in question did not precipitate a rush of guilt. I was feeling nothing but fury at what I took to be a sensationalist headline. I read the article, looking for an admission that preschool helps disadvantaged children avoid lives of crime.
No, the only time “low-income” was mentioned was in connection with the fact that 326,758 low-income children in California cannot find room in subsidized preschools.
So I went online and tracked down the report cited: “Public Safety Can’t Wait.” I read it. The title and the opening paragraphs, like the Dispatch story, made sweeping sensationalist claims that “research shows quality preschool programs … steer [children] away from lives of crime.”
The research cited in the report showed a significantly different story. “Children from low-income families” were randomly assigned to preschool or no preschool groups. “At-risk kids,” “low-income single parent families,” “economically disadvantaged families,” and “low-income children” were the subjects of various research projects.
The report cited no research where middle-class or upper-class children were studied to see whether preschool prevented them from leading lives of crime, or indeed conferred any benefits whatsoever.
Let’s be honest: a child whose parents are crack addicts or gangstas will probably benefit from a good preschool. Likewise, children from families where the only beacon of enlightenment is the boob tube probably benefit from a good preschool.
But for middle-class kids, whose parents read to them and take them to the park? These children are no more likely to become career criminals than their pre-schooled peers.
There are some excellent preschools in Gilroy: Happy Place Montessori and the Vineyard, among, no doubt, many others. A couple of mornings a week at an excellent preschool can be a positive experience for even an advantaged child, so long as she is allowed to pick up rocks.
But it is not necessary. And there is a substantial body of research that shows that there are good reasons to prefer a home environment over daycare for infants and children. Read Mary Eberstadt’s “Home Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs and Other Parent Substitutes” or David Elkind’s “Miseducation: Preschoolers At Risk.”
The law enforcement-led group that issued the report, Fight Crime, Invest in Kids California, needs to be honest about the actual data findings. They do not need to over-generalize or attempt to frighten parents.
Unfortunately, we can expect to see more bogus headlines and TV commercials in future months, as California First Five and Fight Crime, Invest in Kids California and Rob Reiner and California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell collaborate to convince us to fully fund universal preschool. Where they think the money is going to come from in this bankrupt state of ours I cannot imagine.
