Preschool: The Best Job-Training Program

This article was e-mailed to us today.  We agree 100%!

Full article by by Alex Blumberg  CLICK HERE.   The article has references and study results (or I cut and pasted text below)

When economist James Heckman was studying the effects of job training programs on unskilled young workers, he found a mystery.

He was comparing a group of workers that had gone through a job training program with a group that hadn’t. And he found that, at best, the training program did nothing to help the workers get better jobs. In some cases, the training program even made the workers worse off.

The problem was that the students in the training program couldn’t learn what they were being taught. They lacked an important set of skills which would enable them to learn new things. Heckman, a Nobel-Prize-winning economist, calls these soft skills.

You might not think of soft skills as skills at all. They involve things like being able to pay attention and focus, being curious and open to new experiences, and being able to control your temper and not get frustrated.

All these soft skills are very important in getting a job. And Heckman discovered that you don’t get them in high school, or in middle school, or even in elementary school. You get them in preschool.

And that, according to Heckman, makes preschool one of the most effective job-training programs out there.

As evidence, he points to the Perry Preschool Project, an experiment done in the early 1960s in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Researchers took a bunch of 3- and 4-year-old kids from poor families and randomly assigned them to one of two groups. The kids in one group just lived their regular lives. And the kids in the other group went to preschool for two hours a day, five days a week.

After preschool, both groups went into the same regular Ypsilanti public school system and grew up side by side into adulthood.

Yet when researchers followed up with the kids as adults, they found huge differences. At age 27, the boys who had – almost two decades earlier – gone to preschool were now half as likely to be arrested and earned 50 percent more in salary that those who didn’t.

And that wasn’t all. At 27, girls who went to preschool were 50 percent more likely to have a savings account and 20 percent more likely to have a car. In general, the preschool kids got sick less often, were unemployed less often, and went to jail less often. Since then, many other studies have reported similar findings.

These results made me think: What is going on in preschool?

So I visited the Co-Op School, a preschool in Brooklyn. Eliza Cutler, a teacher there, said the kids do a lot of the same things the Perry Preschool kids did back in the 60s: They play, they paint, they build with blocks, and they nap.

If you didn’t know where to look, you wouldn’t see the job skills they’re learning.

Yet they are learning valuable skills: how to resolve conflicts, how to share, how to negotiate, how to talk things out. These are skills that they need to make it through a day of preschool now. And they are skills they will need to make it through a day of work when they’re 30.

If they learn these skills now, they’ll have them for the rest of their lives. But research shows that if they don’t learn them now, it becomes harder and harder as they get older. By the time the time they’re in a job training program in their twenties, it’s often too late.

Heckman is an economist so he thinks about this as a cost-benefit analysis. To him, the message is clear: If you want 21 year-olds to have jobs, the best time to train them is in the first few years of life.

“Just Playing” Poem

Just Playing

By Anita Wadley

 

When I’m building in the block room, please don’t say I’m “just playing”

For you see, I’m learning as I play, about balance and shapes.

Who knows? I may be an architect someday.

 

When I am getting dressed up, setting the table, caring for the babies.

Don’t get the idea I’m “just playing”. For you see, I’m learning as I play.

I may be a mother or a father someday.

 

When you see me up to my elbows in paint or standing at an easel, or moulding

and shaping clay, please don’t let me hear you say “He is just playing”

For you see, I’m learning as I play, I’m expressing myself and being creative.

I may be an artist or an inventor someday.

 

When you see me sitting in a chair “reading” to an imaginary audience.

Please do not laugh and think I’m “just playing”.

For you see, I’m learning as I play.

I may be a teacher someday.

 

When you see me combing the bushes for bugs, or packing my pockets with choice

things I find, don’t pass it off as “just playing”. For you see, I’m learning as I play.

I may be a scientist someday.

 

When you see me engrossed in a puzzle or some “plaything” at school.

Please don’t feel the time is wasted in “play”.  For you see, I’m learning as I play.

I’m learning to solve problems and to concentrate.

I may be in business someday.

 

When you see me cooking or tasting foods, please don’t think that because I enjoy it, it is

“just playing”. I’m learning to follow directions and see differences.

I may be a chef someday.

 

When you see me learning to skip, hop, run and move my body, please don’t say I’m “just

playing”. For you see, I’m learning as I play. I’m learning how my body works.

I may be a doctor, nurse or athlete someday.

 

When you ask me what I’ve done at school today, and I say, “I just played”

Please don’t misunderstand me. For you see, I’m learning as I play.

I’m learning to enjoy and be successful in my work. I’m preparing for tomorrow.

Today, I am a child and my work is play.

The Serious Need for Play

Community Helpers Month

February is Community Helpers month.  We will have visits from a police officer, a dentist, a fireman and more as they are confirmed.

 

Welcome Dottie

We would like to introduce our new rabbit Dottie. She is 1 year old and came to us from the Kingsland family. Our other rabbit Bijou is warming up to her but very happy to have a companion.

Kid’s Night Out was a success!

Last Friday evening from 6:00pm-11:00pm was our first “Kid’s Night Out” or “Parent’s Night Out” whichever way you look at it. The parents, children and teachers all enjoyed it and we are working on dates to do this every other month, we’ll keep you posted.