Mandatory Preschool

There are a great number of studies that state that the first five years of a child’s development are the most important and that they will set the tone for the child’s ability to learn, socialize, and be a successful member of society. Consequently, proponents believe that preschool should become mandatory for all children. While this might seem like a good solution to some people, preschool should not be mandatory for all children before they enter kindergarten for many reasons. Consider the many factors in a child's early development that contribute to his success. By doing so, it’s easy to begin to realize that putting a blanket demand on entering preschool, could be a disservice to some children based on parental influences, environmental

Moreover, there is a great amount of research that stresses how increased positive parental involvement is a great contributing factor to a child’s early success. Comparatively, a stressful or negative environment, whether at home or at school can be a great disruption to a child’s development (Finocchiaro, 2016). “Higher quality appears to be associated with larger gains in children’s skills” which is why it is critical to assess the quality of the education and the social experience, not just whether or not it was home-based or school/center-based. (Hirokazu (2016). When looking at studies which compare the success rates of children of various grade levels based on whether they attended preschool or not – including short-term, medium-term and long-term effects – we can see that although children who attended preschool seem to immediately benefit from their experiences over children who did not attend by having a larger success rate in their first year, their gains rapidly decline by the time children reach third grade. Furthermore, long-term effects show that not only children’s grade-point averages, graduation rates and college attendance, but also the likelihood that they will be involved in juvenile or adult crimes, joblessness and teen parenthood are not affected by whether or not they attended

S. remove their child from the current care and enroll them into a preschool environment is not the solution to the success of our children. Many children are getting more healthy developmental opportunities in their home-based day care than they could ever get at some of the preschool environments available. For instance, a child whose mother was a teacher, who has decided to stay home and exposes him to a variety of excellent learning experiences and social opportunities shouldn’t have to send their preschooler to a day care center, simply because the state requires it. If she feels that she can give her child a better education during his most formative years than can children receive at a local center, she should be allowed to make that decision. Accordingly, as the previous studies indicated, although there might be a slight advantage for some preschoolers entering kindergarten, most of these advantages become non-existent within the first few years of school, but the emotional, social, and cognitive thinking skills that are learned through quality education, whether from home or daycare, will continue with a child throughout their lifetime. It is the quality that counts, not the building in which it is