Preschool: free day care under the guise of education

Obama -- a Harvard Law Grad, who worked as a community activist, was interested in public policy, and wanted to run for elected office -- would have been unaware of one of the top economists in the world (he began winning awards as early as 1983), who was working in the same city he was, if he hadn't been on the staff at the University of Chicago Law School.

Highly doubtful.

 

I'm not sure how this is relevant.

The point is that Heckman is an economic conservative from an economically conservative institution. And peripherally, yes, I think that Obama gained a healthy respect for free market economics at the Law School, where it is at least taken seriously. I don't think he gains that same respect had he taught at Berkeley or Harvard or Stanford, for example.

 

There are a lot of parents who have their kids in day care situations where the "teacher" is a glorified babysitter where they sit around and watch TV for most of the day.

Pay a little more and find a Montessori school or some school where they actually teach the kids in a school-like atmosphere.

 

It's tough to find. Our town doesn't have a full-day day care, for example. And we heard bad things about the one the next town over. Maybe I should open one. Seems like an unfilled niche.

There was a recent article, maybe in the NYT, about how horribly unregulated day care is in the United States. Hot dog stand proprietors have to account for every bolt on their cart, but people can basically raise your children with no oversight.

 

Based on what?

He was a part time lecturer, who was busy writing a book, running for office, working as a state legislator, and planning runs for higher office.

He taught three classes. He didn't hang around the faculty lounge, let alone the Business School cafeteria. He didn't publish. He didn't attend lectures.

http://bit.ly/15LHmj3

It was a prestigious place to hang his hat.

 

Ah, the "Obama was not a professor" meme gets resurrected. One of my favorites, though not in the same ballpark as, "Obama never attended Columbia."

 

Without access to the article here, but I'm curious, what's his evidence that it has no educational value?

 

This is perfectly sensible. Don't expect YF to acknowledge that. To be fair, though, he's enjoying running you ragged on one point, which is something you've been known to do to others.

 

I'm kind of curious where he's getting some of his facts. He states:

But a study of the research includes bits such as:

Or

(Both from: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/courses/3615/Readings/Preschool_Influences_on_Mathematics_Achievement.pdf)

Or

Or

Or

(http://christyhiett.wiki.westga.edu/file/view/Why+is+preschool+essential+in+closing+the+achievement+gap.pdf/342868112/Why%20is%20preschool%20essential%20in%20closing%20the%20achievement%20gap.pdf)

Or

(Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Volume 1, Neuman, and Dickson).

More evidence that a formal, thoughtful approach to teaching preschool can have an impact:

(Klein and Kinzer, 2007, Columbia).

To quote the NIEER, too, since the author did:

(Laosa, 2005).

I'm sure there's plenty more evidence, but I don't have time to look for it.

 

A lot of parents? C'mon. That's an overstatement.

My kids didn't have a "glorified babysitter" or anything of the kind. Neither did I have the means or opportunity to pay top dollar.

I found the best school I could find within my means, my kids went for two years of preschool, and they've done fine. I wouldn't trade it.

I think my experience is in line with most people's.

 

As your next post demonstrated, he simply failed to look hard enough or intentionally ignored the evidence. Of course, there are good and bad preschool options out there, but the good ones are a great help. If nothing else, they help prepare children for the structure of a school environment. Our daughter's preschool did much more than that. She was very well prepared for Kindergarten and they played a big part in that.

A good Pre-K program does a hell of a lot more than babysit.

 

Oh, we're going to talk about Obama here? How does his ass taste?