Everything they need to learn, they’ll learn in a good kindergarten.

I know… every parent seems to love the preschool their kids are in. Of course, it validates a decision they made! But if you’re shopping around for schools, maybe my personal reasons for choosing my kids’ preschool may resonate with your own parenting philosophy.

Recently, I was interviewed by a fellow writer for an article she’s doing on why parents choose to send kids to progressive schools.  Had to put some thought to it so, might as well share them with you! Maybe you’ll get some ideas on choosing the right preschool for your child.

When you set out looking for a school for your child, did you have a list of qualities and abilities you wanted to see developed in him–certain developmental goals? What are these developmental goals, and why are they important?

For preschool, I was looking for an environment that encouraged imagination, curiosity and a love for learning. Socialization — making friends, learning to share, being polite — also very important. All You Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten type of stuff.

I’m the kind of parent who thinks a child who is pressured to read or write early can actually develop a negative attitude towards school and authentic learning. I say authentic, to differentiate it from rote learning — which is just memorizing a bunch of stuff for a test.

Both my kids go to a progressive school using the Bank Street approach. My goals? Honing creativity and critical thinking. Kids these days face a more challenging world that demands more out-of-the-box thinking.

I also love that the school’s program is rooted in “the principles of inquiry and social justice” — as they describe their philosophy. They also care about their students’ emotional growth. Lot’s of nice, happy kids there! EQ is just as important as IQ . Cynics may not believe this, but I have not heard of any bullying going on there — in lower school to upper school. I admit to snooping around from other parents! The class sizes are small, there’s a lot of collaborative work, teachers and coordinators know all their students so I think these contribute to making them good at dealing with others.

Can you give a few, very specific examples of activities and teaching methods that you feel hit right at the heart of what you want developed in your child?

My 5-year old son loves school. He reads above his level, he declares he loves math. He can be quite a talker. But, all of a sudden something doesn’t come easy for him — and he struggles with his handwriting. Suddenly, Mr. Verbose becomes short and “pithy” during Writer’s Workshop (where they have to journal or make original short stories accompanied by their own words and drawings).

So he gets extra homework from his teacher. One time, the assignment was to write a thank you letter to a friend, then next time it was a sorry letter. In most schools a boy with handwriting issues will probably be asked to copy a sentence in a black board again and again and again. In my son’s case, they put meaning into his handwriting practice by coming up with his own thoughts for a letter. Then the letters have significance because they were written for some of his dearest friends. When he wrote his letters and I had to look over them, we ended up having a great talk about his friends — have some laughs and revelations as a bonus. I loved that.

And these are just some of the reasons why we love school. Hope you find one to fall in love with.

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