What in heaven's name motivates parents to pursue formal education for their toddlers?

Mostly, I believe it is fear. Fear that their child will not be at a competitive level with peers when they start Kindergarten.

To those parents:

Parents obviously don't get a baby manual, nor do they get a step by step guide on how to teach their children properly. Most of us just wing it and pray they turn out fine. Others that have had some training in the field of child development have a general idea. Nothing is absolute. Google theories on learning, and you get an array of answers on both ends of the spectrum. I say, give your child as many opportunities for safely exploring the world they live in. Schooled or stay at home, The most important thing...Be There, participating, and answering their Q's. You can fit most of the material, that schools require prior knowledge of, into daily games and activities. Look for those "teachable moments". Don't assume someone else will instruct them. Get to know your own child's capabilities as well as weaknesses. Try out the theories that interest you and judge for yourself if it's working and tweak where needed.

I have over 11years in a preschool environment both administrating, and teaching the youngest of minds in a group setting and my conclusion that I have come to is that now, I stay at home with my 21/2, & 4yr old. I research and gather materials from stores or online, talk to other parents for advice and ideas. I teach them my values.

This is not to say, there isn't a need for quality programs, I just wish pre-parent couples would at least consider what they have to offer their own children and adjust lifestyle choices accordingly. Good Luck!

One word: Propaganda

Those who decide what happens in public schools have their own agenda and often overlook research in promoting their pet programs. They feed the propaganda related to the programs they want implemented and because they are "the experts" they are often able to nudge public opinion in the direction they want. For the last 10 years or so the big push has been for early childhood education.

Based upon the media reports, and encouraged by peer pressure, many parents now feel that their children will be behind if they don't start their education early.

In reality, it is much better to put off formal education until language and fine motor skills have developed (at about age 7 or 8), but I do think that Early Childhood Education is here to stay.

I worked in child development and early childhood education for 12 years. The shift from developmental to academic curriculum in preschools was one of many reasons why I no longer work in that field.

I have a 4 year old daughter and while I will encourage her to pursue her interests in learning, we will not be starting her formal education for a few years.

Because you have done your homework and you are well spoken, I will try to answer this question as seriously as possible without getting defensive.

Perhaps parents feel that an early formal education will give their children an edge over other children later in life. It seems a very normal parental instinct to want the best for your children, or at least better than you had. They may think that the earlier their child begins an educational career, the farther they will go, perhaps having more opportunities available to them in the future. Just imagine, if somebody did a study and found that toddlers who went through an early formal education program were more likely to be accepted into an ivy league college, parents would start pissing themselves to get their kid into the best toddler program available.

I think back to some documentaries I watched years ago on a phenomenon called "hothousing" in which parents were putting their kids in every program they could find, starting even before birth, that claimed to benefit infant brain development - you know, playing Mozart to baby in the womb, doing flashcards at 6 months, and the recent Baby Genius videos. My husband tells me he heard about a program called the Better Baby Institute years ago. Perhaps you could look into hothousing and other similar topics and find some other motivating factors.

Speaking of infant brain development, the research shows that around 75% of brain growth occurs before the age of 3 years, depending on the source. Really what the research is talking about is synapse formation and these formations take place through activities one would normally do with baby like cuddling and singing. After the formations are made, the brain learns which synaptic paths are the most efficient and "kills off" the other paths. But those parental needs to want what's best for baby can take over and make people buy into any program that claims to make these formations better or faster.

Another aspect to this is what are called critical periods. Basically, if a child does not develop in some way by a certain time, they will never develop correctly. These critical periods usually involve sight, hearing, language, etc. For example, the critical period for eyesight development is birth to two years of age. Should anything happen to a child's eye during that time, say a freak accident in which something is spilled into the eye or gets into the eye, and the child has to wear a patch over the eye for an extended period of time, this could seriously delay vision development, which could delay development in other areas (like crawling and walking). Ever read anything about ferrel children, kids raised by wolves in the forest, you know, that kind of stuff. Their language development is seriously delayed, and perhaps they may never speak normally. Think about how information like this can be interpreted by parents in such a way that it makes them crazy to, once again, "get that edge" over other children. Marketing tactics can also make parents feel as though if they don't do certain things by a certain time, they will fail their children or break them, etc. Guilt can be a great motivating factor; that's why companies use it to market products. One of the biggest trends right now based on critical periods is language development. The research I've read says that at birth, children have to potential to learn any language. But during the first few years of life, the language that they hear is the one they will learn and speak naturally. If a child does not hear the sounds critical to a language by a certain time, they will never be able to "hear" them correctly or speak them perfectly. Parents understand that we are becoming a very global community and that it is becoming more important to be able to speak more than one language. If you were told that your child would never be able to speak the language perfectly unless you start language lesson before age 3, what would you do?

Wow, I got on a roll, didn't I? I hope this helps address some of your concerns.

I think most parents look at programs like HeadStart and think "if it's good enough for the poor people, it'll be even better for *my* kids". Unfortunately, what you don't hear or read about are the facts of HeadStart and other similar programs (primarily because HeadStart is such a HUGE money sucker). Most of the "gains" attained by HeadStart students are negligible by the time they finish elementary school, leaving them in the same place as they started (but you don't hear about that, do you?)

Also, we hear so much about parental involvement and how important it is and we think that by giving our kids every possible opportunity, we are somehow benefitting them. Instead, we're just making them schizophrenic (not literally, of course).

And yes, many parents think that by beginning "formal" schooling early, they are giving thier kids an advantage over those who start later. Unfortunately, studies have shown that when a child is ready to learn something, they pick it up much faster (easier, better) than trying to force it on them before they are capable of learning it.

I havn't spent a day in college classes, but have a good job, don't find myself in "hardship" or "limited" career-wise, and I know a lot of college grads in lower pay grades than Me. All Universities require a variety of classes, not just the ones focusing on Your selected career, SOOO...having a SPECIFIC job as a goal is a good way to convince people You don't need it. Say: "I want to do THIS, and don't want to waste time learning stuff I won't use." Then find free courses online, study up on it using those & start applying for jobs in that particular field. Or go to a "trade school" or Company sponsored certification course, like Microsoft Developer Certifications or Cisco Certifications. IT fields are the best for that, since many companies still prefer certifications/experience to degrees, and You can usually get those with less money than a single year of university (and MUCH faster too).

The Unprocessed Child, by Fitzenreiter, is another good book, if you're looking.

What I've seen is that (like dragonfly(?) said) is that we've been taught for so long that school is the end-all be all of children. And by connection, if school is good, more school must be better. So we start earlier and earlier and expect more and more, in the hopes that we can keep up with (Joneses? Norway? Magnet schools?)

As a homeschooler, I've seen several types of families, from those who delay formal education to the processing age of seven or eight, to those who push to keep one step ahead of where the child was. The irony is that by age ten, the kids are often at the same level, but the one who was pushed may resent learning, or worse, may use it as a crutch to build self-esteem. One boy I'm thinking of subconsciously related his worth to how much he was able to regurgitate. Children who were unprocessed share them information out of a true LOVE of learning and excitement.

I'm sure that's not true for all cases, but nothing ever is. My son, after five years in school, was approaching burn out. His love of learning had been replaced by a gentle disdainment of the teacher, the process, the knowledge. Thankfully we've pulled him out and started unschooling, his interest skyrocketed, and his joy has returned.

It's probably from a desire to give their kids an extra boost for later on. Many people have been successful with the Doman program, for example, although I've heard that many have also suffered burn-out. My understanding, though, is this burn-out would not have been from doing the program but from the parents really pushing. (The Doman method is not about pushing your child; it's supposed to be enjoyable fun with your child while helping them learn things at a very young age.)

There's also the aspect that kids are able to learn sooooooooo much from birth to 6 and many parents probably don't want to feel like that time has been wasted. What they don't seem to realize is that it's not by sitting them down and having them do something formal that the kids learn the best at that age. Even Montessori schools don't (or aren't supposed to) place pressure on young children to learn and let them explore at their pace.

Then, of course, there are parents out there who are really just clueless...

There is a lot of pressure for it from outside sources. For instance, my mother in law is still rather upset at me because my 4-year-old is not in a formal education setting. She has been on my case about it for almost 2 years now. If I had less will power, I probably would have caved last year or so.

There is also a lot of publicity for how 'wonderfully' the early childhood education is going. You don't hear the downsides unless you know where to look. In other words, the vast majority of parents aren't even aware that there IS a downside.

I can only answer based on my children.

I am a homeschooling mom. We decided to homeschool for many reasons, one is because of our 3 year old daughter. She is quite advanced and by the time she is old enough to go to kindergarten she will be too far ahead of anyone in her class. I have purchased a kindergarten curriculum to use for math and language arts for this coming year. The reason I did so was mainly to keep us going forward. Not to push her in any way, she is asking to learn things and I am just trying to keep up. Not too long ago she asked to learn Spanish. We are working on that for now, she will let me know when she is no longer interested.

We also have a 20mo old daughter. She is nothing like her sister, nor should she be. We will make her educational choices for her when the time comes based on what is best for her.

it's called "keeping up with the jones'"

many parents i know, decide to put their children through such programs just because "so and so's kid is soo smart....formal education must be why"

oh..whatever! children develop a sense of learning early on, but with every child the rate of learning is different. when kids are pushed into education programs at the age of 3-4 YOA.... how do we really know whats going on in that tiny head of theirs...except.. (toys,play,sing,dance,happy,sad...ect) just the basic things for children....lets not rush our children into something, simply because the neighbors are....ugh!