No one can deny the importance of early learning. We have years of research by developmental psychologists and early childhood education researchers built on findings to help us understand how preschoolers learn. We need to fund adequate preschools so students get a good introduction to the joy of formal learning.
Researchers have known for some time that preschool is important for learning. In 2003, W. Steven Barnett and Jason T. Husted critiqued studies demonstrating the importance of three preschool programs. The benefits of the High/Scope Perry Preschool program, Abecedarian Early Childhood Intervention program, and the Title I Chicago Child-Parent Centers are well-documented.
Head Start, a federal program created in 1965 to assist children from low-income families has also seen gains in the children it serves, but the program has always been under attack by policymakers who resented paying for the program. While middle class and the wealthy have access to good preschool, the poor struggle to find affordable preschool that give children access to beneficial early learning.
What’s great about preschool? Children get to play and learn with other children. It’s a step beyond a playdate. They collectively acquire knowledge with activities that they themselves create! Play is hard work, but preschoolers don’t know it because they are having so much fun. What a tremendous precursor to learning in school and kindergarten!
Well, that’s how preschool used to be.
One maneuver that has no research in its favor is plopping a three or four-year-old in front of a computer, even in their parent’s lap, to focus on developmentally inappropriate skills. We’ve known for a while about Waterford UPSTART a Utah-based online preschool program. This program is being described as a replacement for real preschools. To save money. But there’s no research to say this will work.
The award winners will be announced at the TED2019 in Vancouver tonight, April 16. You can follow by tuning in as @TEDTalks livestreams the @TheAudaciousPrj awards 8pm ET/5pm PT and tweet your reactions to UPSTART/online preschool #RejectOnlinePrek.
In 2017, the PBS News Hour examined Waterford UPSTART and noted other online programs. They include:
- Waterford UPSTART
- Time4Learning
- ABCMouse.com Early Learning Academy
- K12
- CHALK Preschool Online
They seem to be trying to close the achievement gap by forcing children to learn information. Often it seems beyond what a preschooler should be learning. For example, the PBS News Hour reports on a mother teaching her preschooler sight words. When children work online they must focus on skills, not play. They miss much.
The Audacious Project has your usual corporate school funders.
- TED
- Skoll Foundation
- Virgin Unite
- Scott Cook & Signe Ostby
- The Bridgespan Group
- Dalio Foundation
- Laura & John Arnold
- ELMA Philanthropies
- Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- MacArthur Foundation
- Mike & Sukey Novogratz
- Craig & Susan McCaw
- UBS Optimus Foundation
- James Family Charitable Foundation
- Robertson Foundation
- Science Philanthropy Alliance
I wonder if these individuals don’t understand early childhood education. Have they read the research?
Sitting young children in front of screens to learn will likely have bad long-term repercussions. We already know that more screen time doesn’t help older children in school. We also understand that teens are too glued to screens and with social media have become increasingly depressed and anxious.
So there’s little doubt that pushing preschoolers to do their learning on computers is a huge mistake.
We know how important activity and play are to children. Without it, they miss important early learning foundations. We also know how poorly children learn with a sedentary lifestyle of viewing and little doing.
Parents are so concerned that programs like Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC) are becoming household names.
Parents worry about privacy. But more than that, they collectively care about how young children are learning and what the future will have in store for all of us if today’s preschoolers don’t learn well. We will have to fix the mistakes that online learning will cause when good preschool programs fall by the wayside! What kind of preschool programs will be left for children? How much will today’s preschooler miss?
Most of us do not reject technology. It would be hypocritical for a blogger to do so. Technology is a reality and can be used for good when teaching children, even young children. But replacing authentic preschools with online programs is not a satisfactory answer. We have no proof these programs work. Better funding of real preschools is what’s needed.
Please go the DEY website and read about their fight for good early education. Start with the report “Young Children in the Digital Age: A Parent’s Guide,” by Early Childhood Specialist Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige.
Other posts about Waterford UPSTART:
The Devil’s in the Details, Utah September 9, 2016.
“Disruption” Using Technology is Dangerous to Child Development and Public Education November 13, 2018.
How cognitively dissonant is TedTALKS supporting child abuse?
Thanks for this post about the importance of preschool and why technology apps do not replace the benefits that children receive from high quality preschool education. As a K-3 literacy specialist I see first hand how time spent in preschool helps boost children’s success in primary grade education. While I think technology and these apps can provide parents with quality supplemental experiences for their child (if they choose to use technology for their children at all). Your claim that you end with is spot on: what we truly need to focus on is better funding for our preschool. Here is the state of preschools across the nation in 2017: http://nieer.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/State-of-Preschool-2017-Full.pdf. This document allows us to compare funding, training, and other information and compare state’s to each other. I live and teach in Arizona and according to this we are 39th for preschool funding, spending $3,590 per preschooler. Sadly though only about 4% of our preschool age students in Arizona are actually attending preschools. Seems to me that we must also focus on awareness and promoting preschool access, in lieu of these “apps” that are trying take the place of what we know students need: high quality, real life, preschool experiences.
What this article left out is that Upstart requires only 15-25 minutes a day of screen time. The rest of the day can be spent playing and interacting. I see no problem with 15-25 minutes of screen time, especially with new studies coming out saying that interactive screen time vs. just watching a movie or show are very different types of screen time. My child gets to spend a little time each day working on the building blocks of reading skills and most of her day in free play.
The message of this program is that children will be “kindergarten ready” which is worrisome. There’s no research to indicate that screen time will lead to better reading results, and I can tell you’ve bought into the idea that you have to teach young children reading with the “building blocks” statement. The best thing to do is to read and get children curious and excited about stories. I’d focus on fun and interesting picture books.
As a mom who used upstart with my now 7 year old I have to say it’s a great program. It is very limited in terms of screen time and he was ready to learn to read in Kindergarten. He’s still very advanced in 2nd grade. I can’t say it’s all Upstart but I do feel it is a solid curriculum. We were very careful that he had proper playtime and social opportunities as well. Online supplement learning is great used correctly.
I know this article is from a few years ago but wanted to weigh in with firsthand experience. I have had 2 children now complete the Waterford Upstart Program. I also have 2 older children that did NOT do the Upstart Program and simply went to public school. I am very impressed with how well Waterford prepared them for Kindergarten. They are significantly ahead of my older children at the same age in terms of reading (and other subjects). My children were only required to spend 15 mins/day 5 days a week on Waterford. They could continue for an additional 15 mins for math, science, etc. So even if you spend the whole 30 mins it still gives the child all but half an hour of their day to do activities, play, learn in other ways, etc. We now homeschool and I am not a fan of screen time so my children get very little, if any, each day (and no cell phones) but I would recommend Waterford to anyone looking to help their preschooler get ahead.
I am not opposed to a little computer for young children, but it makes me nervous when parents talk about making sure their children are ready for kindergarten, and that’s what Waterford sells. Even though it sounds great that you recognize the importance of free time, you seem to have a negative opinion of public school based on comparisons to your other children, and I can’t tell who’s really ahead, or if the children who are doing better are more stressed out (or eventually will be) due to the pressure to succeed early. If you read my other blog posts, you will understand that one of the biggest concerns is with the push down for students to learn earlier and faster than what was expected in the past. I believe many of the problems children face today are due to this and I argue against it. This is not your fault of course, but many parents have been convinced, by those who want to drive parents out of public school, that their children should be functioning at a higher level than was ever previously expected. And you also sound like you’re advertising Waterford, which makes me wonder. To help your preschooler get ahead…sounds competitive. Why? Racing our kids to get ahead of others could backfire. It’s important to understand a child’s development and help them learn in a kinder, gentler way, whether they work slower or faster.