I must admit to being somewhat mystified by the preschool anxiety parents in more affluent cities face -- and this is really, really an upper-middle class problem.
Especially since most kids whose parents who are affluent and involved enough to have their pick of preschools already have a pretty significant leg up in this culture.
This story from Palo Alto describes some of the hand-wringing parents from there face when choosing a preschool. One local parenting group even developed a “preschool binder” with information and parent reviews of local schools that had a months-long waiting list for parents to even get a good look at it (I work for a website that does the same sort of thing in several cities in the US and Canada, by the by).
Admittedly I may be a slacker mom, but here was how we chose our daughter’s preschool: It was Montessori (I went to Montessori schools through sixth grade and loved it, so I wanted my daughter to go to one); it was affordable; and the kids seemed really, really happy.
And she likes it, and she’s learning to get along with other kids and do cool stuff like write her name and count to 100. But the major reason I wanted her there, and the major argument for preschool at all, is that unlike me preschool teachers are trained to work with young kids, and generally have deep reserves of patience with them that I just don’t have. I’ve got to believe that spending however many mornings a week with people who love to teach young children and know how to do it will be beneficial, no matter what the philosophy or style of the school.
And for God’s sake it won’t matter come college time.
