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Jewish World Review December 21, 2012/ 8 Teves, 5773 'Extreme Coaching' for Two-Year-Olds --- At $2500 a Month! By Betsy Hart
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
In the hilarious 1989 movie "Parenthood," Rick Moranis plays an obsessive father of a preschool-age daughter. He insists that his little one be drilled on high-level math and experience an otherwise intellectually enriched environment for hours a day. He is concerned about any interaction she has with the younger nieces and nephews in the family who are "average." Who knows how they might slow her down?
This was laughable at the time. But, apparently, not anymore.
Welcome to the latest in early-childhood education. And I mean "early": schools for the infant-to-2 set. Some of the schools go for more than $2,500 a month. Really. Such schools in New York City were the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal piece, "It's Now a Grind for 2-Year-Olds," by Rachel Louise Ensign.
"Parents now — and this is a real sea change — they understand the infant-toddler years as learning years," Betty Holcomb of the nonprofit Center for Children's Initiatives told Ensign.
Ensign went on to recount the long waiting lists for such schools. Meaning, a woman had better toddle over and sign up in her first month of pregnancy. Literally. Ensign writes that there is a "surge" of interest in such high-priced centers, with their guided curriculum and, often, teachers with master's degrees in early education.
A body of social-science research from the 1990s, arguing that the first three years of life are crucial to later cognitive development, is fueling a lot of this, Ensign reports.
Neuroscientists have since countered that the typical loving parent gives the typical child all the "enrichment" he or she needs in those early years. That Beethoven and flash cards add nothing, cognitively speaking. "The Myth of the First Three Years: A New Understanding of Early Brain Development and Lifelong Learning," by John T. Bruer, Ph.D., is a good review of the science refuting the "new" conventional wisdom.
Still, one mom, apparently jumping on the trend and eschewing her affluent peers' passion for the traditional nanny, told Ensign, "One-on-one care from a nanny is great, but are they trained in getting my child to certain milestones?" Her baby is 4 months old and enrolled in a new Children's Creative Learning Center facility in Manhattan.
For thousands of dollars a month, I'm thinking that baby had better darn well reach her "milestones" — like sitting up, crawling and saying "da-da" and "ma-ma" on time. Good thing those teachers with their master's degrees are on the job, and not just some nanny or — gasp — a mom. Otherwise, who knows where that child might end up?
Oh, good heavens.
Admittedly, I'm coming to all this from a more relaxed perspective when it comes to school at any age. I like to say that my ultimate goal for my children is "heaven, not Harvard." What I don't talk about so much is that this works out really well for me because it doesn't appear I have any children on their way to Harvard.
Might things be different if only I'd started flash cards on them at an early age?
"Not likely," said Patricia Dalton, a respected clinical psychologist based in Washington, D.C., who often addresses parenting issues in her practice. She told me, concerning the trend in super-early pre-schools: "This sounds like extreme coaching for 2-year-olds. And since when has that been necessary?"
The problem is, this might not just be a waste of money, she said. She believes that the stress placed on toddlers may be too high of a price to pay in the end for the parents' ambition.
Phew. I haven't missed out. And neither have my kids, it seems.
In "Parenthood," Moranis' character comes to his senses. His daughter is allowed to enjoy being a little girl, after all. Too bad that's make believe. This latest educational trend made me realize, once again, that truth is very often stranger than fiction.
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JWR contributor Betsy Hart, a frequent commentator on CNN and the Fox News Channel, can be reached by clicking here.
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