Importance of education to young children
Most parents are anxious that their children should do well in life and they often feel that this includes receiving a good education. Many parents are of the opinion that in order to achieve educational success, children should start on their formal school education as early as possible. Not content with this, they also feel that it will help their children enormously if they attend nursery schools which provide some kind of preschool education.
Nowadays, many countries place a great emphasis on the importance of state nursery education. To some extent, this is in response to the pleas of working parents for the state provision of better childcare. These state nursery schools, at least for the older children attending them, often have a kind of curriculum which the children have to follow, although this is not usually so rigid as an actual school curriculum. The idea is that nursery schools should teach the children a certain amount of knowledge about letters and numbers, for example, so that they will find learning easier when they get to school.
One of the results of this is that, when the children from these nurseries go to school, they go straight to a more formal programme of learning than was previously the case. The serious business of education begins earlier and there is less fun to be had in the early school years.
Because of the emphasis on learning in some state nursery schools, many private nursery schools go even further than the state nurseries, starting on relatively formal learning programmes at a very early age. Since there are so many families with both parents working full-time nowadays, many more children attend nursery school than a few years ago. Thus, many children are being involved in this early learning process.
Is it a good idea that children become involved in a formal learning process at an early age? I really do not think so. If educationists are not careful, they are going to spoil the joy of childhood for many children.
It is part of the joy of childhood to be allowed to have fun playing, whether this is by yourself or with your siblings or friends. Children should be allowed the freedom to play for a few years before the serious business of education begins. Not so long ago, when only one parent worked and the other one, usually the mother, stayed at home to look after the children, children played at home with their toys for most of the day. Just because children nowadays have an alternative source of childcare does not mean that they should give up their fun and play.
In fact, children’s play is not just about fun. Play is an important part of children’s development and, indeed, children learn through play. Play allows them to use their imagination and show their creativity.
Of course, it can be argued that the staff at nursery schools, even those where there is some kind of official learning programme, do base the learning process on play. The trouble is that, very often, this is play that is directed by the nursery staff.
Children need to be allowed to play spontaneously without any kind of direction, however subtly this direction is handled. They need to be able to give full rein to their imagination without the interference of adults.
Of course, education is important, but early childhood lasts such a very short time. Children spend quite enough years being stressed by curricula and examinations. Let us give them their early childhood years to enjoy their unstructured play.
