What is the purpose of early childhood education?

What's the purpose of early childhood education? What do we mean when we talk about "quality" programs?

The primary goal of an early childhood program is to stimulate growth and development, while igniting intellectual curiosity. At this age, children are rapidly developing cognitive, language, social and motor skills. They play, discover, explore, try out new tasks, go to new places, and act curious. By offering a "child-centered" setting, high-quality early education programs promote this.

Students often come to my Preschool Curriculum course with a picture of a preschool experience as teacher-directed. Children are expected to sit quietly in a circle and listen as the teacher talks. At a specific time, everyone eats snack. At another specific time, the children all do the same art project. Does this sound like a high-quality preschool classroom? My students think the answer is yes.

But this is not the most meaningful picture. In fact, this picture needs to change. Children learn through experience; this experience is called play.

Picture a child-centered setting in which the teacher has specific goals for learning, focused on play. The room is filled with busy, noisy children making their own choices at learning areas. There's a water table with tubes and funnels; there's an art area with paint, glue, feathers, colorful paper and scissors. There's a teacher sitting cozily with children in the book area. Some children are at the snack table; others are in the dramatic play area, playing restaurant with menus, money and pretend food.

If the purpose of an early childhood program is growth and development, how is that happening here?

The water table teaches science and logic. The children are exploring liquids; they are adding to their scientific and mathematical vocabulary by learning such words as pour and funnel, more and less, full and empty.

The art area focuses on creativity. Cognitive skills develop as the children explore color, shape and texture. Motor skills expand as children use scissors to enhance their collage designs. The book area is a place to develop literacy skills, while children interact, think, move, speak and even learn to negotiate ("I'll be this, and you do that ...") in the dramatic play area. Play is rich with learning opportunities.

Before we can discuss the need for pre-K funding, we need to speak the same language. We need to understand that quality early childhood programs provide valuable learning opportunities through child-centered activities like play. We're not talking about 4-year-olds at desks, taking notes with pencils. We're not talking about robbing children of their childhood.

Quality early childhood programs in Vermont should be a place of wonder and joy, of learning language, of developing curiosity, of reading, of gaining a sense of self, of learning to interact with others. They should lay a solid -- and invaluable -- foundation for the years of learning to come.