Preschools have become a regular part of the educational system in our culture, and with them there seems to be a growing interest and emphasis on education in the early years prior to beginning kindergarten. The question is whether or not this is a healthy trend.

There is some evidence that preliminary education in preschool can be helpful for children in their fourth and fifth year prior to entering kindergarten. Activities that seem to be successful in helping children prepare to enter elementary school are those that fall under the heading of "reading readiness" including learning one's ABCs and acquiring some rudimentary skills in writing letters and words, along with word recognition in reading. Also helpful are activities that foster basic math skills such as counting and adding. There is, however, a wide degree of variation among children in terms of skill level at this age depending upon individual temperament, family background, and cognitive capacity.

In general, four and five year olds are not ready for the formalized method of learning that requires sitting still for long periods of time while attending to paper and pencil tasks that engage the child on a primarily cognitive level. They have not yet acquired the necessary state of calm and pliability that facilitates learning at this level and that is the hallmark of middle childhood which begins around the age of six and extends into preadolescence. These youngsters are still working on several developmental tasks that are part of the work of the first five years. Specifically, they are learning to refine ideas and emotions by expressing them symbolically through play. They are also working on issues of gender. Finally, they are making their entrance into the peer group as a social being for the first time, and this requires a whole new set of skills as well as adjustments to one's sense of self. Preschool provides an excellent setting for tackling all these tasks, however, the activity that lends itself most effectively to facilitating each of them is play, not education. Let's take them one at a time.

Symbolic representation begins around the age of two when children first associate words and language with the expression of ideas, feelings, needs, and intentions. The young toddler may point to something he wants while looking at his mother signaling his need for her to bring it to him. As he gets a little older, he will learn to associate a word with the object and may even learn to put several words together indicating not only the object, but also his wish for his mother to retrieve it. Eventually, this same child will be able to say what he wants in full sentences. By the age of four, most children have acquired the basic skills of language and symbolization that allow them to state their needs and intentions. Along side of language development, children are also learning to express emotions and ideas through play. Around two and half years, most children will begin engaging in pretend play using toys such as animals, dolls, or play objects like telephones and lawn mowers. This sort of fantasy play becomes more important in the fourth and fifth year and begins to take on the function of self- expression and exploration, particularly the expression of feelings and emotional issues. Instead of directly discharging feelings through acting them out as a toddler might, they are able to project them into pretend situations and express them symbolically. The mommy dinosaur sends the boy dinosaur into timeout for roaring too loud, and the boy dinosaur gets mad at mommy and jumps on her. The fantasy becomes an expression of the youngster's anger at being told what to do, but places that anger into a safe story where it can be discharged without disturbing the relationship between the youngster and his mommy.

The second developmental task that confronts this age group is gender differentiation. These children are beginning to notice (and sometimes study) the differences between boys and girls and are making identifications with their own gender. Not only are they aware of the physiological differences, but they are becoming acquainted with social differences and like to play-act basic social roles such as mommy and daddy, teacher, doctor, and so forth. Through fantasy play they are able to project themselves into the wider community of social membership as opposed to residing exclusively within the family, and also initiate their social standing as a male or female.

The third task mentioned above has to do with socialization. After the age of three, and certainly by the age of four, children are ready to begin interacting more with other children. They have established a sense of self in the first three years, and are now ready to expand their interpersonal skills to encompass relationships beyond those with parents. Preschool is an excellent idea at this age, even for half days, to provide young children with the opportunity to be around other children in play situations. Preschool play facilitates an introduction to competition (games) as well as cooperation and collaboration, and widens the child's self-image to include participation in the larger structure of groups

In view of these important developmental tasks, I would say that play should be the primary activity in preschool. Play activities that are most valuable are fantasy play, outside games and free play, and arts and crafts. Fantasy play can include a variety of activities such as dressing up in costumes and using props to act out pretend stories, building forts, making up pretend fantasies with dolls or action figures, participating in more formalized plays or talent shows, and so on. Outside games include childhood sports such as kick ball, red light green light, jumping rope, or playing on playground equipment such as slides and merry-go-rounds. Arts and crafts including coloring, painting, making collages, drawing, and working with clay are quite popular and help foster creativity. Educational pursuits can be facilitated, but should be folded into the creative activities associated with play. There will be plenty of time for formal education when elementary school begins.