Purposeful Ramblings Through My Mind

The Magic of Pre-school postulates that the "non-cognitive" abilities to self-motivate and persist at a task (which are not really non-cognitive at all - they simply aren't measured by IQ tests) are developed in pre-school and early education. Children who go through these programs, especially with an excellent teacher, are more likely to finish high school, remain married if they marry, and earn more money. It seems to be the mostly-unstructured new experiences that lead to this outcome, which makes me wonder if a parent taking their child to an Early Years centre would have a similar effect.

It argues strongly for the play-based program that Ontario's new all-day junior and senior kindergarten program will be using, and it makes me wonder: have any studies been done on the success rates of children who go to JK, versus those who start in SK? I mean, this is an American article, and it makes no distinction between preschool as I think of it (ages two and three) and preschool as Americans tend to think of it (ages three and four, leading into kindergarten at age five.)

In any case, a very interesting article.