Finally-A Focus on GOOD Socialization

And not on school socialization. (Which can be good, but is usually bad when you horde up a bunch of youngsters and tell them not to move or speak unless they have permission. )

World Net Daily has a piece about a new Berkeley Study covering, in part, the social and emotional development of little ones in regards to preschool.

A new study on the effects of preschool on children, which finds attendance harms kids' emotional and social development, is being used by a homeschool organization to help encourage parents to educate their children at home.

Cognitive abilities were increased somewhat as social/emotional development suffered for many. Reading quickly through this, it appears that white, middle class children suffered in terms of socialization most, while Hispanics were not affected adversely and assumedly not beneficially either? From the WND:

On average, the report finds that the earlier a child enters a preschool center, the slower his or her pace of social development, while cognitive skills in pre-reading and math are stronger when children first enter a preschool program between the ages of two and three.

No kidding! Many homeschoolers had that figured out when they kept the kid home.
In the press release:

Cognitive results for African American children are mixed, the researchers said. High attendance rates are associated with gains in language and pre-reading skills, but not with any discernible improvement in knowledge of numbers and math concepts.

And their socialization? And all the other non-white, non-hispanic and non-African American? Gotta read this study.

From Berkeley's Press Release:

Most surprising, according to the researchers based at the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University, is that the social skills of white, middle-class children suffer- in terms of cooperation, sharing and engagement in classroom tasks - after attending preschool centers for more than six hours a day, compared to similar children who remain at home with a parent prior to starting school.

And to the Illinois governor and the Chicago Sun Times and the AZ governor with her National Plan and all the other governors looking for campaign donations, you should pay attention to this also noted in the release:

A growing list of state governors is making large investments to offer free, publicly-supported preschools for all children, echoing advocates' claims that this will boost the early learning of most children.

"So, the report's a bit sobering for governors and mayors - including those in California, Florida, Georgia, New York, North Carolina and Oklahoma - who are getting behind universal preschool," Fuller said.

I suspect this will be another study ignored. Kind of like the study of teens that said they physically need more sleep and think better later in the day, but since that didn't suit the school institution, it was put by the wayside for most.

It's a bit of a no-brainer when you're living and breathing homeschooling, but maybe the 'establishment' is coming around.