ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

It is disconcerting to see how stressed families are about academics when the problems in the world have far more to do with listening skills, compassion, not being materialistic. And since when has it been "slummed down" to be with two year olds. Oh my!

I recently fall under the same deceitfulness with a business institution while enrolling my kids to a program they wanted and now the fight is ongoing to get my money back! Too bad I did not sue...just want my money back!

Massage to the business community, “You are the business! Your image is your business image”. What you want to sell to your clients is your business image…what makes ones business unique and competitive depends on not only how good you can sell your business, but also how good your services are-how good you can deliver! Your strive-ness to high-quality and standards of services you provide is the image you want to put out there for your business to succeed. Making promises that are untrue and undeliverable means you just want to get what you want at a time and forget that sooner than later the people you deceived will catch up with you, and you will be the looser.

Golden rule: Good business sells itself! Your first satisfied clients are your good advertisers. And people should be aware that if it’s too good (from the advertising stand point-getting business messages out to people) most likely it is too good to be true!

AdvelineJ. Minja.

I laughed until I wet my pants. I have First Grade parents who are angry that their child is not getting multiplication and division. "He's going to be an engineer, and you have him doing this baby stuff." Poor thing is mastering the small motor skill of writing. Figuring out how to connect trucks to pull dirt around the yard says more for this child's engineering than doing long division. PARENTS: GET A GRIP! CHILDHOOD HAPPENS JUST ONCE A LIFETIME. YOU DON'T GET A DO-OVER.

There is so much wrong here, but what seems to have not happened well is the preparation piece. Either the client (mother) was not told or she did not hear the school's point of view about children, environment and the potential for multi-age grouping. In any case, the director would have been wise to consider a refund as a small price to pay for not having this individual dragging down her school's sense of community.

The fact that she was willing to disengage after a month makes me think that she may not understand that the primary efficaciousness of preschool is the learning that takes place through relationships. If this mother makes a habit of bouncing her child from preschool to preschool she will fulfill her own prophecy. The fact that she is litigious about a one month experience says a lot. One wonders if her daughter will grow up to sue her mother for using disposable diapers or not breastfeeding or choosing the "wrong" summer camp.

It is deeply offensive to me that parents consider preschool test-prep for academic programming. To look at a 4 year old and see Ivy League potential (or not) is as distasteful as looking at a 30 year old and sizing them up for a senior living community. These expectations suffer by being both too high and too low. Preschool is a journey to support and enhance a joyful life.

I was more struck with the focus on the curriculum expectations and less so with the customer service aspect. CHILDREN NEED TO PLAY! To focus on testing outcomes and trying to predict success of entrance into an Ivy League school for children who are still learning to put their shoes on is not best practice. Focus on the social and emotional development and stop "selling" outcomes. To that end, I found the advertisement at the bottom of the article counter to best practice for children. A wipe off board is not the same as interacting with real materials.

Children can reap great benefits from being part of a multi-age classroom experience for part of their day and even in some cases for all of their days, as so well explained by looking at the opportunities provided for scaffolding(Vygotsky). They can develop an entirely different sense of leadership, understanding and other skills. This is especially true for those children who do not have siblings. that being said, I don't believe that the issue here is truly even that. The real problem is probably more related to communication from the school as to their program philosophy as well as communication from parents regarding their level of expectations. On this point I have a lot to say as I find it way too common that parents may make a choice for a program based on the tour, conversation and actual observation of a program and love it. They see their child learning through play with some teacher facillitation, developing strong social emotional skills and being able to make choices, have great conversations and a decent level of self respect and acceptance of others. Then they realize that there is kindgarten around the corner- a place today that often is not designed to meet the appropriate needs of children but one that strikes fear in even the most supportive parents. They suddenly doubt their choices as well as their own approval of what they have chosen and liked in their child's program. The conversation of others strikes fear in their gut that they may have made the wrong "choice" for their child. Often what is sad is that these same parents are the ones who have not been involved in their child's learning community but have chosen to be a parent while others raise their children. I know this may have some inappropriate tones to it but it is something we see way to often. I hope that this lawsuit gets tossed right out of court and that the parent involved takes a good look at her own role and motiviation for blaming others for her lack of parenting responsibilities.

While I admit to rolling my eyes over the whole idea of a suit, I have to say it does point out a big problem with a very common practice.
Many centers, preschool and child care, "over enroll" which means that on any given day, a classroom may be over ratio. Therefore, the "extra" children are shipped to a class (usually lower in age) which is not as full. This is a purely financial practice. It is not something that parents learn about before enrolling and often not until their child is shifted around a few times. This is not what most parents are paying for and they do have a good point when they complain. I believe our field must examine this practice. It goes against strong research that shows the necessity of building relationships between teacher and child. These relationships serve the foundation for learning.

The news article said that after the parent complained about the class placement, the school refused to refund the tuition. THEN the parent sued. Having been a preschool director for very many years, I believe that if the school had arranged a pro-rata refund, there would not have been any lawsuit.

Also, I assume there was a reason for placing the 4 year old with the 2 year olds. I am guessing that this move was not adequately explained to the parent beforehand.

All preschools are businesses, dependent on "customers". This one seems to have been lacking in basic customer service skills.