Tutoring 3 Year Olds

Here is a scary scenario from the New York Times article, "Fast Tracking to Kindergarten" shared by Zvia Dover:

"On command, Eze Schupfer reads aloud the numbers on a worksheet in front of her: '42, 43, 12, 13.'  Then she begins to trace them.

"'Is that how we write a 12?' her instructor, Maria Rivas, asks.  'Erase it.'

"'This is a sloppy 12, Eze,' she says.  'Go ahead: a one and a two.  Smaller.  Much better.'

"Eze moves to 13.

"'Neater,' Ms. Rivas insists.  'Come on, you can do it.'  Finally, she resorts to the kind of incentive that Eze, her pink glitter sneaker barely grazing the ground, can appreciate: 'You’ll get an extra sticker if you can do a perfect 13.'

"Eze is 3.

"Eze is neither problem child nor prodigy.  But her mother is convinced she needs extra tutoring.

"As competition in education has spread down, the tutoring industry has followed.  Research suggests that there is little benefit from this kind of tutoring; that young children learn just as much about math, if not more, fitting mixing bowls together on the kitchen floor.  But programs like the Japanese based Kumon are gaining from, and generating, parents’ anxiety about what kind of preparation their children will need — and whether parents themselves have what it takes to provide it."

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