Preschool

With our discussion post for this week, I started to really think about the American education system. I’ve never really put a lot of thought into our education system other than my own teaching lessons or those teaching around me and the teachers I have observed. While education is so important, I’ve also never thought about different countries around us. Looking up facts about preschool in Germany I was surprised at how their education system works. I did take German through high school so I was aware that the system was different but I didn’t realize how different it was compared to the American system. I also found the textbook to be interesting as it talked about different early education programs. Head Start is one I have been familiar with my whole life as my church held a lot of head start programs for children and families in our area. The textbook described Head Start in a very simple way: Head Start has served millions of young children who were thought to need a “head start” on their formal education and former Head Start Students were more likely to graduate from high school and have jobs than those who never had preschool education (Berger 2011). As more children are speaking languages other than English, the United States is trying to keep up as a whole with the rest of the world. Head Start programs enroll children whose families may not be able to afford preschool, or children who are showing disabilities by the age of 3. I was fortunate enough to go to a preschool for two years before Kindergarten and I am very thankful my mom sent me to preschool to learn and socialize with other children. Preschool is a good way to get a child used to school especially if they are going from no schooling to full day kindergarten in a blink of an eye.