We are in the midst of looking for a preschool for My Big Guy. Unfortunately he has one of those "past the cutoff" birthdays so he's not eligible for most programs at 2.5. We want to get him something for socialization and to help work on his speech (he's a bit speech delayed and working with a speech therapist to get him up to speed). Turns out, this is a harder task than we originally thought.
We did some online research and discovered a highly rated preschool in our area. It's one of a larger chain, but had great reviews and was spoken of highly by people. After speaking to the owner/director we decided to go in for a tour. We were very excited that this might be great for My Big Guy and us. We were gravely disappointed.
The school felt more like a prison than a school. I understand safety protocols, especially when involving children - but only to a certain extent, then common sense should take over.
When we were at the school, a child's grandfather came to pick him up. You would have thought there was a hostile invasion occurring. The hoops this man had to jump through were astounding. I felt terrible for him, and for his family.
The doors were all locked at all times. The kids were basically confined to their one age group in their one age room and that's it. The teachers were hovering over the kids at all times, no one was left to play on their own.
They were allowed to go outside to a completely covered, completely rubber "playground" specifically for their age groups. For our son, this meant a "playground" that would have bored My Little Guy. The Fischer Price castle we have in our house has a bigger slide than this thing did. Nothing, I repeat NOTHING, was elevated off the ground. The entire thing was shaded, so that the precious little children might not get a slight sunburn. The ground was rubber, so that they wouldn't have to experience the awfulness of mulch or dirt on their little hands, and so that if they were to somehow fall from, well, nothing, their falls would be broken softly. I didn't realize our children were more fragile than a Faberge Egg.
The entire time we were at this prison, I mean school, we saw no one smiling. None of the teachers, none of the kids, no one. It was cold, sterile and felt awful. I know what the school was going for was "clean and safe" but it was so bad we couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Lucky for us we found somewhere else. It's not a chain, it's older, and it encourages kids to play, get messy and have fun - on their own. The kids all play together and aren't segregated by age while on the wooden playground. They play on the many different sized slides, and enjoy the warm sunshine on them. There's mulch and bugs and dirt and the teachers help them play in it and discover what that feels like and learn more about it and get messy. They eat lunch and snacks outside. We're bringing My Big Guy back there to see if he likes it (and we're hoping he does!) and then we're signing him up.
It makes me scared for when he has to start real school. How hard is that process going to be for us? I want him to go to school, not prison.
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