Pre-schools should instil positive attitude

Published on: Sunday, January 21, 2018

Text Size:

By MGN
WITH the beginning of the new school year, many children will be stepping into the world of schooling for the first time in preschool or kindergarten.

Children starting their school life are impressionable. The experiences in their formative years will have a definite bearing in their later life, so a positive and loving environment is crucial at this stage.

This is the time when children experience their first rite de passage (rite of passage) from a parental protective custody to a new environment that could be quite challenging. Therefore, the environment should be conducive to accommodate the child-parental attachment, as the metaphorical umbilical cord is still attached to the mother.

These preschool/kindergarten environments should offer psychological safety and security, allowing children leeway in their behaviour while guiding them to be self-reliant.

To this effect, the teachers must be qualified and equipped with child psychology to handle the children and at the same time to perform the functions of surrogate mothers to develop trust and understanding and slowly phase the child out of the protective home environment.

Preschool adheres to the concept of playschool, learning through play and fun that engages young children whose minds and perception are a fusion of make-believe and unencumbered reality. And their time span and concentration are limited and in a constant animated state.

Thus, the preschool educational and play activities should be flexible to accommodate the predictable vagaries of the children’s behaviour. And for the sake of the children’s psychological safety, these activities should not be judgemental.

It is important to refrain from imposing any kind of rigid conformity on these children as it would instil fear and a sense of loss that would adversely affect them.

Therefore, the relevant authorities, especially the management of the preschool/kindergarten, must abide by these psychological principles in engaging and transferring the right package of knowledge through a proven pedagogical methodology that would effectively initiate young children into the world of learning and avoid imprinting negative impressions in their minds.

MGN