Early learning

It's far too early to know whether education for pre-primary schoolchildren improves their life chances.
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It's far too early to know whether education for pre-primary schoolchildren improves their life chances. Think 20 years ahead. How many children now aged four are not going to need the services of a therapist or counsellor?

In 1962 I began work as an educational psychologist in Sydney. I was able to visit the homes of the children who were referred to me and get to know the family well. What puzzled me was why it was that very often, in a group of siblings, only one child was having difficulties.

I would inquire about the life history of each of the siblings, and I would find that the untroubled children had, at an early stage in their life, enjoyed some advantage that the troubled child had not. It might be that the older children had been born before the father had become unemployed or the mother become chronically ill. It might be that that some of the children had spent part of their time with a loving grandmother, while the troubled child had not.

I was in England 10 years later working with young adults diagnosed with schizophrenia. Much of what they told me reminded me of myself at their age, and much of what I learned about their families reminded me of mine. When I asked myself why was it that I had not becomes psychotic in my teens, the answer I arrived at was that my mother had been physically lazy. At an age which would horrify many parents today I would escape to the bush or the beach. I knew that my mother would not follow me, and so I could be myself and think my own thoughts.

Recently I was talking about this to a group of counsellors. One woman told us about her experience, of a childhood with an alcoholic mother, and how she would escape her unhappy home to play on a nearby heath. She went on to tell us how her sisters had not followed her but stayed close to their mother. Now both of them were unemployed and depressed, while she had been able to get an education and create for herself a satisfactory life.

The educational initiatives for pre-primary school children aim to do more than teach cognitive skills. They try to give the children the time and space to think and explore, to be creative and act upon the world. All the time they are surrounded by adults who give them affection, encouragement and praise.

Later in life these children are unlikely to remember any specific events, but what they are likely to remember are the conclusions they drew from these experiences. If these conclusions are that they can be themselves, they are valuable and lovable, and they can act successfully upon the world, then in adult life they are likely to be able to deal with what life throws at them.

In 20 years time researchers will need to establish how many of the original sample of children have committed suicide, become psychiatric patients, been in jail, or are leading disorganised or intensely miserable lives, and compare these numbers with what would have been expected had these children not received this early education. Only then will we be able to say whether the government's educational initiatives have failed. Meanwhile, if you are thinking of becoming a therapist or counsellor, you might need to think again.

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