The Importance of Expanding Access to Public Preschool

Hello everyone, and welcome back to a brand new episode of Elevating Early Childhood!

Today’s episode is suuuuuuper exciting.

“Why,” you ask?

Simply because I’m interviewing the brilliant Dr. Danny Brassell!

If you haven’t heard of him (although I’m sure many of you have), Dr. Brassell is an internationally-acclaimed speaker, best-selling author of 15 books, and overall funny person — I mean he is nicknamed “Jim Carrey with a PhD”—. 

I first met Dr. Brassell when I was on the educational conference speaking circuit, and I thought, “Why keep all his knowledge for myself?” which is exactly why he’s joining me in today’s episode, where we’ll be discussing an important subject: Expanding access to public preschool.

Ready?

Let’s dive in!

Why We Need Public Preschool

In today’s episode, we’re going to explore the true purpose of preschool and what options are available to parents. I get a lot of questions about preschool and Pre-K from both teachers and parents alike, which is why I decided to make a whole episode about the subject.

The state of preschool in the US is at a crossroads. We currently have so many different programs and methods, and the sheer amount of them is absolutely mind boggling. 

There’s public preschool and the various names it goes by in different states (VPK as in Voluntary Pre-K, UPK as in Universal Pre-K, etc…), and then there’s the faith-based charter schools, private schools, nonprofit schools, etc… 

It’s no secret that the need for public preschool is growing at an alarming rate in the US as the disparity between those living below the poverty line and those that aren’t is increasing. And that’s exactly what I’m discussing with today’s guest on the podcast (plus a few more interesting subjects)! 

Dr. Danny Brassell is a speaker, best-selling author, and most importantly, a dear friend, and today, he’s here to talk about why we need public Pre-K.

What Is the Purpose of Preschool?

When I asked Dr. Brassell this question in the episode above, here’s what he answered:

“The big thing I try to tell parents is to calm down, and not worry about it. I personally don’t like preschools that deal with academics whatsoever. I think kids need a chance to play in the mud and dance and just enjoy life. And that, to me, is the purpose of preschool. It’s really to give children a little bit of a routine, to introduce them to other kids, and to the format of a school. You know, I’ve never had a preschooler come back and say, “Oh, Mr. Brassell, I’m really glad you got me up to the next quartile on my standardized testing.” No, they’re like, “Oh, I remember we used to make cupcakes together. And we used to go to the park and you used to read funny stories aloud and make funny voices.” That’s what we [preschool teachers] are supposed to be doing.”

How to Teach Your Child to Love Reading

Another subject Dr. Brassell and I broached was how to instill the love of reading in children as teachers and parents.

And Dr. Brassell had the perfect answer to my question: Read to them out loud! After all, as Emilie Buchwald said, “Children are made readers in the laps of their parents.”

So, if you’re really concerned with the literacy of your little one, make sure to read aloud to them as often as possible. Only through exposure will your child develop a love of reading. 

As a teacher, you can also work to make reading a reward instead of a chore for your students. After all, one of our number one jobs as early childhood teachers (at least, for me personally) is to get our students to love reading.

Plus, it doesn’t matter what the children are reading, as long as they are reading. As Dr. Brassell says in the episode above, the research is very clear on this. It doesn’t matter what you read, what matters is how much you read. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re reading James Joyce or James and the Giant Peach. People who read more read better, and that’s what’s important. The little boy who reads Captain Underpants is going to be a better reader than the one who doesn’t read anything. 

As Dr. Brassell says so eloquently:

Captain Underpants is the gateway drug to Shakespeare.

If you want to listen to the whole interview — and hear more funny nuggets like the one above —, tune in to the episode now!