Of my three children only one went to nursery school because he needed it socially more than the other two .  He didn't make out in the long run any better than the two who didn't go.  In fact, going to nursery school doesn't guarentee anything.  These kids don't end up smarter than those who don't go. 

Yes, government takeover of America's children....indoctrinate them early. And you know what the saddest part of all this is? People are going to get in line to hand over their babies to the GOVERNMENT!

I didn't actually hear Obama say much about his government daycare during his campaign, but the following was on his "Blueprint for Change"

Socialization.

When we decided to home school our daughter, that's the main question that came up from the people who didn't approve....What about their socialization?

Do you know that it's recent educators who invented the word "socialization"? I'm serious. It's becasue they can't any longer sell schools for academic reasons.

What kind of socialization are kids getting when they go to public schools nowadays? Socialization, a la paganese! Instead of staying home having their parent's moral and spiritual values strengthened, kids are indoctrinated in the politically correct new age, anything goes, culture. When kids spend more time with their peers than with their parents, then don't be surprised that they adopt the values of their peers.

When Obama was running for the Illinois senate seat against Alan Keyes, Keyes pointed out that Obama supports teaching sex education to 5 year old kindergarteners. What's he going to have Planned Parenthood teach the 4 year olds in government daycare I wonder?

Right now the standards for Kindergarten (to enter) are ridiculous.  How many 5 year olds can read and write ("a little bit") already?  And yet if a child (around here) comes on the first day without at modicum of skill in reading and writing, as well as knowing how to sit quietly, stand in line, and all the other group social rules, they are "behind."

Here's how I feel about pre-school (from my experience).

Poor kids go to head start for free.  Essentially when they are too young to learn, its free babysitting under the guise of "school."  Then about late 4 or 5, they start really learning.

Meanwhile, non-poor (ie waited till they could afford kids) parents were keeping their kids at home.  Kindergarten starts and the Head Start kids are way ahead because all that free gov daycare (teaching them how to wait, sit and stand) and "school" puts them ahead.

Therefore the bar is raised.  Teachers label the non-poor kids "behind."  And so the pay for pre-school idea was born.  At first it was "optional" and parents who could afford it, did it to help prepare their child, and to keep them from being labeled "behind."

Then it became practically mandatory because the standard for Kindergarten continued to rise as the non-poor pre-school attenders out performed the Head Start kids.

For example, when my oldest was 5 a lot of kids in our community didn't do any sort of pre-school.  There were two types of kids...Head Start/Daycare kids and everyone else.

I put Hunter in pre-school in Delaware two days a week, for 2 1/2 hours each day, a total of 5 hours a week.  It cost $150 a week, $600 a month.  I did it so he wouldn't be labeled "behind."  He didn't know how to stand in line yadda yadda.

I think the whole thing is ridiculous.  Pre-school is not necessary, yet ask most parents and they will say something along the lines of needing it to prepare their child for kindergarten.

What the hell is Kindergarten for? 

My husband didn't even go to Kindergarten, it wasn't required. 

IMHO, free pre-school is a bad idea.  It encourages people to have children they can't afford, because they are only responsible for the child for a few short years before they can put the kid in daycare, or "pre-school" all day 5 days a week.

It's free babysitting.  And its ridiculous imo.

When the government deems the private sector inadequate to solve Problem X (which is more often than not an artificial 'problem' in the first place), it substitutes itself for the private sector & throws money (with strings) at it.  When government itself proves to be inadequate to solve Problem X (or Problems A thru W created unintentionally by throwing money at Problem X), it throws more money (with strings) at it.  Rinse, repeat.

When we are out of money & letters of the alphabet, we are Zimbabwe.

and you know what?  It's already been established that by the third grade you can't tell who went to head start and who didn't.  Two of my three kids didn't go, like I said, but they all did about the same as far as smarts and opportunities go and in many cases better than their friends who went to preschool.   

and a total waste of taxpayer money. 

ain't that the truth!  That's why I'm so outraged the government, ie Obama and his liberal friends, wish to get into the pre-school business.  The preschools right now are running much more superior programs than the government can ever hope to have.  All we have to do is look at what they have control of now and see where this would be heading. 

When I said I put one of my children in pre-school for social reasons it was because he was so shy and withdrawn that I knew he would be in trouble come kindergarten.  In fact, he never talked the whole year in pre-school to his teachers but he loved going.  They knew his needs by looking at his big brown eyes as he would look at them and then at what he wanted. 

In kindergarten he'd wet his pants because he wouldn't ask to use the bathroom.  So pre-school didn't do all that much for him as I had hoped.  He eventually outgrew all this (thank God) but all in his timing.  Pre-school didn't make all that much of a difference but it was alot of fun for him and costly for us.