Online preschool options are growing in popularity.
Just this past spring, Ted Talk organizers created a bit of a stir in the early childhood community when they awarded a portion of their Audacious Project funding to an online preschool company, Waterford UPSTART. While proponents suggest this is an affordable and accessible option for families that may not otherwise have preschool options, detractors say the most valuable parts of preschool could never be packaged into a virtual program.
Even before this brouhaha boiled over, Amy Webb was writing about the misconceptions surrounding online preschool on her site, The Thoughtful Parent. I’m so excited to have her join me on today’s episode to break this topic down.
Is online preschool the panacea for early education inequality, or just a placebo we invest in to make ourselves feel better?
Listen
Notes from the Show:
(*May contain affiliate links.)
Read Amy’s excellent post here- Preschool is Going Online: Why This is a Huge Mistake
She mentioned being inspired by an NPR article, which was actually this PBS article.
Also mentioned in this episode:
Defending the Early Years: Take Action Page for Online Preschool
Waterford gets $20M+ Grant for Online Preschool. Its Critics Are Not Happy. {EdSurge}
For more information on the Brookings Institute Consensus Statement I mention, check out Episode 10: Puzzling Out the Science of PreK and/or read about The Serve and Return of Responsive Interactions on the blog.
You can also read the post I wrote shortly after this episode-
Online Preschool: Panacea for Inequality or Placebo for Guilt?
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