Episode 50: Rethinking the Entire Approach to Preschool (Diving into the NPR Article)

Not Just Cute, the Podcast: Intentional Whole Child Development for Parents and Teachers of Young Children

Early last month, NPR published an article with the title, “A top researcher says it's time to rethink our entire approach to preschool”. Maybe you saw it, or like me, maybe you had several people send it to you because they knew you’d find it fascinating.

The article featured developmental psychologist and researcher Dr. Dale Farran and her reflections on the most recent round of startling outcomes from the Tennessee Voluntary PreK cohort, which she and her colleagues at Vanderbilt University have been studying for more than a decade. The article struck a nerve, particularly its last line which said, “We might actually get better results, … from simply letting little children play.”

In this episode, I’ll be diving into some of the context around this article and the study it references. We’ll talk about what we can learn from these results and why these lessons apply far beyond the scope of the popular article.

Show Notes: https://notjustcute.com/podcast/episode50