Book Review on "Preschool Education in America" By Barbara Beatty

Book Review on "Preschool Education in America" By Barbara Beatty: Part One

Brief Synthesis

In her book, Professor Barbara Beatty has described the journey of preliminary education in the United States from the time of its initiation to the current state in which it is today. It is a comprehensive history of programs and policies circulating the education of young children (between the ages of 2 to 5) in the United States since the beginning of the colonial period. Additionally, the author discusses the prominent efforts that have been made over time to combine pre-school education into the schooling systems and the reasons for rejection of these efforts. On one hand, the author points out how it has been identified that preschools are growingly important for the nurturing of children and on the other hand, it is still not a part of the schooling system of USA.

Major Aspects

Beatty's book, 'Preschool Education in America' reminds readers that there is a big difference between 'pre-school' and 'kindergarten'. The key focus of the book is on the access that children have to pre-school education in the United States. The author discusses that pre-school was designed initially for children with lower-class backgrounds and parents who were deemed unfit to teach them at home. She asserts that preschool has been identified as an important aspect of a child's academic life but it has not yet been incorporated into the schooling systems as a permanent and perpetual part. Additionally, the author also claims that it is the development of preschool that has led to the conceptualization of infant-childhood has a separate stage in a person's life.

Aspects that Beatty considers in her book are the social and economic classes of people in the United States and how their preschool education differs ...