Interviewing 3-year-olds for preschool placement

Ugh! I have heard of this in British-oriented societies. Parents actually drill their tots for weeks - maybe months - so they will have the best answers to the interview questions. So much for the development of the "mind," which ought to have at least a few years of unadulterated independent thought. I think it's meaningless - some kids are better than others at parroting, but that doesn't make them smarter overall.

This is more about a competition between parents. Using your kid to prove your own worth seems kind of sick to me.

Personally, I don't see how I can raise a kid with the values I have - e.g., the belief in mutual respect and equal access to basic opportunities - if I'm sending them to anything that could be classified as "elite" or "exclusive."

I also don't think it's very healthy for kids to be under pressure to deliver specific answers at an early age. Stress impedes learning. They will end up dumber in the long run, in my opinion (and in my experience).

Some will say an exclusive / selective school enhances kids' abilities to get a good job later. It may be impressive to some if a young adult's resume says they went to a particular school as a kid. To me, it only proves what their parents accomplished. If they don't have something impressive to tell me about their OWN accomplishments, then as a prospective employer, I don't give them a second look. And I would not want to work with a company that placed the parents' influence over individual achievement.

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This is so not a British thing guys. There are several pre-schools here in Atlanta GA that do the same thing. Starting at age 3 kids here, of a certain salary bracket, go into the preschools for assessment. They are interviewed, evaluated for group play and in one school given tasks that are intentionally too difficult to see how long they will try until they give up. Another school I know of does HOME assessments to make sure you have the right environment. (I'm betting they just want to see if the house you live in is big enough.) This weeds out the kids who are too bright, too "dumb", too whatever the school deems not appropriate. It is INSANE. One school told a woman I worked for that her daughter didn't get into their school because she stopped trying the tasks they asked her to do too quickly. And this woman then TOLD HER DAUGHTER THIS. I'm sure her daughter is now heading for a life of therapy since she's already failed at the age of 3!!!!!
So don't fault the British alone for their insanity, I'm sure all the countries of the world have their insane parents that do this crazy stuff.

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I agree with tulip. In fact, I think the British may be behind the curve. This kind of thing has been going on in Manhattan for years. Unfortunately, while the kids may benefit from hobnobbing with the "haves", I think it's going to lead to a lot of other issues. If they're experiencing this kind of pressure at 3, what kind of expectations will be dumped on them by the time they hit high school? I think it's trickling down, too. A friend in Queens called me recently to tell me a teacher at her child's pre-school had advised her that her son was "behind" verbally. He had literally just turned 3 days before. The kid speaks in sentences - in English and Spanish! What more do they want, quantum physics?

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Happens here too. (San Francisco) Heck, I work with a guy who's paying about $15K a year for preschool. I dunno how he does it -- that would totally blow our budget.

The problem is, these fancy-schmancy schools aren't necessarily better at educating/growing kids than any others. Suppose you went to buy some cherries. You pick the three best cherries you can from a box of thousands. Meanwhile, your friend is handed three random cherries from the same box. Who is likely to have the better, sweeter fruit? Same with the schools. They don't necessarily teach better, they just start with better students.

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I live in the UK (In Edinburgh, not London) and our city has the biggest "Private School" mentality in Scotland. It is hard to explain but the gist of it is: You will be given a job over someone who did not go to a private school if you you DID attend one. There are lots of other things too - you will move in more influential social circles etc. I hate it and Ilean towards wanintg my kids to go to the local school instead. (We could not afford the private nursery school anyway right now - they cost about £4000 a term! That's $8000, and there are two terms a year, so $16000 a year per child.)

These are not crazy schools that you don't know the name of like in that story either. I know tons of kids who go to them and I know all the schools names and all their uniforms. My husband attended a private school for highschool only (this school also has a nursery school) and his parents were not ultra wealthy (He went to the local nursery and primary school). They treated the tuition like we might have treated college tuition in the US. (He had no fees for University, University here in Scotland was free, now it costs $4,000 a year, payable once you start making over a set amount).

My husband would at least like our boys to attend high school privately like he did. I am not keen but we are still talking about it (we have a while yeat). My husband feels it would be an advantage educationally, socially etc. But, we live across the street from the best public high school in the city so at least we don't have worries about the place being a dump etc.

Coming from a small town in the US with no private schools and only one high school I find it all a bit crazy to say the least!

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An interview for private preschool is par for the course. We are currently chosing preschools for my son - the prep school has an open policy and more spaces, but has an interview procedure. The preschool attached to the state (ie public) school is so over-subscribed that although there is no entrance requirement, you have to register 2 years in advance! It's all very silly.

We may well send our son to the private one - despite it being more expensive, it will be easier to get him into the school at 3 (with an interview) than 7 (which requires an exam), and it is a better school with smaller class sizes and higher quality teaching. So although the preschool requirement is silly, we are just looking ahead. Especially as getting my son into a decent local secondary school will rely on where he went to school at 3 or 7 - not because of the 'name' of the school but the curriculum studied. There are no decent state (public) schools near us for high school.

I went to a standard school for primary (elementary) and really struggled to catch up when I went to a private High school despite winning a scholarship, as I just hadn't covered the ground or material at the elementary level.

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I should add to my comment above that our local state (public) school is decent enough - but the catchment is not. We are in a 'military triangle', causing a significant flux of students within the local school system. At least 1/2 of the students move on within a year, which in a large school is a sizeable number. Having had a similar experience when young (my husband had the same), we wish to avoid the resulting unsettled schooling for our son. I have no idea how we will afford this, but we're not raising snobs - just giving our son the most stable environment we can.

Unfortunately the UK school system has deteriorated to such an extent, that private schooling is becoming the norm, rather than the exception.

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