By Peter Lapres

I arrive to pick up my 3-year-old daughter, Sophia, at preschool. One of the moms on duty tells me that last night her husband asked which kid in their son's class Peter was. "Tell him I'm the big 40-year-old one," I say. Her son brings home stories about me because once a month I do a duty day in the gym with the kids. We play roaring dinosaurs and hide and seek, swim through shark-infested waters and dodge flying helicopters.

If, a year ago, you'd told me I'd be doing this, I'd have said, "I don't think so." But now? I know 15 little kids by name-and their parents. I know which one (kid, not parent) likes trains or the water table; who is scared if the dinosaur growling gets too fierce and who prefers tricycles to wagons. I have become a complete convert to parent participation in preschool education.

When my wife, Rebecca, first broached the subject of preschool for Sophia, I was not very receptive. Shouldn't children that young be at home with their mothers, fathers or grandparents? We already had a sitter coming in two days a week while Rebecca and I worked. Undaunted, however, Rebecca began her research and before long had chosen St. Giles Parent Participation Preschool (PPP) in Vancouver. She was enthusiastic about the classroom layout, the teachers and was especially the concept of parent participation. "Parent what?" I asked. "You really think we have time for this parent participating stuff?" It sounded like too much work. Rebecca's response was that she wanted to be involved in Sophia's education and that the time to start was right away.

Upon closer examination, the school's approach did seem a good fit for our somewhat reserved and sometimes stubborn daughter. The teachers would even visit Sophia at home a month before her first day in September (that was back in 1999, by the way), and interested or concerned parents were welcome to stay for the first few sessions once school began.

In June of 1999, still a tad ambivalent, I attended the first monthly meeting for parents new to the program. St. Giles requires that at least one parent attend a monthly meeting to discuss school business and participate in the on-going parent education program. This addresses such diverse topics as discipline versus punishment, the influence of television, celebrating differences and sex education for kids. I was surprised how moved I was when Joan Schumann, the school's veteran teacher with 25 years' service, showed her slides of kids' activities over the past year-the bike-a-thon, the pumpkin patch trip, oatmeal cookie day and finger painting. I was beginning to come round to the idea of a PPP experience for my daughter.

The first parent participation preschool was started in 1916 at the University of Chicago by a group of faculty wives who wanted an educational experience for themselves and some free time away from their young children to perform their volunteer work with the Red Cross.

Today, these schools go by various names: parent cooperative preschools, nursery schools, playgroups or, as they 're known in B.C., PPPs. All share the same fundamental approach to early childhood education, which [U.S. FOUNDER OF PPP?]Dr. Katharine Whiteside Taylor described in her 1954 book, [The?] Parent Cooperative Nursery School: "The characterizing element is the parents' cooperation, not only in the organization and business end but, under trained guidance, in the education of the children." 
There are more than 1,000 such preschools in Canada, estimates Carol Brown, executive director of the Organization for Parent Participation in Childcare and Education in Ontario and author of Growing Cooperatively: A Start-up and Operations Guide for Successful Childcare Co-operatives. Ontario and B.C., have provincial councils that oversee the schools.

When September finally arrived, Sophia's first week was a breeze. She was eased in gradually, an hour a day over three days, with only half of the eventual class of 18. Either Rebecca or I was there the whole time.

That week also included the first parent education session, s a fascinating talk by Schumann about the philosophy and methods of PPP. She explained that here the emphasis is not on teaching numbers or the alphabet, as it is in some preschools, but on letting children learn by doing what comes naturally. For 3- and 4-year-olds, that is play.

If preschool is fun, it will create a zest for learning in kids and give them an opportunity to build their social skills, explained Bev Bos, a preschool teacher and education consultant in Roseville, Calif., in the introductory video we were shown. "Kids need to be social by age six," Bos says. "If they are not social, the other kids will push them away, the teacher will push them away, the principal and then society will push them away.

Sophia's other teacher, Deborah Mollica, notes that there's nothing wrong with academics for a 3-year-old, if the child is interested. It's just not what they need most. "The important lessons for 3-year-olds are about taking turns and sharing," says Mollica-to which her colleague Schumann quickly adds: "And this isn't about learning virtuous behaviour per se. It's about learning life skills, so that life will work, things will flow-at school, at home and at the playground."

The next couple of weeks were not as carefree as the first, as gradually we were encouraged-against her wishes-to leave Sophia alone at the school. One day Schumann gave me the high sign and after a very quick good-bye I left my daughter. An hour later Schumann called to reassure me that everything was fine.

Over that year, I completed enough monthly duty days to see Sophia's teachers handle all kinds of situations. I was impressed and reassured by their diplomatic skills and learned a lot from them. And this is one of the great things about participating-parental education comes not only come in the form of lectures at the monthly meetings but through the modelling provided by the teachers. 
I also learned a lot from comparing Sophia with the other children. I learned that kids have tantrums, sometimes don't want to go to school and don't say "hi" if they don't feel like it. It was reassuring to discuss our children's behaviours with the other parents, who became a great support group.

"Seeing their child in an environment outside the home allows parents to discover a whole other side of their child. It leads to a greater appreciation of the child's unique abilities," says Mollica. Observing her with other kids, I saw that Sophia has a great imagination and loves to participate in groups, more so than I thought, and definitely more than she did at the beginning of the year. She's also quietly confident and seems to have a very sure sense of what she likes and dislikes.

Rebecca and I believe that far from doing Sophia a disservice by enrolling her in PPP, we actually gave her a head start on life skills, letting her to spend regular time with other adults and kids her own age. And in choosing this type of preschool, we launched ourselves on a path of involvement in her education. Studies indicate that children whose parents are involved in their schools tend to do better throughout their academic years (see September, pg TK).

Both Sophia and I looked forward to our time at St. Giles. Oh, she didn't always want to go, but she learned that that's part of life, too. And before you knew it, she'd be dragging me around to show off her new jacket to teachers and friends or proudly waving here egg carton dragon at me.

Sophia made great strides in PPP and it think it gave her a good foundation for regular school [IS SHE NOW IN JK? SK?]. As Mollica says, " We hear from kindergarten teachers in the public system all the time that our kids get along easily with everyone and really make their needs known." What better recommendation could there be than that?
 

For information on Cooperative preschools, contact: the Association of Canadian Childcare Co-operatives (ACCC):
West: (604) 595-6742 
Central: (613) 825-1233 
East: (709) 944-2422

For information on starting a co-op preschool, check out Growing Cooperatively: A Start-up and Operations Guide for Successful Childcare Co-operatives, 1996. It can be ordered for $30 from the Organization for Parent Participation in Childcare & Education,
250 Holland Avenue,
Ottawa, ON,
K1Y 0Y6
(613) 722-1136.