Read past storytime features: Robin, David, Terry, Holly, Prany, Amari, Cheryl, Sue and Kathy.

Storyteller: Betty Robinson Harris

I have been working in child development for 36 years.  I currently teach preschool and provide after-school care to children from all elementary grades at Burnett Child Development Center in the San Francisco Unified School District.  Having had over three decades of experience, I can say without a doubt that preschool is one of the most important times in a child’s life. Preschool provides children with so many valuable social and literacy skills.  Once a child is socialized, everything else follows.  Learning how to be patient, how to wait, how to make friends and how to express yourself are all important steps in being ready to go to school.  When Mystique, a student of mine, first came to preschool she wouldn’t share.  Now she can’t wait to share her snack with her friends. Her ability to share and play well with classmates will serve her well in kindergarten and beyond.

The benefits of preschool are apparent in all of my students, especially my Latino and Chinese students.  Many of them come into my classroom without knowing any English at all and then leave bilingual.  About 50 percent of my children are English Language Learners.  I do a lot of language acquisition and vocabulary building and the kids acquire language at an astronomical rate.  I once had a 4 year old who was interpreting for his mother.  He started off not knowing any English and now he is fluent enough to interpret.  Because I teach in the after-school program for elementary school students, I get the chance to see my students as they grow up.  One of my students, Jackie, reflected on her experiences in preschool.  She said that it gave her the opportunity to learn English and other important skills before starting kindergarten and that having that knowledge put her ahead of the game.  Preschool is a critical time for these kids to learn language and pre-reading skills.  

A skilled teacher can recognize what works for each kid and mold the curriculum to fit their needs.  It’s important to make sure that the activities are developmentally appropriate for each individual kid.  You need to know your children, and know their strengths and their weaknesses.  That is why having well trained teachers is so important.  A teacher needs to have extensive experience and education.  It takes experience and knowledge to understand the developmental scale and key milestones.  It’s also essential to have strong communication with parents so that there is collaboration in the education process.  There needs to be an emotionally supportive environment, both at school and at home.  Communication between teachers, parents and children makes that possible. 

High-quality preschool offers an opportunity to give children skills that they’ll take with them for the rest of their lives. In my classroom we talk about going to college.  When they have high expectations, they rise to the occasion.  As I’ve seen time after time in the past 36 years, high-quality preschool can make a huge difference in a child’s life.