Psychology Today recently featured a blog post titled Early Academic Training Produces Long-Term Harm that contends that academic preschools and kindergartens are stressful and unhappy places, have no lasting effect on students’ later academic success and can even promote long-term harm to children’s social and psychological development. In a report released by the National Institute for Direct Instruction, these serious misrepresentations made in the post are documented.

Drill, endless worksheets, unhappiness, and a lack of play are the antithesis of well-run Direct Instruction school. Substantial research evidence indicates that having well-structured early academic instruction in the DI tradition can provide the basis for continued success, not just in the early grades but through the high school years. Academic early education can provide an important and cost-efficient means of for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to compete on the same level as those from more adhovantaged settings.

Download the full report here: Harmful Effects of Academic Early Education? A Look at the Claims and the Evidence (Psychology Today, Jun 2015)