Parkside Preschools

Abstract

Unlike the one Queenston preschool, where upper-middle-class psychologized individualism was introduced to parents and children who had been raised in a more hard protective individualistic fashion, Parkside preschools seemed to mimic the soft individualism socialized by Parkside parents. Things such as threats, topic switching, insults, sarcasm, and irony, found among the Queens parents (or, as with Miller’s work, among the south Baltimore parents), were not practiced in Parkside preschools. In the practice of soft individualism at Parkside preschools, efforts were similarly made to help the child’s self unfold, to allow for feelings and thoughts to flower in their own right. Certain practices were engaged in that contributed not to the blunting or toughening of the child’s self but to its unwinding and loosening—acts such as saving face in front of the child, using questions/suggestions to discipline instead of direct commands, giving the child ample time and space to explain himself, and interrupting a fight so that each child’s feelings could be heard. I often wondered if the preschool teachers made extra efforts to intensify their soft individualistic focus when I was around, because at times I could not believe how much praise the children were given, how much choice, what they let the child get away with, how much they interfered so as to ensure the child could voice her feelings, how much they saved face and voice to cover their true feelings in front of the child.