Debating Childhood and Preschool A Field Guide to Raising Children, Navigating Pre-K, and Lifting Early Education

Investments in young children--by caregivers, educators, and civic leaders--have grown enormously since the late twentieth century. Alongside this trend, deeply human questions have become hotly debated. How do we best nurture young children? Which adults and what settings best foster the early learning and social vitality of our youngest kids? Debating Childhood and Preschool tackles these essential issues, clarifying the philosophical divides and examining popular beliefs about child-rearing and early education. Bringing five decades of experience--as parent, teacher, and policy activist--Bruce Fuller unpacks the contested ideological roots of child-rearing and how they surface in preschool. He confronts guiding mythologies, such as "learning through play" and "free pre-K will narrow disparities," inviting parents and teachers to question their own assumptions about how we nurture and shape young children. By sharpening philosophical stances and deftly reviewing decades of empirical evidence, Fuller details how families, educators, and policy advocates can fine-tune their essential work in raising the next generation.

Bruce Fuller is a sociologist and emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He explores how institutions, large and small, work to lift children and families. A former professor of education and comparative policy at Harvard University, Fuller has worked to improve early education in China, Viet Nam, and southern Africa. His book Standardized Childhood examines the philosophical and political history of the universal preschool movement. Fuller's volume When Schools Work details how grassroots activists in Los Angeles have shaken civic politics and advanced policy reforms that lift children and teachers. Fuller's research has appeared in the Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, San Jose Mercury News, and Washington Post.