Following on from my post the other day about the importance of Early Years Education and non-hothousing I am gratified to find that the Observer has taken up the theme in Laughing matters.
Of course, I have all the smugness of not being a parent (and never will be) but it makes me laugh when I see colleagues etc boasting that their three year olds are going to some nursery that insists on a ridiculous school uniform of tie and boater and actually has them sitting down in rows reciting their times tables. When I express sympathy and profess hope that the child will make up for it in future years they patronise me by saying that I can't understand because I don't have children.
Well, I don't have children, and I'm not the world's most observant person, but I have spent enough time with children to notice how much they learn in informal settings. If I can notice it in other people's children I would have thought that a parent might notice it in their own...
