AbstractsEconomics

Parents of children in five half-day preschools were asked to select the three most important goals from a checklist for a preschool program. Parents participating selected most often the expectations: socialization, growth and development, and creativity. Parents were also requested t o select the three activities they considered inappropriate which were: the use of workbooks, learning a foreign language and learning arithmetic. A comparison was made on the expectations of parents of three-year-olds and parents of four-year-olds, and parents of first-time enrollees and parents of children previously enrolled. No statistical difference was found between the groups except for one item, “to learn t o write" on the inappropriate list. The difference between parents of three year-olds and parents of f our-year-olds was significant at the .01 level.