Why Early Childhood Education: “In the Beginning Is Relation”
There’s more to early childhood education than meets the eye.
I used to think of preschool as the place where little kids learn the basics – a few letters and numbers, when to sit still and be quiet, and how to color within the lines and use things like school paste. But there is more to it than just that.
When Martin Buber, in his modern Jewish spirituality classic, I and Thou, wrote “In the beginning is relation,” he must have had our young ones in mind. For it is through our synagogue early childhood education programs that children and their families start relationships that can last a lifetime.
To be sure, our synagogues look at our preschools as a potential source of new members and religious school students. After all, our preschools are a place where kids make their first friendships and parents arrange their children’s first play dates. Parents themselves meet and connect over common interests, needs, and solution-seeking.
When I meet and talk with synagogue teens, many will tell me of enduring relationships that span the years from preschool to high school and then onto the college campus. Their parents talk of decades-long relationships with other parents, relationships that began at the synagogue when their kids were small. Martin Buber was right when he wrote, “In the beginning IS relationship” for many lifelong relationships begin in a synagogue preschool program, relationships that endure and carry on for years, if not decades, to bless our students, families and congregations through all the arms of synagogue, including religious school, Confirmation, youth group, adult activities and more.
So, our kids learn facts in preschool. They develop social skills and learn about their world. What’s more, the preschool experience opens a path to lifelong relationships that contribute strength to our communities.
Rabbi Dennis Ross
Temple Sinai
Summit, NJ
September 2019
