Public Schools: Where an Orange Is a Textbook

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The success of early admissions can be measured this year by testing pre-kindergarten graduates who have advanced through kindergarten to regular school. Two-thirds of them are in the top half of their first-grade class, with about 15% in the top quarter; the control group that started school with regular kindergarten predictably trails behind. If the prekindergarten graduates "can sustain the attitudes and aspirations imparted during this program," says Superintendent of Public Instruction George B. Brain, "we see reason to hope that there will never be the lag in educational development that already looms for the control group."

Crucial Test. Teachers also learn. A kindergarten teacher found that she had always subconsciously divided her class into "dumb" children from poor homes that lack the stimulation for learning, and "bright," better-off children, who are expected by their parents to talk, play, explore. Now she finds that "the preschool youngsters are among the highest achievers in my class, and it makes me wonder whether many of us in teaching haven't been wrong for a long time."

As a three-year experiment that began with teacher training and devising a curriculum, the Baltimore project is scheduled to end in June. The crucial bigger test will come in two years, when the early-admissions children reach the third grade and the learning of skills becomes less important than acquiring conceptual knowledge. Then, if success continues, the board of education has promised to consider expanding the preschool program to all slum-area children. Baltimore would thus become the first city in the nation to lower its entrance-age requirement for the public-school system, adopting a policy that many educators believe is essential and inevitable for the whole U.S.