Children need to learn how to interact with others and they get a hefty dose of this in preschool. This includes learning to share, wait turns and listen when others are talking. In a preschool setting, students have the opportunity to interact with others their age who are different, which can help teach tolerance.
Though it seems like play to adults, the things that children do in preschool actually form the foundation for successful education later in life. For example, in playing with sand, students start to learn mathematical concepts, such as measuring. In playing "dress-up," students start to master the art of storytelling.
Preschool prepares children to become better readers. The teacher does this by reading stories, which shows children that you read a book from front to back, that you can speak printed words and that stories have a beginning, middle and end. Teachers may also introduce the alphabet and basic phonics, which can help students start to put words together and read them.
A study by The Brookings Institution found that those students who went to preschool typically have more education as adults than those that did not attend preschool. Preschool California also reports that those who started with preschool are more likely to graduate from high school, less likely to be arrested and less likely to need public financial assistance.
A workforce that is more educated can be more productive, so the Brookings Institute concludes that the more students who have a preschool education, the more society will grow economically as those students grow up and enter the workforce.