I don’t always agree with him, but I do respect our current president. He surrounded himself with great people and has the dramatic fearlessness of an elder as he dives in the deep waters of national government. One area that I am concerned with is his call for universal preschool. I am in total support of including financial coverage for universal child care. My concern is with the use of the word “preschool.”

The pandemic has created a very hopeful and unexpected opportunity for the U.S. to explore how we are raising our children. I won’t go into the history of American education here, but suffice it to say, we now know much more about what children really need in order to thrive and be well educated than was available to our understanding in the industrial era when school attendance became compulsory.

We now know that children need to spend a great deal of time outdoors and playing so that they can become healthy, strong and creative. We know that they need explicit training in how to get along with others, work cooperatively, resolve conflicts and become good citizens. The schools, which were set up in the early part of the 20th century, did not consider these things.

We also understand that parents need a good environment in which their young children can be cared for. The extended family that was once a bedrock of support for child care in many families is no longer so easily accessed for most families.

Very young children — 3 and 4 year olds and some 2 year olds — can develop very well under the care of a well-trained and well-compensated child care worker, in an environment that is set up to nurture their social and emotional skills and which has plenty of access to safe and child-friendly outdoor environments.

Let’s not mix up the need for child care with our old fashioned ideas of schooling or “preschool.” Let’s not have 3-year-olds be subjected to “academic preparedness” for kindergarten curriculums. Let’s not have parents competing for preschools that promise to give kids a leg up in learning to read and calculate and manage their computers. Give them clean air, places to run and play, places to laugh and have fun with their peer group and best of all, places to feel valued and cared for as they emerge from their homes into the life of community.

Cheryl Fox is a resident of Greenfield, retired co-director of The Mediation & Training Collaborative, a musician and teacher and facilitator of peacemaking skills from pre-school to adult.