Education for Young Children

I was pleased to note the importance placed on early childhood education in the editorial ``Early Learning Power,'' Sept. 17.

My daughter teaches four-year-olds in a preschool and spends as much time preparing the lessons as she would teaching kindergarten in a public school. These lessons include colors, printing, science, arts and crafts, self-discipline, and social behavior.

However, the beginning salary for a 12-month year is only $15,000, compared with the public school rate for beginning teachers of $28,000 for a nine-month year.

My daughter is looking forward to finding a public-school position because of the difference in pay.

Somehow a way will have to be found to increase the salaries of preschool teachers in order to obtain and hold onto the good ones. Florence Reynolds, Levittown, Pa.

I was offended by the following statement in the editorial on education for young children: ``A diligent mother at home with some kind of formal program for her children can achieve comparable results. But in a two-parent working society, where are these mothers?''

The phrase insults the many diligent fathers at home who are providing first-rate primary care to their children. There is no reason for the Monitor to neglect male homemakers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in March 1992 reported that 521,000 two-parent families had a working mother and a father not in the work force. Some men have been full-time homemakers by choice for more than five years.

Child care is not a women's issue. Please do not try to absolve husbands and fathers from their responsibilities as homemakers and nurturers. Joanne Callahan, Garland, Texas