parents play a strong role in educating their children. One such study published by the Harvard University Press compared the quality of education that British children receive at home with the quality of education that they receive in nursery schools. In this study, the researchers analyzed tape-recorded conversations between 30 girls, about 4 years old, and their mothers and nursery school teachers. These conversations revealed that the home is a far richer educational environment than is the typical nursery school (Chance, 1985). For example, although children averaged 10 conversations with an adult per hour at school, the same children averaged 27 conversations per hour with their mothers at home (Chance, 1985). The research further indicated that the conversations with the mothers were longer, more complex and less dominated by the adult than were conversations at school with the teacher.
             The researchers found that children asked different and more interesting questions at home than they asked at school. Critics of the study stated that the data may have been biased, because the researchers chose to record home conversations starting with the lunch hour, because that was when mothers and daughters did the most talking. No effort was made to select the best time for recording school conversations. In addition, the fact that the intrusiveness of an observer is more likely to change the behavior of mothers than that of teachers, who are accustomed to classroom visitors, was also cited (Chance, 1985). Even with that limitation, the researcher's study results had a negative view of preschool and nursery school. This study compared two teaching methods: tutoring and group instruction. Formal education relies almost exclusively upon group instruction. Even in nursery school, children usually are taught as part of a group of five or more children (Chance, 1985). The mothers in this study, however, taught their daughte...