I haven't read the article word-for-word PZ but that article seems to concentrate on the correlation between primary school academic results and preschool education. And concludes that there are no great academic benefits in starting "formal education" early.

It's hard to compare apples with apples because that's a US article/study.

These are my observations after spending some time at DD's kindy. It's not very formal at all. Granted, I've been there less than 10 hours all up, but I've never seen the teachers "teach" letters and numbers for example. I'm sure they incorporate this into the activities, but it's not like formal classroom learning.

The emphasis, at least at DD1's kindy, is on having fun. They do lots and lots of craft, lots of reading stories, lots of painting, lots of running around outside. It's just fun. DD1 loves it. She'd like to go every day. And I do think it's really important in getting them to share, take turns, etc. etc.

I also love the idea that she is making friends there who she will go to school with next year. We are in a small community and the friends we're making now will probably stay with us until she's a teenager. I love being part of that community and the kinder is an integral part. In the last 30 years, it's only had three changes of teacher.

What I'm trying to say, is that, to me and DD1, kinder is a lovely, holistic, fun experience, not a scary pushy pushy, let's start pushing alphabets and numbers on to them.