[elemomma]

As a former preschool teacher, I can assure you that the door is closed and policed, so that the children do not get upset or try to run out of the room when they see the parents coming. A good teacher will keep the children focused and occupied so that pick up can occur without any downtime in the classroom. Downtime is when most problems occur. Pick up runs alot smoother if everyone is in one place and just one child is called up at a time. Just to give you an example suppose you have a mom with three kids all at one preschool. ( this is me!) She knows that her son is the one that she doesn't want to drag with her to pick up the other two. But, she has to walk by her son's room to get to the daughter's rooms. If the door was open, the son would run to the door and try to escape and the poor mother would end up trying to contain the escapee while picking up the other children. Can you see here why it would be better for the door to stay closed and the teacher to interact with the children, so that moms can peacefully pick up all their children and their are no escapees running the halls? I am actually a child developmentalist and I know that it is actually healthier and more emotionally fulfilling for a child to not see a crowd gathered to pick up kids and their parent is not among the crowd. If the children's attention is elsewhere, then the fear of abandonment won't seep into their little minds.

Yes, so I am saying chill out. Most preschools have practiced methods and determined what is best through trial and error. Though we think we know what is best for our children, their teachers know what is best for all the children. Oh yeah and the alphabetical thing is not for the children, it is for the teachers who sort out the stuff and put it in the boxes. It is alot easier to sort if you are going alphabetically, then to keep walking around looking at every box to see who's it is. Much faster, and then more attention is spent on your child than sorting their stuff. It's a win, win for everybody!