This must be what Barack Obama had in mind when he spoke of “additional income” that you “don’t need.” ABC’s “Good Morning America” reports that a preschool for New Yorkers well past the age of weaning has grown in Brooklyn. It’s called Preschool Mastermind, and according to its founder, Michelle Joni, it is a chance to rediscover the simple joys of show-and-tell, arts-and-crafts (think finger paint), games, and even nap time.
Judging fro
m the seductive pose Joni strikes in a photograph on the school’s website (right), you might expect that the tuition, which ranges on a sliding scale from $333 to $999, covers more adult pleasures. But according to its founder, who majored in childhood education and always wanted to be a preschool teacher, adults come to the school to “get in touch with their inner child.”
Specific motivations, she notes, differ. “One person’s here because they want to learn not to be so serious,” Another’s here to learn to be more confident.” Many, she says, come just to have fun.
If it all sounds a tad bizarre, it is arguably far less so than another trend that was all the rage in Britain a couple years back in which adults dressed up in baby clothes and sat in outsize high chairs sucking pacifiers. Then there was the café in Japan that maintained a menagerie of giant stuffed animals to keep lone diners company.
If you’re still disturbed by the notion of adults dabbling in art suitable for presentation on the refrigerator at home, think of adult preschool as extension of Camp Hillary.
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