Thanks for all the replies.
I understand that some people need childcare, and so they might as well make it as fulfilling as they can. But I don't see what "academics" could be needed. If all you need to know entering Kindergarten is the alphabet and a few such things like that, you don't really need to go to an educational institution for that. Also I don't get the idea of pre-school as a preparation for the classroom setting of Kindergarten. If children aren't naturally ready for a classroom setting at age 5 or 6, how on Earth are they supposed to be ready for a classroom setting at age 3 or 4? That just doesn't make sense to me at all. And I don't see why it is a better social situation than just interacting with people of all ages at home and in various public places.
One drawback of putting your child in pre-school, that hasn't been mentioned yet, is that if you have a wild, energetic, independent, highly intelligent child, and you put them in an environment with no intellectual expectation, but instead with expectations about how a child is supposed to act, then your child will attract suspicions of having certain disorders, which could lead to misdiagnosis and damaging treatments, medications or other "services". There was no way we would put our children in that situation. Then as our oldest was approaching Kindergarten age, it became clear we had to start homeschooling.
