We all need to start on an equal playing field. Providing high quality early childhood education that is accessible to all helps make sure that children of all backgrounds start on a level education playing field. This is turn would help give people (especially of poor backgrounds) a high chance of succeeding in the future.
We need to rethink how we allocate our resources. We invest so much money into the bureaucracy and developing new curriculum. Instead we should take that money and invest it in molding the blank slates of young children. Some children are already disadvantaged the day they are born. They are born into poverty or with learning disabilities. The sooner we can provide a strong education for these children, the higher the chance we can create students who can overcome these difficulties and develop the skills and study habits needed to succeed in elementary school. This in turn puts them on track to learn the skills needed to succeed in middle school, high school and college. Providing children with a strong early childhood education allows them to start school at the same level or ahead of the pack instead of being academically or developmentally behind their classmates.
What is the most effective way to convince lawmakers, policy makers and administrators that providing early childhood education is not only beneficial in the short term (increasing the number of mothers in the work force), but can create a economically profitable society in the long term?
Anne Garvey
Karen May
Blogs I have responded to:
Anne Garvey
Karen May
Phil-
ReplyDeleteReallocating resources is a good way of thinking about this matter. I think that actually was a good quote from the film, "It's not whether or not we have the money, but we spend it" or something of that nature. It got me thinking how much money the country spends on the prison system instead of rehabilitating the people who occupy those prisons. It would make so much more sense to make our academic structures preemptive in preventing these people from ending up in the prisons.
Your question is an excellent one and very similar to mine. It just begs the question: Cool, but where do I start now? Awareness is definitely the first step, I'd say let's just get this documentary in the hands of decision makers and see what happens!
When I watched the films I became slightly optimistic about the fact that economists have been adding their perspective to the mix. My hope is that this will bring the importance of early childhood education into a new arena and develop more supporters. A few years ago when I was working as an artist-in-residence for a non-profit, there was suddenly more money being put into the field. More free childcare and preschools were being opened in Oakland and they were partnering with organizations such as ours to develop high-quality curricula. Within a year or two the budget was cut and most of those programs ceased to exists. I would not pretend to have any answers, but I so believe that sustainability is a huge factor in this cause, so that these programs can have the chance to prove how beneficial they are.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the typos and grammatical errors! I typed it really fast...
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