“Early learning begets later learning and early success breeds later success, just as early failure breeds later failure.”
- James J. Heckman, Ph.D.
Our nation is making a tragic mistake. Insufficient funding for early childhood programs is creating a downward spiral in our society. This great Nation’s future hangs in the balance, and ignoring the problem will only devastate America’s future even more. State and Federally funded programs offer children early learning opportunities. By providing children with the tools they need to be successful, America will reap the benefits sooner than one would expect. Although additional funding for early childhood programs would require more money from taxpayers, assisting these non-profit programs would be beneficial because it would educate parents, help children with special needs, offer quality preschool education to every child, and help our economy by increasing employment rates.
Parent Education is vital to healthy child development and success. The majority of parents have no prior child development experience or education. ‘Parents as Teachers’ is a national organization dedicated to educating parents. They provide parents with tools and resources necessary to raise a healthy child. The ‘Parents as Teachers’ Parent Educators are specially trained in a child’s development from ages 0-5. They conduct monthly home visits and assess the child’s physical, cognitive and social development by interacting with the parent and child. They educate and provide parents with printouts of ideas and activities that help their child be successful in every area of development.
Programs, such as ‘Parents as Teachers,’ give children a better chance in life. Children and parents, who do not participate in a program such as this one, miss many important opportunities. Some children have developmental delays and are not recognized until they are enrolled in school at 5 years of age or even later. ‘Parents as Teachers’ Educators are trained in recognizing delays, and if diagnosed at an early age, may aid in preventing a child from being put in special education programs later in life.
A study by performed by Edward Ziglar, Judy Pfannenstiel and Victoria Seitz proves that the ‘Parents as Teachers’ (PAT) program aids children in school readiness. The PAT program has proven many beneficial results. It has shown to aid in the overall relationship between parent and child by training parents in positive “parenting practices.” Additionally, the longer the duration of program participation, the better the results showed in overall success for involved families. Parent participants of the PAT program were more likely reading to their children and also more likely to enroll their child in preschool, in effect, aiding in “subsequent academic achievement and school readiness.”
The first three to five years of a child's life is the most optimal time for learning. A child’s brain grows a tremendous amount in the first three years of life. In that short amount of time, a child’s brain has already produced billions of cells and has had trillions of synapses, or brain connections. In fact, in all the years of a human’s life, the brain is most active in the very beginning. According to Zerotothree.org, The National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families, a child’s brain grows at an enormous rate in the first five years of life. In fact, the brain grows to about 90 percent of an adult size, by its 5th birthday. Knowing this, why does the public school system wait until a child is five years old to begin funding the teaching and learning process? If a child’s brain grows and learns the best in the first five years of life, then we should assume that would be the best time to educationally enrich it.
Universal preschool education would not only help children from lower income households. Experts in the field of education have recognized the benefits for all children, even those who don’t come from less fortunate households. Gifted children come from all types of backgrounds, including higher income families. James J Gallaher, an exceptional and gifted child educator, writes “If we believe in early admittance to school, this is a fine way to identify potential early admitters who have become bored with bead stringing and drawing pictures and wish to exercise the reading and math skills that they already have developed.” This would be a chance to discover and recognize a gifted child at an earlier age. Recognizing a gifted child prevents a child from missed learning opportunities and becoming uninterested in school.
According to Harvard graduate Jerrold Oppenheim and former teacher and social worker Theo MacGregor , founders of Democracy and Regulation, the benefits of universal preschool are exceedingly great. With an earlier start at education, there will be lower high school drop out rates, more jobs, and a high return rate for the tax payers. In effect, investing in programs that give children an earlier start at learning will cause a dramatic decline in crime rates, and cause less people to be dependent on public assistance programs such as cash assistance and food stamps. In addition, the children who get an earlier, quality start in school will be more likely to succeed. The overall need of dependency based, government funded programs will be eliminated.
Linda Jacobson, editor for Education Week, reviewed a study performed in Chicago twenty years ago. She found that the economical return was ten times the amount originally invested in the children it was meant to benefit. Society earned the benefits by keeping kids out of jail and in school later on in their lives. The economical benefits are boundless and this has been proven in this article. By investing in children at a young age, society will bring in the benefits in vast amount of ways in the future. By neglecting a child’s education when they are best able to learn, our society is neglecting our nation in the long run.
Some organizations believe that everything aside from the current public school education system should be parent, not government, responsibility. Government funding of early childhood programs has its opposition. The proponents have a completely different philosophy on the topic of early educational learning programs. They do not believe that early education is helping all children and if not all the children are being uplifted by these programs, they don’t feel that public funding should be implemented. One example of this is Darcy Olsen, President and CEO of the Goldwater Institute and opponent of additional government funding early education programs, believes that early education makes little difference for “main stream children.”
John Stossel, Catherine Brosseau, and Andrew Kirell with ABC News recently reported on a story called: ‘Universal Pre-K: This Whole Thing Is a Scam. Does Free Preschool for Every Child Deserve Taxpayer Money?’ The story was based on the many people who side against government funded preschool education and the waste of money involved. The story participants are convinced that families can do a better job with their kids than potential government funded programs. Some believe that if the current public school system has failed the nation’s children, they have little faith that government funded pre-k will be any better. In effect, this is a waste of tax payer dollars.
The opportunity to make a difference for this nation’s future is now. Now is the time to change its direction. The current education system is not working. Real evidence proves that a child’s brain is the most active and capable of learning in the first 5 years of its life. Government funding for an earlier start is not only a desire for our nation’s children, but a necessity. By giving them a head start in the right direction, the benefits for our society will be limitless. Economic crisis or not, if this nation wants to prevent anymore economical decline, it’s got to start with the little people. They are the future. Let’s invest in that.
Gallagher, J James. "Another Opportunity-Preschool Education. " Roeper Review 29.4 (2007): 231. ProQuest Education Journals. ProQuest. UAF. Rasmuson Library. Fairbanks, AK.. 7 Mar. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/
Jacobson, Linda. "Pre-K Offers Economic Value Into Adulthood, Study Finds. " Education Week 11 Jun 2008: 8. ProQuest Education Journals. ProQuest. UAF. Rasmuson Library. Fairbanks, AK. 7 Mar. 2009 http://www.proquest.com/
Oppenheim, Jerrold, MacGregor, Theo. "The Economics of Education: Public Benefits of High-Quality Preschool Education for Low-Income Children. Building Communities for Change.” Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families. (Nov. 2002): 1-32. First Search. ERIC. UAF Rasmuson Library, Fairbanks, AK. 5 Mar. 2009 http://www.eric.ed.gov/
Olsen, Darcy. “Assessing Proposals for Preschools and Kindergarten: Essential Information for Parents, Taxpayers, and Policymakers.” Policy Report. 8 Feb. 2005 http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/common/files/multimedia/920.pdf
Stossel John, Brosseau Cathering, and Kirell Andrew. “Universal PreK: This Whole Thing Is a Scam.” ABC News. 13 March 2009. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=7070646&page=1
Zero to Three. “When is the brain fully developed. FAQ’s” ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families. 5 Mar.2009 http://www.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_key_brainFAQ
Ziglar Edward, Pfannenstielv Judy and Seitz Victoria. “The Parents as Teachers Program and School Success: A Replication and Extension. The Journal of Primary Prevention. (March 2008) 29. 103-120. SpringerLink. UAF Rasmuson Library. Fairbanks, AK. 19 March 2009. http://www.springerlink.com
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