Attention Getter: Fifty-six years ago, a working-class town located in Michigan created a program that undoubtedly changed lives. It was called the Perry Preschool, which was a program for 3 to 4-year-olds that focused on early education. Over 5 decades later, the results from their hands-on curriculum and well-prepared educators are hard to ignore. Those children who are now in their 50s are much better off in life.
Reason to Listen: How many of you went to kindergarten or any preschools? Well did you know that only 15 states along with DC require children to attend kindergarten? By 1st grade, the kids who have had no early education will start off behind. When children start behind, they tend to stay behind.
Thesis statement: Early childhood
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It’s startling to see that the U.S. is actually significantly behind other countries based on the enrollment, investment, and quality of early childhood education.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the U.S. is 26th in preschool participation for four-year-olds, 24th in preschool participation for three-year-olds, 22nd in the typical age children begin early childhood education programs, and 21st in total investment in early childhood education
These numbers correspond to a child’s skills in pre-literacy, pre-writing, and pre-math.
They are also caused by the large preschool access gap, which has led to some programs being made to increase the U.S. investment in early childhood education.
One of the most impacting initiative created was former President Obama’s Early Education plan.
He held the White House Summit on Early Education during December of 2014.
People with actual power got together in order to support his plan.
At the end, it was announced that a communal investment of more than $1 billion was raised for the education and development of children in the
I am a firm believer that the quality of the child care directly affects the child’s development in the classroom. By eliminating the need for competing preschools to continue to improve their curriculum and to remain relevant in the field of early childhood education, we risk falling into the same trap K-12 education has fallen into. In other words, individual classroom freedom will be lost when teachers are forced to follow the governments blanket and mandatory regulations. I choose this concept because I feel it is important to allow a wide variety of options to families in order for them the find the right fit for their
Decker, C. A., Decker, J. R., Freeman, N. K., & Knopf, H. T. (2009). Planning and Administering Early Childhood Programs. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
In the 1980s, child care was back on the national agenda due to the education reform movement (Tejada, 2010). Tejada further disclosed that several states even launched pre-kindergarten programs for disadvantaged children. Why the Need for Universal Preschool Two-thirds of 4-year-old children in the United States attend preschool, as well as 40% of 3-year-olds (Tejada, 2010). Half of those are enrolled in a public program, such as state prekindergarten (preK), Head Start, or special education, and the other half are in a private program (Adams, 2009). Despite such a large enrollment of children in these programs, there is still a handful of children who are missing out on obtaining a head start in obtaining a good quality education.... ...
The United States generally looks at education as a path to success but the people with the longest road towards success are not getting enough education. In the years before kindergarten, children form their basic thinking skills and children who don't learn these at home fall behind everyone else. In most cases children in poverty do not achieve these skills to the extent of middle-class children from their environment at home. When poor children enter school they are generally a year and a half behind the language abilities of their middle-class peers. Already children of poverty are behind in their ...
The Child Development Center of College of San Mateo provides early care and educational programs for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children are divided into classrooms with a “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two or three “associate” teachers. Klara attended Classroom, “A,” a stimulating and well-resourced classroom. Klara was observed for two hours on Monday from 9 am to 11 am and for two hours on Wednesday from 9 am to 11 am. During these two hours, classroom activities consisted of “free time,” “story time,” and an outside “play time.” A “master” teacher, a “regular” teacher, and two “associate” teachers were present during observations. Additionally, a total of eighteen children were in attendance during the observed days.
Early childhood education is important since 90% of a child’s brain develops by the age of 3. Early childhood education can set young children on a good path. But there is an unfair advantage that makes receiving this education, simpler for higher income families. At a young age, lower income students are shown to have lower language skills than higher income students. They are also shown to not be as ready for school as kids from higher income families. Preschool or daycare can also help expose kids to numbers and words. Children from high class families are exposed to 45 million words by the age of 4. Children from low class families are only exposed to 13 million though. Good quality childcare is expensive and many families do not see the importance. Parents in the low social class may not have the money or time either. The unfair element is that children at such a young age are already leaps and bounds ahead of other...
Children need preschool in its most basic essence: to define motor skills, achieve basic socialization skills, and to learn the alphanumeric system that will undoubtedly help improve their understanding in the grades to come, allowing for the advances in education that America desires and certainly needs. Making preschool mandatory as part of the education reforms that America so desperately requires will combat the lack of educational programming that exists and allow children to receive education at a younger age than they would have in a home where education is not a main family focus.
“Despite decades of federal, state, and local programs intended to support young children’s preparation for schooling, children from low-income families continue to begin formal schooling at a disadvantage.... ... middle of paper ... ... Sometimes they won’t learn anything, they may have made some good friends, or enemies, but they never really realized how to do certain things the teacher wanted them to grasp.
Early childhood education, although constantly evolving, was actually established and practiced as early on as the times of Ancient Greece and Rome. The foundation that early childhood education is based upon is to instill in children the skills needed to succeed later on in life, while making sure young children enjoy their time in schooling. Throughout chapter 3 in the textbook Who Am I in the Lives of Children, the reader is capable of evaluating just how greatly the methods for teaching today’s youth have evolved and changed for the better.
The results of quality preschool programs can be seen early after they begin. Children learn many important life le...
Loeb, S., Bridges, M., Fuller, B., Rumberger, R., & Bassok, D. (2005). How much is too much? The Influence of Preschool Centers on Children's Social and Cognitive Development (No. 11812). National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
There are many aspects to early childhood education including what all it contains and is being taught. People willing to teach in an early childhood center are vitally important for learning and have overwhelming benefits for the children (Teufel). Children are expected to know much more information at an early age, so it benefits children to have the opportunity to take part in a program before kindergarten.
Morrison, G. S. (1976). Chapter 6: Early Childhood Programs APPLYING THEORIES TO PRACTICE. In Early childhood education today (10th ed., pp. 5-31). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
Peisner-Feinberg, E. S., Burchinal, M. R., Clifford, R. M., Culkin, M. L., Howes, C., Kagan, S., & Yazejian, N. (2001). The Relation of Preschool Child-Care Quality to Children's Cognitive and Social Developmental Trajectories through Second Grade. Child Development, 72(5), 1534.
Preschool programs began in the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century with the first public preschool opening in 1925 in Chicago at Franklin School. After the 1970s the popularity of preschools increased as women were entering the workforce and people believed that children needed initial skills before they attended elementary school. (“All About Preschools, History…”2).