Does anyone know where exactly the cure for cancer or AIDS lies? Clearly, the answer is no, and that would be acceptable, so long as we were taking advantage of all the resources we have access to in order to find it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. These resources, though, are not the most up-to-date computers or advanced biotechnology, but rather the minds of the individuals where the genius necessary to produce such items exists. These individuals, however, are not always as fortunate as others, financially speaking. While they are perfectly able to enroll in public school and receive an education, children who are hovering around or below the poverty line are statistically less likely to achieve a level of educational attainment as high as their wealthier counterparts (Ferguson et al 702). Because public schooling begins at age five, and the critical period for child development takes place within the first few years of life, the most reasonable explanation behind this educational ineptitude must lie within the quality or absence of a preschool experience. Therefore, I believe that providing additional early educational outreach opportunities encompassing all underprivileged youths can allow for a more advantageous development for the individual, and reverse the effects of poverty, in turn having a positive impact on the nation’s job market. First, one must identify what exactly determines this school readiness. According to Kagan, “[it] sanctions a fixed standard of physical, intellectual, and social development sufficient to enable children to fulfill specific school requirements and to assimilate the curriculum” (49). This standard is often used to determine whether an individual requires a special education or not,... ... middle of paper ... ...d Health 12.8 (2007): 701-06. National Institutes of Health. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2007. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. Isaacs, Julia B. Starting School at a Disadvantage: The School Readiness of Poor Children. Brookings.edu. The Social Genome Project, Mar. 2012. Web. 3 Nov. 2013. Kagan, Sharon L. "Readiness Past, Present, and Future: Shaping the Agenda." Young Children 48.1 (1992): 48-53. Print. Sornson, Robert. "Preventing Early School Failure." Preventing Early Learning Failure. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001. 177. Print. "Federal On-budget Funds for Education, by Level/educational Purpose, Agency, and Program: Selected Fiscal Years, 1970 through 2012." Federal On-budget Funds for Education, by Level/educational Purpose, Agency, and Program. Digest of Education Statistics, Oct. 2012. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
Williams, Leslie R. and Doris Pronin Fromberg, ed. Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education. New York: Garland Publishing, 1992.
Miller, K. R., & Levine, J. S. (2010). Miller & Levine biology. Boston, Mass.: Pearson.
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Laden, Greg. "Children from Low-income Families at Educational Disadvantage." Science Blog. N.p., 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
Miller, K. R., & Levine, J. S. (2010). Miller & Levine biology. Boston, Mass: Pearson
Students in poverty tend to obtain low grades, have little academic achievement, and often misbehave. Many often drop out before graduating high school. Students ages sixteen through twenty-four are up to seven times more likely to drop out. A study published in Nature Neuroscience discovered “a link between physical brain development and poverty level. In a study of eleven hundred children, adolescence and adults from around the US, researchers found significant differences in the brains of children from the lowest income bracket in comparison to those in the highest. Families who lived on less than twenty-five thousand dollars a year had as much as 6% less surface area in their brain in areas like language and decision making than families who made more than one hundred and fifty dollars a year.” This may support why many students in poverty tend to do worse in school over middle class students. Employers usually lean toward more educated workers, leaving the poor at a serious disadvantage when it comes to work Children growing in poverty regularly have families of their own poverty. Some workplaces, manufacturing jobs have replaced their human labor with machinery and technology, which leaves many potential jobs out of the hands of people hungry for work. Having a weak education leaves them unskilled, resulting poor and low paying occupations. This creates a long lasting loop of poverty, a loop which is hard to escape. They
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said:“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.” Mr. Roosevelt was indicating that education is key to ensuring a positive future for our country. Years have passed since his presidency, and many can argue that America’s educational system has improved, but that still remains to be seen. While it is true that education has gotten more focus in recent years, as highlighted by the “No Child Left Behind Act,” it does not mean that the system is fully developed enough to aid all of America’s children. Now, the average American is just that: average. Children generally receive B’s and C’s, average grades, in school if they are lucky enough to be in a good school system. Literacy rates are lower than they seem, and not enough people are properly motivated to do well in school. Forms of entertainment and parental influence, which also play a large role in the development of children into successful, productive adults, are not where they should be with respects to education. Much more needs to be done to improve the educational system of the entire country. Preschool should be made mandatory to help individuals reach their full potential and achieve what only a minority of today’s society is currently capable of.
Children are our future and they should be given every possible opportunity to succeed in life even if they are born into disadvantaged situations. Sometimes the families of certain children can’t provide as much as other children’s families and this can create a gap in the achievement and development of these children. Those disadvantaged children need special programing that accommodates for the lack of cognitive and social development that if not properly addressed could lead to poor school performance and delinquency.
Jena, Anupam B., Seth Seabury, Darius Lakdawalla, and Amitabh Chandra. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 18 Aug. 2011. Web. 01 May 2014.
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.
Living in poverty exposes children to disadvantages that influence many aspects in their life that are linked to their ability to do well in school. In the United States of America there are an estimated 16.4 million children under the age of 18 living in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). “The longer a child lives in poverty, the lower the educational attainment” (Kerbo, 2012). Children who are raised in low-income households are at risk of failing out before graduating high school (Black & Engle, 2008). U.S. children living in poverty face obstacles that interfere with their educational achievement. Recognizing the problems of living in poverty can help people reduce the consequences that prevent children from reaching their educational potential.
Early childhood education plays a key role in a child’s academic development because he or she learns soft skills, job skills, and develop positive traits. Preschool is not like kindergarten, but instead a stepping-stone that prepares young students for the years of schooling they will have later in life. As more schools began to open families wanted to be able to verify that programs would benefit and protect their children. In response, the National Association for the Education of Young Children was made to help families find the best care for their children, by providing the early childhood educators with training and ensuring the quality of children’s daily experiences. (“NAEYC”5).