the scandal of education

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“At-risk children who don't receive a high-quality early childhood education are 25% more likely to drop out of school, 40% more likely to become a teen parent, 50% more likely to be placed in special education, 60% more likely to never attend college, 70% more likely to be arrested for a violent crime. Early childhood programs are the most cost-effective way to ensure the healthy development of children in poverty and offer the greatest returns to society” (Ounce About the Ounce). Ready by Five is a program that will aid to ensure a quality education for young students. It is a way to prep children for kindergarten, and really, the rest of their lives. The Ready by Five program will give young kids in Yakima an opportunity to better their education in order match globalization in an ever-flattening world. It is possible that this program will help to close the education gap at the bottom, ignite their passion and curiosity by using the right side of their brains and instill the ability to learn how to learn.
A problem Ready by Five could potentially impact for the better is the education gap at the bottom. The education gap at the bottom is, according to Thomas Friedman, an issue of paying for public education. Public education in the United States is paid for from property taxes. In east Yakima, we find that it is on the low end of the financial spectrum. While not always the case, poorer districts tend to attract weak teachers and principals; along with parents who work multiple jobs (Friedman 360). This leaves these parents less time to devote to the education of their child. In homes where there is less time spent investing in education, limited access to text and, as The Early Catastrophe states, “Where language stores are ...

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...rojects every chance I get. Half the time, kids that have come into my classroom have never even touched a paint brush.” In order to awaken the passion and curiosity that burns in everyone, even toddlers, there has to a passionate force behind it. “You can’t light the fire of passion in someone else if it doesn’t burn in you to begin with” (Friedman 315). My sister is one of these teachers, and we’ve spent hours talking about this very subject. I know that she is determined to advance the students that walk into her classroom, because she knows that they are the future.

If we implement Ready by Five in the city of Yakima, it will help us contribute to fighting the battle of globalization. It will serve to close the education gap at the bottom, ignite their passion and curiosity by using the right side of their brains and instill the ability to learn how to learn.

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