Strengthening Education: Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat

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"In the future, how we educate our children may prove to be more important than how much we educate them"(Friedman 309). Have you ever thought about how essential the effort you put into helping your child learn is to their ability to succeed in their education all together? Studies have proven that from birth to age three are the most crucial years in laying the foundation for the rate a child will learn because their brains are developing faster than at any other point in their lives. In Thomas Friedman’s book, The World Is Flat, he claims that we must repair our education system in order to keep up with the effects that globalization is having on the world. If we do not strengthen our education system, the U.S. will fall behind countries such as China and India in areas of innovation, causing our jobs to be outsourced and therefore “flattening” the world (Friedman). Yakima’s Ready By Five program will help us take a step in the right direction by getting parents involved in educating their children and preparing them to compete in the flat world. This program is essential to close the education gap and better prepare children with creativity, ambition, and the vital skills needed before they start kindergarten. Ready By Five focuses on providing low-income families who live in the designated area of East Yakima with extra help to prepare their children with their best chance to succeed in this world. According to the Ready By Five website: Ready by Five develops opportunities and strengthens existing early learning efforts within families, child care settings and the community, working to surround children with high quality early learning environments, wherever they spend their days… Ready by Five is creating a sustainable, in... ... middle of paper ... ...m. Ultimately it is the goal of this program to partner with families to close the educational gap that currently exists. We must remember to ready our children for the world ahead of them from day one. "The future won't wait for us, and if we don't invent it, someone else will" (Friedman 399). Start with inventing a sense of desire to learn in your children. Work Cited "About Ready By Five." Ready By Five. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan 2012. "Early Learning in Washington State." Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2011. Web. 26 Jan 2012. Friedman, Thomas. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Expanded ed. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. 309-400. Print. "Investing In Children: An Early Learning Strategy for Washington State." Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. N.p., 2005. Web. 27 Jan 2012.

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