Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Protect Our Kids from Preschool
Wall Street Journal ^ | August 22, 2008 | SHIKHA DALMIA and LISA SNELL

Posted on 08/22/2008 3:01:39 PM PDT by Amelia

Barack Obama says he believes in universal preschool and if he's elected president he'll pump "billions of dollars into early childhood education." Universal preschool is now second only to universal health care on the liberal policy wish list....

..."Advocates and supporters of universal preschool often use existing research for purely political purposes," says James Heckman, a University of Chicago Noble laureate in economics whose work Mr. Obama and preschool activists routinely cite. "But the solid evidence for the effectiveness of early interventions is limited to those conducted on disadvantaged populations."...

...If anything, preschool may do lasting damage to many children. A 2005 analysis by researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, found that kindergartners with 15 or more hours of preschool every week were less motivated and more aggressive in class. Likewise, Canada's C.D. Howe Institute found a higher incidence of anxiety, hyperactivity and poor social skills among kids in Quebec after universal preschool.

The only preschool programs that seem to do more good than harm are very intense interventions targeted toward severely disadvantaged kids. A 1960s program in Ypsilanti, Mich., a 1970s program in Chapel Hill, N.C., and a 1980s program in Chicago, Ill., all report a net positive effect on adult crime, earnings, wealth and welfare dependence for participants. But the kids in the Michigan program had low IQs and all came from very poor families, often with parents who were drug addicts and neglectful.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; barackobama; democrats; education; elections; fascism; nobama; nobama08; obama; obamatruthfile; preschool; publiceducation; publicschools; publikskoolz; schools; universalpreschool
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 next last
To: Clintonfatigued

Actually, I think that this is of more interest to the homeschool ping list.

Any time someone tries to make school attendance mandatory, it has the potential to have an effect on all homeschoolers.

I’ll ping that list.


21 posted on 08/22/2008 6:30:53 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: 2Jedismom; aberaussie; adopt4Christ; Aggie Mama; agrace; Antoninus; arizonarachel; AT7Saluki; ...

This ping list is for articles of interest to homeschoolers. DaveLoneRanger has asked me to take over the management of this list. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping List. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from either list, or both.

Something to keep in mind should obama win the election.


22 posted on 08/22/2008 6:32:29 PM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL

The Obama daughters currently attend the University of Chicago Laboratory School. One of them is in kindergarten. The school also runs a nursery school. Tuition for nursery school or kindergarten is almost $17,000 per year.

Michelle Obama is on the school’s board, as is heiress Penny Pritzker, who is a major supporter of Obama.

Bill Ayers, retired terrorist, is a professor of education at that university.

So it’s a good bet that the girls went to nursery school there, too.


23 posted on 08/22/2008 6:38:34 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Amelia

Ugh. And of course, after a few years such programs will become mandatory... like kindergarten is.


24 posted on 08/22/2008 6:49:24 PM PDT by JenB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibFreeOrDie

Wow! That’s one heck of a tuition bill.


25 posted on 08/22/2008 6:52:55 PM PDT by getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL (****************************Stop Continental Drift**)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: workerbee
It’s about publicly funded child-care and not a lot more.

IIRC, it started out in Georgia for the low-income children, then working parents were offended because low-income parents got free preschool/daycare, so it was offered to everyone...

26 posted on 08/22/2008 7:00:19 PM PDT by Amelia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Esther Ruth
The kids will never be able to do it (a real family) if they do not see it modeled. If “family” is foreign to them, something they have never seen modeled they will never even desire it or be able to duplicate it.

I have a lot of students in that situation now.

27 posted on 08/22/2008 7:02:14 PM PDT by Amelia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL; LibFreeOrDie

I read not long ago that the average tuition cost for independent (not church-based) private schools in the D.C. area was $25K/year.


28 posted on 08/22/2008 7:04:29 PM PDT by Amelia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: arthurus
I sometimes joke that soon we will have NEA teachers in the delivery ready to snatch newborns from their moms. They will raise them in NEA unionized government orphanages.

Geeze! This joke is becoming a reality. :-(

29 posted on 08/22/2008 7:09:51 PM PDT by wintertime (Good ideas win! Why? Because people are NOT stupid)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Amelia

Unreal.


30 posted on 08/22/2008 7:13:01 PM PDT by getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL (****************************Stop Continental Drift**)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: JenB

“Ugh. And of course, after a few years such programs will become mandatory... like kindergarten is.”
Kindergarten isn’t mandatory here in Washington State (nor should it be)..

Just an FYI...
It IS however, paid for by taxpayer money, even though IT IS NOT mandatory...


31 posted on 08/23/2008 12:09:49 AM PDT by M0sby ((Proud wife of MSgt. Edwards USMC ret.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Amelia

Kids need to be kids with imaginations and unstructured time outside, fostering creativity in their young minds.

They don’t need to be in an institution. They don’t need to be worried about where to stand on a soccer field.

They need to be outside running around, digging in the dirt, swinging from branches, and throwing rocks in a creek.

This is another reason to stay away from the govco education institutions.


32 posted on 08/23/2008 4:13:53 AM PDT by steveyp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: M0sby; JenB

Compulsory “education” starts in North Carolina at age 7, so my Pat isn’t “school age” yet even though he’s in the second grade at Sunday School. What’s required and what’s available in terms of government education varies by state, and even by district.


33 posted on 08/23/2008 4:45:42 AM PDT by Tax-chick (Obama: Can't kill the innocent fast enough, can't free the guilty soon enough!~ Diana in WI)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: wintertime

Government creches are actually a goal of NEA that goes back to Dewey et al. Children cannot be uniformly and properly trained so long as the parents pollute the process with their random “values” and traditions. Children must be removed from their parents within the first year and raised by experts who know how to do it for the benefit of society.


34 posted on 08/23/2008 4:53:19 AM PDT by arthurus
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: All
I see this morning that the New York Times is a bit worried, because A Promise of Pre-K for All Is Still Far Off in New York.

A few interesting quotes, pulled at random from the article:

The not-so-universal state of pre-kindergarten has frustrated many parents and children’s advocates, who cite studies showing that access to early education classes can be critical in smoothing out socioeconomic differences in vocabulary and development and in preparing children for the demands of schoolwork.

Few school administrators dispute the benefits of pre-kindergarten, but many say it is impractical to provide it to every child.

Jon Hunter, Fairport’s superintendent, said school officials and parents in this 7,000-student district once rejected the idea of universal pre-kindergarten, viewing it as nothing more than a remedial program when most of their students were already well prepared.

Again, IMO the idea of universal pre-K education is stupid and unnecessary, but it might be a good idea to provide it for very disadvantaged children. It should be a state and local decision, although I'll note that the localities that most need it might also be those that can least afford it.

35 posted on 08/23/2008 6:09:15 AM PDT by Amelia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: M0sby; JenB

Kindergarten is not mandatory in Arizona, either. But many people THINK it is. I have known people who knew they child wasn’t ready for kindergarten. I will tell them kindergarten is not required. The minimum school age is 6.


36 posted on 08/23/2008 7:41:59 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Amelia
Taxpayer-funded daycare isn't what most children need.

Children need their mommies, not daycare.

I'm a father who helped homeschool five children.

Formal schooling should not start at a minimum until eight years of age. Any educational concepts learned before then are easily learned at a later date when their brains are more developed

Bottom line is early education burns your child out as their brains are not ready for it.

37 posted on 08/23/2008 7:49:33 AM PDT by Popman (McCain as POTUS is odious, Obama as POTUS is unthinkable.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Popman
Formal schooling should not start at a minimum until eight years of age....Bottom line is early education burns your child out as their brains are not ready for it.

I think it depends on the child. Personally, I started first grade at five years of age, and nearly half a century later, I still don't feel "burned out" on education, have attained several degrees, and am still taking college classes as time and finances allow.

Congratulations on helping to homeschool your five children. Do allow me to point out that some homes don't have involved fathers such as yourself, or for that matter, fathers at all.

The children who really need preschool are those in very underprivileged households who are not talked to, not played with, not read to, etc. Children such as your own do not.

38 posted on 08/23/2008 7:58:39 AM PDT by Amelia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Amelia

pre-school should be about getting out a few hours during the week to play with other kids and get a positive experience.

Turning it into an all day, every day affair is bad for the kids and certainly shouldn’t be funded by the government.


39 posted on 08/23/2008 8:02:53 AM PDT by Scotswife
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scotswife

See my post #13...I think we agree.


40 posted on 08/23/2008 8:05:19 AM PDT by Amelia
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-70 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson