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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
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Taxpayer-funded daycare isn't what most children need. Some children could probably benefit from "high quality" preschool, but not everyone needs it.
1 posted on 08/22/2008 3:01:40 PM PDT by Amelia
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To: Gabz; SoftballMominVA; abclily; aberaussie; albertp; AliVeritas; Amelia; A_perfect_lady; ...

Public Education Ping

This list is for intellectual discussion of articles and issues related to public education (including charter schools) from the preschool to university level. Items more appropriately placed on the “Naughty Teacher” list, “Another reason to Homeschool” list, or of a general public-school-bashing nature will not be pinged. If you would like to be on or off this list, please freepmail Amelia, Gabz, Shag377, or SoftballMominVa
2 posted on 08/22/2008 3:02:39 PM PDT by Amelia
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To: Amelia

Sounds like Obama just wants access for indoctrination.


3 posted on 08/22/2008 3:04:35 PM PDT by Doctor Raoul (Fire the CIA and hire the Free Clinic, someone who knows how to stop leaks.)
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To: Amelia

Unless the home situation is horrible, most children this age benefit more from being at home with a parent.


4 posted on 08/22/2008 3:04:45 PM PDT by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he said: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: Amelia

Ah. Totalitarians everywhere would be proud.


5 posted on 08/22/2008 3:04:56 PM PDT by Edgar3 (My SUV just ate your Pius)
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To: Amelia

And guess who is going to pay for universal pre-school. It should be up to the parents if they want the child to go to pre-school and they should pay for it themselves.


6 posted on 08/22/2008 3:09:49 PM PDT by Stephanie32
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To: Amelia
No children benefit from being home with mom and playing out doors using their imagination for fun.
Only pinkos think preschool is a good thing.
7 posted on 08/22/2008 3:11:25 PM PDT by svcw (There is no plan B.)
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To: Doctor Raoul

He doesn’t care about 4 year olds. In his mind, they are almost young enough to be valid for abortions.


8 posted on 08/22/2008 3:19:19 PM PDT by Soothesayer (I'm breaking out of this hand basket!)
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To: Amelia

I totally agree...pre—school isn’t for every child...and ‘universal pre-school’ is just more ‘Obama Knows Best.’ FWIW, I sent all of my kids to a wonderful, church afiliated pre-school. They all loved it (we are blessed in my area w/excellent Christian/Catholic and public schools.)

My youngest is 11, but I can still remember the ‘criers’ in each class who really weren’t ready to go to any sort of ‘away from mom’ setting...


9 posted on 08/22/2008 3:23:44 PM PDT by PennsylvaniaMom (I am still bitter.)
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To: Amelia

The goals here are to:

1. Get Socialism/Marxism instilled as early as 3 years old
2. Teach about sex at 6
3. Global Warming at 4
4. Oppression by heterosexual white Christian males, not lack of intelligence, concentration or impulsive actions are the cause of poverty
5. Handouts, not opportunity, should be the reason for govenment


10 posted on 08/22/2008 3:24:08 PM PDT by wac3rd (Carter80/Obama08)
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To: fightinJAG
Unless the home situation is horrible, most children this age benefit more from being at home with a parent.

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, there are some children whose home situations are terrible.

I have some high school students who aren't very bright, aren't very interested in anything education has to offer, and who have children already.

I can see that those toddlers might benefit from a good preschool, but I don't think that most children of middle class parents need it.

11 posted on 08/22/2008 3:47:35 PM PDT by Amelia
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To: Amelia
thank God my preschool was my Grandmother... our kids Preschool was my Mother.
12 posted on 08/22/2008 3:48:47 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist - CTHULHU/NYARLATHOTEP'08 = Nothing LESS!!!)
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To: PennsylvaniaMom
I totally agree...pre—school isn’t for every child...and ‘universal pre-school’ is just more ‘Obama Knows Best.’ FWIW, I sent all of my kids to a wonderful, church afiliated pre-school. They all loved it (we are blessed in my area w/excellent Christian/Catholic and public schools.) My youngest is 11, but I can still remember the ‘criers’ in each class who really weren’t ready to go to any sort of ‘away from mom’ setting...

I think it might be a good thing to try more of the "very intense interventions targeted toward severely disadvantaged kids" but I also think it's a mistake to assume that all, or even most, children need preschool.

And, to me there is a significant difference between the 2 or 3 morning a week church preschools, and an all-day, 5-day-a-week program...

13 posted on 08/22/2008 3:53:56 PM PDT by Amelia
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To: Amelia

This idea has NOTHING to do with what’s good for children and EVERYTHING to do with what’s good for Marxists who aren’t reproducing by natural means.


14 posted on 08/22/2008 3:58:14 PM PDT by Zechariah_8_13 ("If we give the bureaucrats our children, we may as well give them everything else." - J. G. Machen)
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To: Amelia

This is about the teachers’ unions and their employment as well as working mothers groups. They fought and fought for mandatory, f/t kindergarten (and got it) — now they move on to the preschool level. It’s about publicly funded child-care and not a lot more.


15 posted on 08/22/2008 4:13:24 PM PDT by workerbee (Vote for Obama? No thanks, I already have a messiah.)
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To: Amelia

They are all doing their best as quick as possible to destroy what is left of any live modeling and examples of what real family looks like. They want the kids away from it, out of it’s presence. 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.


16 posted on 08/22/2008 4:19:40 PM PDT by Esther Ruth
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To: Amelia

When the Obama kids were little, did Michelle send them to preschool or was she home with them? Anyone know?


17 posted on 08/22/2008 4:25:16 PM PDT by getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL (****************************Stop Continental Drift**)
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To: Amelia

Universal preschool now, government creche later.


18 posted on 08/22/2008 5:45:46 PM PDT by arthurus
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To: Amelia
Some children could probably benefit from "high quality" preschool, but not everyone needs it.

Not to mention that the Feds shouldn't be sticking their noses into this area to begin with.

19 posted on 08/22/2008 6:07:32 PM PDT by timm22 (Think critically)
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To: metmom; Tired of Taxes; wintertime

Another reason to homeschool, and another reason to vote against Obama.


20 posted on 08/22/2008 6:16:10 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued (If Islam conquers the world, the Earth will be at peace because the human race will be killed off.)
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