Posted on 12/05/2016 8:08:13 AM PST by Academiadotorg
Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution wondered why "children who participated in Tennessee's statewide pre-K program had worse attitudes toward school and poorer work habits than children who didn't." Haskins co-authored a policy brief (entitled "Trouble in the Land of Early Childhood Education?") with Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, a professor at Columbia University, and they noted, "the past year has seen a disagreement erupt on the playground" regarding the future of pre-K early education.
They admitted, "One of the most important aspects of early education is its popularity with the public." They continued, "Public support is vital if we aim to expand the availability and quality of pre-K programs." They estimated, "the annual cost of Head Start is around $9,000 per child, and some pre-K programs cost as much as $15,000 per child or more." The program should be for low-income, poor single mothers and their children, the authors said. Citing poll results which could be considered vague, they noted that 89% of children "getting a 'strong start in life' is 'extremely' or 'very' important.'"
They also brought up the idea that pre-K programs may not be as effective as they had hoped.
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.org ...
Yet another group of surprised experts.
Government subsidized babysitting
Government subsidized babysitting
Perhaps 5-year olds need loving patents, not government programmers.
It’s mostly because “Childhood Ed” programs are developed by the same kind of people who work for the Brookings Institution.
You know, I was going to title it “Policy dorks meet reality” but restrained myself, at least until now;>)
Ed not working...
Are they doing any teaching?
Are they teaching something learnable by children that age?
Could be that a young child needs 1-on-1 to avoid assuming that the “teacher” is talking to someone else in the room. Children tune out easily.
My hypothesis is that as the nuclear American family continues its decline there is a commensurate decline in the effectiveness of early childhood education. Moreover, there is significant empirical date covering decades that shows Head Start programs help slightly early in a child’s life, but then all children are at parity by the third grade.
I have lost track.
Pre-K.
That would be before Kindergarten which is before First Grade.
So we are taking infants now and are in charge of potty training, using eating utensils, putting on clothes?
Why don’t we just take them away at Birth?
Maybe because the first 3 or 4 years are nurturing years....not preparation for SATs.
If a child has parents who have no interest in sitting down with it and teaching it to use crayons, scissors, paper and pencil, or take the time to feed it, there is a lot more wrong here than any program can fix.
Instead the objective must be to discourage the parents from having more of these unfortunate children. Policies that reward making babies to increase benefits must end.
Ha ha.
Yes, how do they expect the kids to stay awake past 11 or so? Nap time. These kids would do much better learning from mother.
Yes.
So much of what goes on in government schools is mere baby-sitting.
And many parents seem to make no effort to educate at home. Alphabet? Reading? Math? Discipline? Why should the parents bother? Isn’t that what the schools do?
Meanwhile, the schools are just happy if the kids don’t kill each other.
Adding to that, the authors claimed that this one study cannot debunk the multiple other studies conducted on the issue. They said, “if we average across high-quality studies from the past…we find evidence that preschool produces ‘substantial benefits’ for children.”
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This is data cherry-picking. There are ‘substantial benefits’ for children” but they totally fade out by fourth grade.
Exactly. Children at this age need family, nurturing and parental modeling. They simply are not wired at that tender age to be formally educated. Their socialized play IS their appropriate learning.
How much do I now get from the feds in terms of research grants or did I just give this apparent secret away gratis?
Have these kids been getting Michelle Obama’s school lunches? If so, case closed.
Exactly what I was going to say ... if you hadn’t said it first. :-)
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