The article “The Future of Children” is a controversial piece that handles children development through analyzing the roles played by early education. Parents have many expectations when their children are born and they start molding them right from kindergarten up to higher education. This paper handles the importance of preschool education, economic returns of childhood education. It also tackles neuroscientific insights, quality of early education, how to support young English learners and lastly supporting young children with disabilities.
It is important for a child to receive education before kindergarten to enlighten and guide them through small activities like dressing, brushing, feeding, talking, playing and also interacting with other people (Holly et al
207). 70% of adults agree that the best way of molding productive adults is by introducing them to early education and enlightening them before they embark on education. The prekindergarten program launched by President Lyndon Johnson failed due to increased poverty and low-income families. Since many people believe d that education background can be strengthened through early kindergarten, president Obama and Bush pushed and tried to set a budget to fund prekindergarten education (Douglas et al, 86).
According to a research done by Lynn Karoly, every dollar invested in pre-kindergarten education yields between $3-$17 benefits. Therefore he argues that early education is the best investment that people can have for their children. James Heckman, a professor at the University of Chicago argues that the benefits of education can be realized when invested at childhood than adolescence stage. Children can easily grasp knowledge and skills at a younger age. The pre-kindergarten education program was launched in the United States in 1970 where it was made to cater for disadvantaged children as they prepared to get funds for education. However, it did not benefit the disadvantaged communities due to poverty (Daphna et al 63).
The evaluations applied in pre-kindergarten education are Perry Preschool and Head Start. The Perry Preschool has been applied in many nations at different instances. It enrolled children between the age of 2-3 years and they received center to care for half a day and spend the rest of the day at home (Holly et al 101). It majorly consisted of African-American children who came from low-income families. The Head Start system entails full child approaches like health, nutrition, family support programs and education (Douglas et al, 81). A research that was done in Tulsa compared children who received high-quality Head Start education and those who did not. It was the discovered that children who undergo well organized Head Start system develops high critical thinking abilities, they are sharp and most of them identify and utilize their talents at a younger age.
White book (2014) quotes that there is need to prepare teachers and parents for pre-kindergarten education. The number of pre-kindergarten teachers with certificate and degree has increased tremendously over the last fifteen years. The government should take an initiative of improving teacher education and ensuring that teachers are given insurance covers and enough salaries to cater to their financial difficulties (Holly et al 79). Young learners can be taught in English or their native language. However, Barrow describes that when learners are taught in both English and native language, they prefer learning by their native language. For proper reading and writing of English, specialized approaches and instruction methods have to be applied.
The Head Start method gives a chance to children with disabilities although the pre-kindergarten slots set aside are few to cater for the diversity of children with disabilities in the US. Accommodating them in the curriculum is a challenge since they require special schools to guide them and the pre-kindergarten knowledge may not necessarily help them in future education life (Daphna et al 57).
In conclusion, early education has proved to have both social and economic benefits to the life of children. The government, parents, and teachers should set aside specialized methods and plans to advance pre-kindergarten education, especially for the low-income population.
Work Cited
Daphna Bassok et al., “Socioconomic Gaps in Early Childhood Experiences, 1998 to 2010,” working paper, EdPolicyWorks, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, (2015): 54- 97.
Douglas H. Clements, Julie Sarama, and Carrie Germeroth, “Learning Executive Function and Early Mathematics: Directions of Causal Relations,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 36 (2016): 79–90, doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.12.009.
Holly S. Schindler et al., “Maximizing the Potential of Early Childhood Education to Prevent Externalizing Behavior Problems: A Meta-Analysis,” Journal of School Psychology 53 (2015): 63–243.
