Today, The Daily Item publishes the first installment in "Smart Start," an occassional series of news stories and opinion pieces authored by local and regional experts on the importance of early childhood education. In a time of scarce public resources and increasing stress on home finances, there are few investments our state and our communities can make that will match the dividends of quality early childhood development.
We now have scientific evidence that nature and nurture work more closely together than most people had imagined in early childhood.
Failing to recognize the possiblities now will mean society will have greater challenges down the road. Brain development begins three weeks after conception and continues at a rapid pace right up through the toddler years. Children who come to school prepared to learn have a dramatic advantage, and researchers say it is substantially easier to help a child catch up if the need for intervention is discovered at a very young age. If developmental delays are not discovered until the child shows up for kindergarten, it may not exactly be too late, but the effort is more difficult. When schools are unable to help young people catch up, society eventually pays the price. Every $1 spent on high quality early education translates into $7 in reduced future expenditures for special education, delinquency, crime control, welfare and lost taxes.
Considering demographic and societal shifts, providing every child with an opportunity to learn and grow as well as possible will become increasingly important over the coming decades. When today's children are entering the workforce, twice as many people may be retiring. Someone is going to need to run this country as the rest of us while away our golden years.
Future generations will also face tremendous competition from around the globe. There are as many people younger than 18 in China as there are people of all ages in the U.S., and there are four Chinese children for every American child younger than 5.
There may be nothing more important to the long-term vitality of our nation, our state and our local communities than how well we raise our children. Failing to provide children with a boost in their formative years will be a short-sighted blunder that could haunt us for generations.
We invite you to follow along as experts explore the promise of investment in quality early childhood education in the series "Smart Start."
Smart Start Series
July 9, 2009
EDITORIAL: Society will benefit from early childhood education
- Smart Start Series
-
-
Programs aim to get youngsters on right track
Free or low-cost family programs are crucial to childhood development, local community leaders say. “Anything we can do as a community that stimulates a child’s learning is going to help them, and it’s going to help their family,” said Karen Ulp, coordinator for the Early Care and Education Coalition of Northumberland County.
-
Helping children impacts the workplace of the future
Since the end of World War II the economics of the workplace and the lack of quality child care encouraged fathers to work and mothers to stay at home while the children were young. Now, however, like my parents even then, mother and father both work, sometimes two jobs.
-
Are you ready for kindergarten?
In a few short days our schools will be filled with children laughing, playing, learning, and going to school for the first time. Kindergarten, by design is the final transition from home to a formal academic education.
-
Supportive bosses make for happy families
To get to his former law office in Maryland, Charlie Ross, of Selinsgrove, had to walk through an early childcare development center.
And so he is well aware, he jokes, of the importance for workplaces to be supportive of employees with children.
-
Hospital partners with SUM Child Development for care
LEWISBURG - Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg found a way to become more supportive of its workers with children through a relationship with Snyder, Union Mifflinburg Child Development Inc.
-
Early intervention is key to helping development
What should parents do if they suspect there may be something not quite right about their child’s development?
“Don’t worry—he’ll grow out of it.”
Those comforting words are often offered to parents who are not quite sure whether their child’s behavior is “normal” for his or her age.
-
Short-sighted spending cuts
As Pennsylvania continues to operate without a final budget, one of many sticking points to be resolved is whether early childhood programs will continue to be a priority in the year ahead. While scaling back Pre-K Counts, Head Start, Nurse-Family Partnership, quality childcare and other early childhood investments may save limited dollars now, these are false savings because these programs are shown to reduce the cost of government in the future.
-
There is much parents can do to help children learn
You just brought home your beautiful bundle of joy and as far as you can tell, all your baby does is sleep and eat.
Not so.
-
EDITORIAL: Society will benefit from early childhood education
Today, The Daily Item publishes the first installment in "Smart Start," an occassional series of news stories and opinion pieces authored by local and regional experts on the importance of early childhood education. In a time of scarce public resources and increasing stress on home finances, there are few investments our state and our communities can make that will match the dividends of quality early childhood development.
-
'Toxic stress' effects the brains of children
Living in poverty is a major factor in the development of "toxic stress," which can cause irreversible, negative effects in the brains of children through 5 years old, according to Valley physicians.
-
