The
Importance of Early Education for All Children:
A
Superintendent’s Perspective
by Frank Perotti, Superintendent Springfield School District
Our
dear friend’s twins, Kyle and Laura entered the world November 11 and will
enter kindergarten in September 2012.
Both will be eager to learn and excited about “finally” going to “real”
school. Their family will be equally
excited and apprehensive at the same time.
What the parents, teachers and administrators all will know is that
depending on the learning experiences during the first five years of life, the
outcomes for these two children will be very different and extremely difficult
to change even with often expensive interventions during their school
experience.
Vermont’s
Early Learning Standards identify the eight major areas where a gap in
achievement and readiness is expressed by children. They are: Approaches to Learning, Social and
Emotional Development, Language including Literacy and Communication,
Mathematics, Science, Creative Expression and Physical Development and
Health. The research is clear that the
greatest gains through education and life experience to close the gap between
students can be achieved during the first five years while the brain is
creating the neurological hard wiring to support all future learning.
The
case for Universal Pre-kindergarten is clear.
John Dewey, a century ago, was adamant that for our democracy to
flourish we would need to highly educate all of our citizens. Education does not just mean academics, but
also includes empathy, understanding, acceptance not just tolerance,
communication, problem solving and decision making skills. Beyond that our ability to be critical
thinkers and flexible life long learners is demanded
by the challenges of a globalized economy and society.
Young
children from all ethnic, cultural and economic backgrounds learn the essential
skills—academics, empathy, understanding, acceptance not just tolerance,
communication, problem solving and decision making—when they are in a common
environment sharing experiences. They clearly do not learn when they are in
segregated ones. The “Dream for America”
that Dr. Martin Luther King spoke of can not be
achieved in isolation. The arguments for
universal pre-kindergarten are not based solely in the very real academic
advantages of a high quality experience, but also in the hope for a society
that encourages and makes the reality of success and the American dream possible
for all children.
Our
dream can only be fulfilled by all children entering kindergarten on an equal
basis, academically, socially, emotionally and ready to learn in a world that
not only expects excellence from all, but makes it possible. My personal dream for my young friends Kyle
and Laura—twins born November 11, 2007—is that they will experience a full,
high quality public education because their early pre-school educational
experiences allowed them access to everything that was available without costly
special education interventions, compensatory classes or therapy.
Once
students enter kindergarten the best we can do is decrease the rate at which
the achievement gap widens. Rarely, if
ever do we really close it. I know,
without any doubt, that single most effective way to support all of our
children and reduce educational cost is to insure the foundation is laid with
high quality universal access early education Pre-school.