Posted on 11/23/2008 9:10:11 PM PST by ari-freedom
Anyone who has taught young children knows how daunting it can be to keep the attention of a roomful of four-year-olds, much less teach them anything. Parents and taxpayers thus have reason to worry that the federal government, having spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to improve the nation’s public schools—with little to show for it—is under growing pressure to spend billions more on a mission even more fraught with peril: helping states create and support high-quality preschools.
With 38 states funding prekindergarten programs last year and more than 1 million children attending them—both all-time highs—congressional leaders in Washington are sponsoring various proposals to make these programs bigger and stronger. In June, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed “investing $10 billion to guarantee access to quality, affordable early-childhood education for every child in America,” and his campaign website features a call for “Early Learning Challenge Grants” to help states “move toward voluntary, universal preschool.” Senator Hillary Clinton’s Ready to Learn Act, cosponsored by Missouri Republican Kit Bond, would provide states with “such funds as may be necessary” to offer full-day voluntary preschool for four-year-olds, with priority given to those who are poor or unfamiliar with English. Hawaii Democratic congresswoman Mazie Hirono’s Pre-K Act would deliver states $1 billion annually for six years to strengthen existing pre-K programs.
also see http://www.zigsite.com/CompPreschPro.htm
Pre-K programs are a handout to teacher unions.
Statistically speaking, students who attend pre-K are a self-selecting group who have parents who fundamentally care more about their education and end up doing better in school and life.
Democrats have jumped on this correlation to justify spending more money on teacher’s unions and mandating universal pre-school. Like headstart, this will be another expensive boondongle for the teacher’s unions that accomplishes nothing more than making liberals feel good about themselves.
They changed the cutoff date, added "parent attendance required" pre-school....which was "socializing with other kids"...and no more...
Now, it's nothing but a babysitting program requiring "certified teachers"....Clever, aren't they.
Add to that the fact that "something" is wrong with every kid that twitches or taps his foot or is bored to death....and we need "certified counselors" and "drugs" to make them sit still.
Gee, Teach....sorry kids are so "annoying". Sorry you're so boring. Sorry you think that spelling stunts kids' creativity. Sorry you don't teach them times tables. Sorry....Sorry for the kids!!
And studies of Headstart vs. a control group showed all advances erased by the 3rd grade.
and watch parents stampede to get their “free daycare”.
I agree, projects that show short-term gains can be found. The problem is that programs showing permanent gains are virtually non-existent.
These efforts are subject to a phenomenon called “fade-out.” The gains achieved at age four just don’t endure into adolescence or even later elementary grades.
Implementing massive, nationwide programs that have never been shown to produce longterm gains is pretty darn irresponsible in my book. But it does make liberals feel virtuous.
“Anyone who has taught young children knows how daunting it can be to keep the attention of a roomful of four-year-olds...”
GWB gets a refresher course in that lesson each time he addresses Congress!
“These efforts are subject to a phenomenon called “fade-out.” The gains achieved at age four just don’t endure into adolescence or even later elementary grades.”
Basically - much good being done in elem. gets undone when the hormones and ultra-peer pressures kick in during the awkward squirrely middle school years.
And this is also where teacher turnover is highest.
Some districts experimented with same sex classes and strict dress codes to alleviate the problems associated with hormones and “mean girls” - with good results.
But I read about that 1 or 2 years ago and haven’t really heard anything since.
I taught science for 19 years, and I agree that Direct Instruction works.
Problem is that most grade 1-12 teachers (never mind Early Childhood majors) have never heard of it or frankly are too lazy to create structured lessons.
It’ll never happen in pre-grade 1 classes. Not unless some publishing company comes up with pre-packaged materials.
That results accords with something found by the Soviet Union many years ago. It reasoned that the citizens could become productive sooner if they started school at age four instead of the customary age 5. What they discovered was that somewhere along the second or third grade, progress seemed to stall and the kids were not further along in education having started earlier.
Children need a time to be children, to bond with their parents, to work on their individual identities and personality development, to play, to sleep when necessary, to learn home skills. But with more and more parents working, kids are being shuffled off to caretakers and I guess the vast majority of them would rather have the government pay for their daycare. Yet the kids are ending up more aggressive, selfish, rebellious and exhausted.
Don’t get lost in the rhetoric. This is simply a ploy to further collectivism. Our entire education system has become anti-American and pro-collectivism. Starting earlier just allows them to influence future generations at a younger age. Additionally, more government teachers means more members in the government unions where all the political contributions go to the collectivists.
kids get free care now in head start, even babies as young as a few months are elible to be baby sat.. i am sure they learn a lot...all at tax payers expense..
This will be “free daycare”
And yes, at the playground, library, restaurants you can tell a mile away which kids are in daycare.
My little bear is 4 and we spend our days PLAYING. AT HOME. She knows her letters, is working on phonics and can count to 50. But that’s all incorporated into our play. Kids are little sponges. Give them some attention and they will absorb anything you put in front of them. What she is mainly learning is manners, kindness, responsibility for her stuff (toys picked up, bed made), which bushes have ladybugs, and how long it takes to dig a hole deep enough to stand in. All the important things!
A few more billion bucks to mold babies in the shape of the state hires how many more teachers' union members?
yitbos
I have Engelmann’s “Give your child a superior mind.”
It would be great if someone would bring back the Engelmann-Bereiter pre-school. Kids are capable of so much more than cutting and coloring.
playing is great but it is not as effective as Direct Instruction and culturally deprived kids need every advantage they can get!
“Our entire education system has become anti-American and pro-collectivism.”
if they aren’t in school, chances are they are sitting in front of the TV and soaking up all kinds of nonsense. Why not teach them how to read or do math instead?
oh they have heard of it but it contradicts everything they have been taught in the Ed schools, especially Piaget. Therefore, it must be bad.
I have taught reading using Direct Instruction. The schools using that program are still the worst schools in the state.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.