ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

I have been a proponent of investing in early childhood education since I was a child myself. Young children are the cradle of our future, and to ensure their education as soon as feasibly possible would not only be advantageous to them for purposes of global enterprise, but it would help to secure both our future and theirs. Children have an innate and unrelenting ability to learn that depletes as they grow older; educating them now, in areas that will be of the utmost socioeconomic significance later, will not be a burden on their developing brains, but it will aid that development. For example, children have an incredible ability to learn language; foreign languages are as easily learned as native ones. However; there is a certain “window” that this learning ability exists in, and once children reach a certain point in development, that window begins to close, and language acquisition becomes harder and harder. Being active in a global market indubitably requires good language skills, and what a better time to teach it to children than when they are most receptive to it? Basically, it’s better to get ‘em while their young!

This report is revolutionary in that it is one of the first well thought out and researched propositions to address early childhood needs through state-funding. Finally, someone making deliberate efforts to put research into practice and provide realistic opportunities for application! It truly is a beautifully written report in my professional opinion and I would encourage everyone who is involved with the life of a child from birth to five to read it.

Debra has a valid point. The family system cannot be ignored if we want quality child and adult outcomes. Just like I cannot take a child out of an environment "fix" a child and then put the child back into the same environment (that hasn't changed with the absence of the child) and expect holistic/systemic positive change. That is why the Early Childhood Systems charge each state has received through the Maternal Child Health Bureau funding speaks to eliminating fragmented and disjointed services for children and families. The Early Childhood Systems approach is designed to include and coordinate multiple institutions and layers of service delivery. So instead of targeting isolated pockets of change, an Early Childhood System addresses not simply the needed programs and services, but the systemic changes necessary to ensure effective and efficient delivery of high quality services. This of course includes families.

In Colorado we agree that parents are a crucial piece to improving all child outcomes. Our statewide alliance, Smart Start Colorado, is built around early childhood partnerships building a comprehensive system for young children and their families. That comprehensive early childhood system results in young children being ready for school and ready for life and includes: early care and education, health, mental health, and family support.

We have to provide families with the support they need, and for them to receive it, strong, effective messaging must take place. Instead of placing blame (that will surely fall where it will anyway), we need to focus on taking steps to plant the seeds that will bear good fruit. Compared to the rest of the world our country is in the "adolescent" stage of development if you will. We are growing up, all of us together at the same time, so these growing pains and awkward difficulty stage was bound to come. However just as this time has come, so will maturity.

Is it the best use of our time and energy to criticize the very individuals who are proactively providing a framework to make our educational system a better place? I don’t think so. Yes, we can provide them our professional constructive suggestions and I am sure they would welcome them. However, I commend this effort and every effort to keep us from failing our children and our future.

We continually find people trying to "improve" the educational system but never think to improve the product that is being put into the system.

I teach FACS and will illustrate my point with food: If I am going to make apple pie dessert I should begin with flavorful apples which have been properly prepared (students). I can enhance the flavor by using select spices (teachers, school setting, etc.).

With the correct ingredients, my pie turns out luscious each time I make it. However, if my pie tastes bland, I tend to blame it on the lack of proper spices but in reality, the apples are to blame. They are flavorless and that cannot be covered up with spices.

Our problem is that society has done away with the mechanism that produced good fruit...strong families. Our shameful divorce rate is the highest of all westernize countries. One fourth of our children are raised by a struggling single parent who often work two jobs to make ends meet. Of course we have affluent families, too. Too often in that scenario parents are not parenting...they want to be "friends" with their children to make up for time spent away from home pursuing wealth. Our parents want to pursue their own goals instead of putting the responsibility of raising children first and foremost. American parents eagerly pursue materialism, instant gratification, and leisure with wild abandon...and we wonder why we are producing poor fruit.

Take your committees and continue to analyze, implement, and then wonder at failure. Until we, the adults, come together and acknowledge our purpose, our children will continue to fail...our nation will fail.