If you have no compassion for yourself then you are not capable of developing compassion for others.
-Dalai Lama
Young children who took part in an intervention program run by the Chicago public schools continue to benefit from the services well into adulthood, the latest data from a long-range study of participants shows. These results are reported in
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine (August, 2007), in an article entitled "Effects of a School-Based, Early Childhood Intervention on Adult Health and Well-Being."
At age 24 these adults had acquired more education and were less likely to have committed crimes than those who did not receive the same level of service. In addition, children who attended the city's Child-Parent Centers were more likely to have health insurance and be less apt to exhibit symptoms of depression.
The "Chicago Longitudinal Study", which started more than 20 years ago, originally included 1,539 children from low-income African-American and Hispanic families who began the program at 25 sites in either 1985 or 1986. For the study of 24-year-olds, data were available for 1,389 people �" 902 of whom had participated in the Child-Parent program and 487 of whom had been enrolled in other types of early childhood programs or had attended full-day kindergarten but hadn't attended preschool.
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Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 Commentscolor outside the lines
tyler, TX, United States
The picture of the high school seniors, thoughtfully placed in their yearbook, was taken in the spot in the playground where another picture, was taken when they were two year olds.
The students almost all placed in the top ten percent of their
senior class, will attend college, remember their preschool years, have parents who believe in imagination, nature and play. Imagine!
Early Learning Coalition of Palm Beach County
Boynton Beach, Florida, United States
Are we allowed to reproduce an article such as this on our website giving credit to Exchange Everyday and its website????
cambridge, mA, United States
As usual I think a bit of the story behind this story Lets see those kids were in preschool programs about 20 years ago. That was long before, or perhaps at the very beginning of this push for academics.
I suspect they were in programs where there was plenty of free play, an hour or more of outdoor time a day, and lots of open ended art projects. I bet they read a lot of stories, and chatted a lot too.
I would love to put two programs side by side. One of 20 years ago, and one today. I suspect they would be very different. Even if we think they wouldn't be.
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