Impact Of Good Early Childhood Education On A Child

Today when the subject of early childhood education is discussed our thoughts go to grade school youngsters or children in kindergarten. However, the focus of early childhood education indeed considers all children from birth to the age of 5 years old. This is part of our government's findings about the impact of good early childhood education.

The Human Services and the Dept. Of Education are working in line to ensure the child care education programs across the US have a strong strategy for the education and care of our preschoolers. An announcement from the National Academy of Sciences publications says that early childhood education and care taking for our preschoolers needs to work together when meeting early requirements of children across the US. The program for preschoolers are being designed with both these components in mind for childcare education.

A change will be happening as the first graders will be groomed in cognitive and social readiness when they enter the first grade of school. This move is prompted by calls to the White House to act upon some research studies done that indicate the positive impact of Head start programs and other childcare education studies. Program evaluations found early child care and education made an impression upon the cognitive skills, health and behavior status of children through graduation.

The Head start programs and plans which sent nurses into homes of mothers and their infants, as well State Pre-K programs, delivered early childhood education information to parents about their physical and emotional health. Statistical evidence provided information that children safety issues improved. Reports of parents served in these programs for early childhood education were positive for the entire family unit.

The same children who started out in early childhood education programs decades ago were tracked and the results show reductions in criminal behavior resulted. There are also indications that the dropout rate was decreased because issues that began for children were addressed before they ever entered the first grade. Researchers in kindergarten and preschool education discovered that those who drop out of school must be attended to before their third grade class in school.

The reports of positive results in lowering dropout rates and criminal behavior came from improved behavior and better IQ's achieved in kindergarten education programs. These reports, after the program evaluations, were the reason people called the White House for continued funding to support early childhood education for all children from birth to kindergarten.

In conclusion, the program evaluations of early childhood education determined the long term results were an investment. Every dollar spent on these programs produced a return worth seven times the investment. Costs to care for the jailed dropouts arrested for criminal behavior and the indigent adults without education; they bear upon society's purse strings to further fund welfare and prison systems. Both the people and the government are in favor of preventative efforts established by the kindergarten programs.

Purposeful Power: An Early Childhood Education Teacher

I remember her as beautiful and extremely giving. Ms. Judy, my Head Start teacher, embodies my earliest memories of being in school. My parents enrolled me in one of the first Head Start classrooms in St. Louis, Missouri. At that time, Head Start was considered one of the federal governments "latest experiments" that would address the nation's challenges for children growing up in poverty. Nevertheless, for the 15 or so children who were a part of my classroom experience, we gained beyond what the government might have expected. Essentially, the "experiment's" greatest gift to us was a loving and caring teacher.

Our neighborhood's Head Start program was located in the basement of a small Mennonite church. From a historical perspective, the Mennonite church's mission and Head Start's was similar in the sense that both entities focused on being change agents in communities with primarily working class and low-income families. In our hyper segregated all Black community the Mennonite church was viewed with circumspect because of its predominately White membership who many parents thought of as a group of hippie style do-gooders. However, even though the program's administration and teaching staff was made up of person's primarily from the church, the volunteers and some paid staff were parents from the neighborhood. Probably, the decision to hire parents helped to put families at ease and motivated them to enroll their children.

In Ms. Judy's classroom the daily routine consisted of morning free play, story time, arts and crafts, a hot lunch, nap time, more free play, and then an afternoon snack of juice and Saltine crackers or juice and oatmeal raisin cookies just before it was time to go home. I remember a childhood filled with happiness and lots of excitement; rushing to get dressed in the mornings so that I could have fun doing pretend play, picture reading, and finger painting. However, the most indelible memory include insisting on sitting next to Ms. Judy during our reading circles and becoming enveloped in her voice as she pushed our imaginations to travel to places and experiences different from our familiar. Her tone was encouraging and inspired a room full of 4 year old children to think, question, and believe beyond our immediate. As a result, and with the consistent reinforcement from my parents, I became an emergent reader while in preschool and I entered Kindergarten reading.

Nevertheless, the transition from leaving preschool and entering Kindergarten was extremely traumatic. I was the kid who spent his beginning days of Kindergarten weeping, wailing, and kicking as I rolled across the classroom floor. Each day, for the entire first week, after making it to the school yard with my older brother, I would refuse to enter the building holding desperately to the fence screaming, "No! I want to go with Ms. Judy! Where is Ms. Judy?!" Consequently, Mr. Hughes, the Principal, would routinely pick me up gently and take me to class. There seemed to be absolutely no comforting me because I thought my parents had played some awful bait and switch trick by separating me from the teacher I loved to this new person I did not want to know.

Now this story is not necessarily about a kid with a great childhood and the progressive foresight of his parents to place him in preschool. No, this story is about the not so obvious. This story is about the POWER of one when they are acting out of the context of what we call Early Childhood "TEACHER". Adults who teach young children tend to be the most under valued and disregarded within the profession of education. Yet, a wealth of scholarly research suggests that it is the early life experiences between the ages of zero to 12 years old that most accurately dictate success in school. As an early childhood educator, I am convinced that the formal early learning experiences between the ages of zero to eight years old not only accurately determines success in school, but also the propensity for achieving maximum potential in life. Therefore, at the core of my premise is the influence of a TEACHER.

Essentially, the type of activities routinely planned, the arrangement of an environment, the ideas that are discussed as important, the tone of a voice, and each demonstrated adult behavior can all tremendously impact early childhood development. I desire that every child benefit as I did from a "Ms. Judy"; and I am committed to the work that can make this happen. Her encouragement for children to trust their thoughts, ask questions, and explore is extremely significant for educators to model. I never saw her again after leaving preschool, but I have never forgotten about her purposeful and loving spirit. Maybe then, it is my memory and the lasting affect and impression she made on me that is the truest evidence of her power as an early childhood... TEACHER.