Session 3 The Raising of America

1.  What strikes you as most important in the discussion on the relationship between social policy, child development and later achievement?

1       What strikes me as the most important in this discuss is that studies have been done that proves that early childhood education is key to children becoming successful in the future, but in order for this to happen, all children need access to it.  Without the social policy, which gives access to all children, the more money will be spent later.  In order for this to happen social policy needs to be geared more to education.  One quote that I thought was interesting was “ our system is paying for failure, rather than investing in success.” If social policy was geared toward creating successful citizens rather than trying to fix problems that could have been prevented, than our country would be better off, and tax payers would save money.  The studies show that is accurate.  The level of literacy goes up, the level to retention goes down, level of special education needs goes down, the graduation rate goes up, and the crime rate goes down 50%.  By looking at the data, more money will be saved in the long run by providing childcare and early education to ALL children. 

2.  What do you think this perspective adds to the discussion of school reform?

2    School reform needs to start at preschool. In order for school reform to actually work, people need to realize that what children learn between the ages of 0-3 is essential in their development and will affect their success in the future.  School reform cannot just be implemented in secondary education and assume that it will work.  The skills that children learn, and the developmental stages of children are essential in the success of children in secondary education.  If children do not have that early childhood education, they are far behind those who did and are more likely to struggle when they are adults.  School reform is not just the teacher’s responsibility or the parent’s, it is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone needs to be invested in the success of countries children.  Their success affects us all.  Everyone needs to work together in order for school reform to be successful.  I think it would be interesting to hear from the people that oppose spending money on early childhood education, and what research they have to back it up.  Lots of money is being put into large corporations because they make a lot of money and also provide jobs, however, if people do not have the education they need and the essentials of life to be qualified for those jobs, the gap between the have the and the have not’s increases.  By investing in early childhood education, the achievement gap becomes less extreme.

3.  What is one question these videos raise for you?

 One question these videos raised for me was; how do we make everyone realize it is all of our responsibility to look out for the well being of our children?  Taxes would need to increase, and when some people hear that they will have to pay higher taxes, they automatically oppose the increase.  The video also stated, that the funds are there, but they just need to be reallocated.  This is where the government officials come in.  How do we get them to realize the benefits of early childhood education?  One quote that I thought was important was “what is socially responsible is also economically responsible.”   The more we invest in our children the better our economy will be.  How do we get everyone to realize this? 

I responded to:
Catherine Samhan
David Bowen
Kusi Espinoza