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Yesterday was my first day back to work. I have workshops, staff meetings, trainings, and a little time to work in my classroom before the students come on Tuesday. Posting will be lighter over the next few days.
In the meantime, here is some back to school articles to read...
Three Cheers for Universal Pre-K
Of all the social programs the U.S. could possibly institute, universal pre-K is perhaps the most important. It is that rare initiative that meets the gold standard of public policy by simultaneously fulfilling the goals of equity and efficiency. Equity, because preschool and other early education programs have a lasting, powerful and well-documented positive impact on the outcomes of poor children. And efficiency, because it is extremely cost efficient. Few if any government investments produce a higher rate of return.School Lunch and Breakfast Programs
I can only imagine then, how difficult it must have been for needy children to have accomplished much of anything before the advent of both the National School Lunch Act, and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966, which provided for subsidized lunches and breakfasts, respectively, for needy children. The former was signed into law by Harry Truman and the latter by Lyndon Johnson. Let's hope their need to exist will someday disappear.
3 comments:
The study below might be of interest to you pstans.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.
com/html/nationworld/2003826403_
earlyed08.html
Investments now always pay off in spades in the future. It's a shame modern day neo-cons can't wrap their closed minds around that factiod.
I know of several families whose kids had developmental delays the parents were clueless about. These delays were noticed by teachers when the kids started pre-school, leading to earlier intervention to deal with their problems.
I know of some kids who thrived in school despite never attending pre-school, but on the whole we would be better off expanding access to pre-school.
desmoinesdem
The legislature passed a lot of bills dealing with education last year including raising teacher pay.
However, as a young teacher who has 30 more years in the field, I think the early childhood bill will have a greater effect on my job than the extra money. As a 2nd grade teacher, I have students come in still reading at a Kindergarten level. So they are already 2 years behind. I am pretty sure a large majority of these students did not attend preschool.
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