OK, everybody feel guilty now so the state can spend millions on pre-school without us raising a squawk:
Gov. Mitch Daniels and Republican lawmakers want teachers and schools evaluated on student performance and parents to have more options, but experts say preschools and other early childhood learning have more impact on success in the classroom.
The Indianapolis Star reported Thursday that Indiana is one of just eight states that spend no state dollars on preschool programs, and two-thirds of states require children to start school earlier than Indiana's standard age of 7.
"Of all the things you could do, preschool probably has the largest impact on school success," said Steve Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
"Experts agree," you see, so shut up about how your money is being spent. This story pretends that there is no disagreement about the effectiveness of preschool. But there is disagreement -- some say preschool is not effective, some even say it can be harmful. See here and here and here, for example. I think new insights about how the brain works and some research into early education do show enough to keep discussing preschool, but the "debate is not over," as some like to insist it is on subjects near to their hearts.
Comments
For the love of God, let them be kids until Kindergarten at least. The state can wait until the kids are least 5 before instilling todays basics like "Why Johnny Has 2 Mommies" and "How Do You Feel About The Number 5" and of course the ever popular "Directional Studies, How To Locate The Condom Dispensary/Pregnancy Termination Scheduler In Your School".
When Year Round Education came to NC, I was asked to analyze its effect; good or bad? The thought was shorter breaks would tend to reduce retention loss and therefore good. However, a couple of German doctors studied memory about 100 years ago and found that it was not the amount of time that passed that affected memory, but the number of interactions taking place that affected memory. Presenting material too fast or in to vast of an amount will cause memory loss. In essence what they found was if you were going to forget anything, you would forget it within the first two weeks. If you still remembered it two weeks later, it was a good probability it made it into your long term memory.
The second important aspect they discovered or just recognized/wrote down was the more associations/interactions dealing with a similar topic, the better you remember it, the easier it is to recall. Practice makes perfect. This meant that those schools coming back from a long break went over some of last years stuff to "refresh" student's memory - make new associations increases retention.
What is amazing is we have paid professionals in Education like Bennett who may not have even studied or given any thought to how the brain works, retains information or process information, yet they seem to think throwing money at a problem that does not exist is the answer.
I used in my presentation to the public in NC that the we are dealing with revision 0 of the brain. It still processes information the same way it did 10,000 years ago. Over the years we figured out how that process worked and it was used for decades until administrators left the class room or never were in the class room, had no first hand knowledge of this process and began to listen to others who were paid big bucks.
Many have seen this in the work place. You have a suggestion to make something better, do it better, but no one listens to you. Then one day a consultant comes in, walks around observing, listening and talking with people to get their ideas,; writes down what he sees and hears and a written report submitted. Wow, what great ideas. This is what we have with education, minus talking with parents, students or teachers.
If you want creative kids, let them be kids and do not have structured learning until well after age 5. If you want a child who will excel in school, gets good grades, put them in structured learning. The difference in the two children will be apparent; The child who is unstructured early on will appear to be slow, but around age 12-15 will all of a sudden wake up. They are your more creative, problem solving types. Those who attend structured classes tend to be book smart, but lack what many call common sense.