Scientists say....
Jun. 16, 2006 at 8:46 AM
Homeschooling
Mr. Watkins, your snarly teen doesn't get it. Her response demonstrates why my children WILL NOT be in a state funded preschool! Unlike you or your daughter, we don't want the state raising our babies during their most critical time! Duh!This scientific fact should make every sensible person take pause and ask, why do we not begin the formal investment in education until a child is five or six years of age? I recall leaving my home a few years back to give a speech on the importance of high quality preschool education and my teenage daughter inquired where I was going. When I told her I was going to give a speech on the value of investing in our youngest kids and that 85 percent of the brain is developed in the first few precious years of life, she looked at me with that "boy, are you old folks stupid" look and responded, "if that is so, why does school not begin for most kids until after that important time has passed, duh?!"
If an inquisitive, snarly teen "gets it," you would think the resources for this critical investment would be flowing like miners seeking their fortune during the California gold rush.
Related Tags: universal preschool, education, Tom Watkins, homeschooling, homeschool
3 Comments and Trackbacks
posted by jinyeah3 on Jun. 17, 2006 at 12:49 AM
You Go Girl! Oops, I forgot, they need to use that precious time to teach them how to stand in line properly without wiggling and squirming! I guess they're right...Let's send 'em when before they are crawling; then they'll learn all that stuff from the get-go!!
Thanks for the laugh!
Jenette
posted by livin4Him6 on Jun. 17, 2006 at 1:58 PM
When I first heard about "mandatory pre-school" I honestly thought it was a joke. Who in their right mind would think that parents would just give up the babies to the state at such a young age?? I think that 5 is even to young to be shipping them off to kindergaten. My nephew is 5 and he has been staying with us for a couple of weeks, next year he will go to public K and I seriously do not think it is best for him at all. He is an active little boy and in no way ready to sit at the little desks and do the "mandatory" things. I also have another nephew that is 6 and he just finished K, he has a 30 or 40% hearing loss. The K teacher told my sil that he would never learn like the "other kids". I mean, come on !!! They are already labeling them at 6 years old!! Imagine what would happen if a 3 year old went to "school"??!! I can see it now, they will have the "elite group" that excells and the "slow group" that gets left behind. I say let the parents do their job of raising THEIR children and leave them alone!! Children have been raised for thousands of years and amazingly we have made it this far in America without "mandatory pre-school". ;0)
posted by KarenW on Jun. 18, 2006 at 2:20 PM
I just have to wonder, since most of the brain develops in the first 5 years, why wait until age 3 to start school? Why not start right away since the state can do such a wonderful job with children? Why let the parents do anything at all?