However, it's not that important whether it is five, six or eight. What we will try to figure out in this post is how much this education, or a lack of it, is important in this period, i.e. what impact it has on children and their further development.
Everyone agrees that an early childhood is a time of remarkable brain growth and that these years lay the foundation for subsequent learning and development. The subject of debate is whether this growth should be stimulated by formal education programs or should it entirely depend on parents and natural children's curiosity about the world. There are many philosophies and methodologies in the field of early childhood education. Over the web I came across many articles that support these programs, but what is more or less expected, they are all written or sposored by the institutions that will benefit from such programs. Some deeper research showed that there is also some articles that dispute the importance of an early education of children.
On one hand, even distinguished organization like specialized agency of the United Nations UNESCO supports and have their own program for early childhood education. UNESCO, as they claim on their
official website, advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programmes that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children’s holistic development. It organized the first World Conference on ECCE in September 2010, which culminated in the adoption of a global action agenda for ECCE called Moscow Framework for Action and Cooperation: Harnessing the Wealth of Nations. As a follow-up to the World Conference, UNESCO works in partnership with Member States, partners and other stakeholders to encourage timely and effective implementation of the Moscow Framework so that all young children develop their potential to the fullest. Furtermore, Global Action Week is a worldwide annual campaign organized by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) to raise awareness of the importance of Education for All and UNESCO actively supports the campaign by organizing activities in its Headquarters and Field Offices, mobilizing networks and encouraging Ministers of Education and all EFA partners to participate.
This year's Global Action Week takes place in few days- from 22nd to 28th April. The slogan is "Rights from the Start! Early Childhood Care and Education Now!".
Global Action Week 2012 will focus on the first of the six Education for All (EFA) Goals aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. And this are all six i found on
their site:
Goal 1
Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children
Goal 2
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.
Goal 3
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes
Goal 4
Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
Goal 5
Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
Goal 6
Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.
There are many others early childhood programs. Some like
Bankstreet’s Developmental Interaction Approach, based on the theories of Jean Piaget, Erik Erikson, John Dewey and Lucy Sprague Mitchell, stresses that the optimal educational process maximizes children’s direct and rich interactions with a wide variety of materials, ideas and people in their environment. The approach aims for actively involving children in acquiring competence. Choice, active investigation, independent pursuit and learning through discovery are dominant components of the learning climate. Teachers seize every opportunity to promote cognitive development by creating a climate that encourages questioning, exploration and children’s growing understanding of patterns, rhythms and relationships in the ideas and environment around them.
The Courtyard, another preschool and afterschool childcare program, emphasizes that during the preschool education years, children should learn important items that will help them develop a strong knowledge basis needed for academic success like problem-solving skills, an ability to "inter-translate" between language and mental images so that knowledge and thoughts can be expressed through language (productive language) and knowledge can be formed from incoming information (receptive language), attention management skills, comprehension monitoring and persistence.
Research that is mentioned a lot is one that was conducted by Chicago’s publicly-funded Child-Parent Centers who have served almost 100,000 3- and 4-year-olds since 1967. They investigated the effects of participation in the
Chicago Child-Parent Center and Expansion Program from ages 3 to 9 on school dropout by age 18 for 1,159 youths. Program provides child education and family support services from preschool through second or third grade in 20 sites in Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods. After comparing children in 20 program sites with children who attended schools in similarly poor neighborhoods without the intervention, they found that preschool participation was associated with a 24% reduction in the rate of school dropout and that participation for 5 or 6 years was associated with a 27% reduction in the rate of early school dropout relative to less extensive participation.
However, let's hear another opinion.
What most opponents of early childhood education are quick to point out is that kids who were in some kind of an early education program may have an advantage for only the first two or three years of school. At about third or fourth grade, most students who have not had early childhood education have caught up academically and socially. Some evidence shows that early daycare may actually be a detriment rather than a benefit to young children. Longer stays at home with a single caregiver are argued to be more intellectually stimulating to young children. As well, the child who stays at home is more likely to benefit from breastfeeding for longer, which many say is of great advantage to the child. Most experts agree that early childhood education works best in low pressure, social, and friendly environments. It is also more effective when preschool is only a small part of a four or five year old’s day. Preschool that bleeds into long hours at daycare may not carry the same benefit for children, because it means more time away from parents. Obviously, not all programs are equally beneficial, and can vary depending upon funding, teacher to child ratio, and teacher experience.
To sum up, in my opinion, the early childhood programs can only benefit your children if they are chosen carefully and if you manage to balance the time between such programs and quality time you spend with your children on your own.
I'd be glad to hear your opinion.
