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November-December 2007 Selected Content
Taking Charge - Larry and Susan Kaseman
Why Professionals and Politicians Are Wrong About Preschool - Sample Resolution
Institutionalizing Young Children
Whereas there is a growing movement to institutionalize children at younger and younger ages; and
Whereas this movement takes a variety of the forms including Birth to Three programs, Child Find programs aimed at identifying children in need of special services, preschool screening, preschool programs, and kindergarten programs for three and four year olds; and
Whereas professionals, corporations, and federal and state governments have joined together through studies and federal and state commissions and have identified early childhood education as a good practice and part of the answer to ensuring a strong economy; and
Whereas a number of studies of the effects of preschool on children (most notably the study of the Perry Preschool Program and the Chicago/Rand study) are frequently misinterpreted and misused by advocates of increased preschool, meaning that statements such as "save $7 for every $1 spent on preschool" need to be countered and corrected; and
Whereas the National Center on Education and the Economy, the same organization that was central to bringing us national standards in education and the No Child Left Behind program, is calling for preschool for all three and four year olds; and
Whereas there is a growing tendency on the part of professionals and their associations to identify families as the cause of children's problems and to claim that institutional care, education, or treatment are the solutions to children's problems; and
Whereas homeschoolers know through personal experience the importance of parents being with their children for nurture, learning, and support; and
Whereas policy and/or legal requirements adopted for the larger society put pressure on homeschoolers to follow these practices and approaches to early childhood education;
Be it resolved by members of [name of organization] that [name of organization] will work to ensure that its members and others understand the positive role and result of parents and grandparents spending time with their young children and grandchildren, the tremendous benefits that result from this investment of nurture and support, the serious mental and emotional costs to children of institutionalizing them early, and the ways that expansion of three- and four-year-old preschool can impact homeschooling families.
Resources
Read "Assessing Proposals for Preschool and Kindergarten: Essential Information for Parents, Taxpayers and Policy Makers" by Darcy Olsen with Lisa Snell, an excellent analysis of research on preschool, including documentation for information included in our column.
Read the letter about early childhood education that Marc Tucker, the President of the National Center on Education and the Economy, sent to Hillary Clinton on November 11, 1992.
© 2007, Larry and Susan Kaseman
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