The Diane Rehm Show

joshua: I used to trust NPR impartiality too, but now they have some sell-out reporting because of corporate funding pressures. If David and Charles Koch were listening to that Headstart put-down, they agreed completely. There was no misunderstanding. There we no mistakes. Corporate funding held steady. The Capos rule.

We've got a bigger education deficit here than a budget deficit.
Education didn't cause any deficit but made productive prosperity possible. Our millstones were corporate and wealthy tax cuts, unfunded wars, a bloated defense budget and corporate welfare. (Medicare has some industrial fraud that could be policed if anyone cared.) When corporate interests write curricula all grads will be drones. It's already being implemented at the college level. TV advertising prepares the babies.

Pancake Rankin wrote:
" I used to trust NPR impartiality too, but now they have some sell-out reporting because of corporate funding pressures. If David and Charles Koch were listening to that Headstart put-down, they agreed completely. "
Of course "impartiality" in this context would mean that Arne Duncan would have been the only guest.

The next time you feature a discussion of any early childhood initiative, could you please include early childhood experts in addition to policy wonks. You may find these experts at state levels of government, university early childhood departments and especially the NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) which is headquartered in Washington DC.
Although the president's proposal is policy, the understanding of early childhood by your guests was definitely limited. In addition, not only your callers but your guests used preschool and child care interchangeably. Any good child care program will have a preschool component but only one of your guests seemed to understand that there is a difference in programming and purpose between the two.

The caller who denigrated a previous caller's supposed call to push kindergarten into becoming "the new first grade" completely misunderstood the point of the comment. As an elementary teacher I see exactly what the first caller was commenting on. She was not advocating kindergarten becoming first grade (and most educators certainly don't support this model), she was acknowledging our current reality. Thanks to the relentless push by federal and state governments to force standardized testing on even our youngest children, kindergarteners are having to learn how to take paper and pencil tests (or even online tests) at the expense of more traditional kindergarten skills such as learning to get along with others, learning to cut, color and be creative, and having time to explore and learn through play. Kindergarteners who come in not knowing the basics of reading, writing and counting are now at a distinct disadvantage. Programs such as Headstart are a small attempt prepare disadvantaged children for this much more rigorous kindergarten environment.

ecgberht2 - GOOD POINT! I say get rid of government schools and let the market place do it's job which will always be better than government paid hacks trying to figure out something.

1.Totally support the caller who said too much emphasis is placed on *academic" work too early in a child's life.

This emphasis ignores brain development and places great strain on children. Children have the ability to mimic adults and copy behavior at an early age, but they do not have developed centers of learning. Academic work should be delayed until 7 or 8 years when it can be more easily mastered.

Studies have shown that the *Mozart* programs have no scientific basis to support the claims that they further brain development.

2. Your commentators ignore the only *model* which will eliminate the need for these massive child remediation programs and that is to educate the *disadvantaged* on the necessity for birth control and not having children until there are two self supporting (ie not dependent on government) parents.

Birthing children into poverty should be viewed as a form of child abuse.
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The reason this generation has been "parented" in a new way of " everyone getting a tropy"...
is because I feel that when I was a child I was told I could NEVER do a certain thing for one reason or another! It could have been because I was a GIRL, or my fingers weren't long enough to play the piano! I could go on and on. I parented my two sons differently in a non sexist environment and took the advice of a wonderful kindergarten teacher; "reward the successes". BOTH my sons went to college regardless of money or grades or gender something my father still can't agree with today. I told my kids they could DO anything or BE anything. Whether that starts at home or in preschool I'll never know.

I understand that all of the funding and politics will get in the way of what is a brilliant and necessary concept.
So I will simply speak from the bottom or end result of the debate. Because I know this part the best.
We have children, in our country, who live in transient homes, whose parents struggle to find work, to feed their children, pay their bills, put gas in their barely-running cars. These children, who are under 5 years old, are living every minute of every day with these stressed adults. There is no ability to get them out, into a stable daily environment. An environment rich with language, positive social interaction, music, stories, games, laughter. Hopefully, lots of laughter.
That studies show that their peers "catch up" by third grade is hardly the point. That we have shown a child(ren) countless ways to interpret, enhance, and relate to his/her environment in a positive way is the building block for a successful life. The younger we can catch these children, the bigger impact we will have on them.
Fight the good fight, I say.

Audrey G. wrote: " Did education improve so much since 1978?"

Judging by the writing and verbal skills of 2012 college graduates I would say not so much.

"What caused tuition to rise so much beyond all other expenses?"

Did you have to borrow gobs of money to get your degree? A combination of state funding cuts and the pushing of student loans has enabled colleges and universities to jack up tuition while arguing that student debt is good debt that funds an investment.

Of course a lot of this debt is squandered by students who never graduate or attend dubious fad programs such as Gibb's Fashion Marketing program which was exposed on 60 Minutes.

I am a Special Education teacher who teaches in a prison setting. I teach young men between the ages of 15 and 22 and I also have a certification in early child hood education. What I find interesting is that no one addressed the subject of the differences in the values of people who grow up in generational poverty and the middle class that all business and schools are conducted in. There is a Book called "The Frame Work on Poverty, " by Ruby Payne that does an excellent job of describing the differences in this. There are two kinds of poverty, generational and situational. They are very different, but I am afraid that some of the situations that poor middle class people are in to day will result in the generational, that is why it is so important that we do something about the children being raised poverty, while we are helping the children we can also help the parents keep their middle class values and return to the middle class. The children being raised in generational will be exposed to the middle class values ( getting to work on time, dressing for the job, etc.) at an early age.
I would like to see an expert, like Ruby Payne, teachers, both upper and lower grade discuss this subject. I think you would see a more realistic view of what we are really dealing with. I see the results of poor parenting, and lack of opportunities, in our country. I am convinced that it must be dealt with by early childhood education. I really believe that investing in our children and citizens will keep this country great. It will also balance the budget when more people can pay taxes.

"ecgberht2 wrote:

Pancake Rankin wrote:
"They need victims and they expect government to manufacture them."
...
February 18, 2013 - 10:50 am"

Pancake, did you say that or is he just making it up?

Monte Haun mchaun@hotmail.com

It's too bad your guests didn't adequately address the false distinction between "day care" and preschool. First, we don't take care of days, we take care of children, so there is no 'day care', it's 'child care'. Second, all children need and deserve the same things, whether their time away from home before kindergarten is paid for by their parents, the federal government, non profits, corporations or any other funding source. They need secure and nurturing environments, with caring and highly educated teachers and well thought out and well executed activities that address their social, emotional, cognitive, and large and small motor development. If we as an industry (early childhood education) could collectively educate the public on this particular issue, maybe we'd resolve all of the other issues around ensuring young children have the best quality care while they are away from their parents.