Do you ever daydream about winning the lottery? Where would you start? What you would buy/donate/pay off/put aside/set up first?
Imagine, if you will, an opportunity to tell the national lottery (a.k.a. the annual federal budget) where to start when it comes to early childhood education. Oh -- and yes -- this is no lottery. This is real. This is cold, hard, taxpayer-earned cash. What would you do first, if you were in charge?
President Obama is interested in early childhood education for your state, your local schools and families. He explained: "That is why I am issuing a challenge to our states. Develop a cutting-edge plan to raise the quality of your early learning programs. Show us how you'll work to ensure that children are better prepared for success by the time they enter kindergarten."
If you ran the zoo -- I mean, if you were in charge, what would you do?
Our founder and CEO, Stacey Boyd, argues that any answer must start with universal pre-K. Her civil-rights argument is laid out below, and we hope Washington takes up her challenge.
And if you had Stacey's preschools to fund, what would you do? We asked some of our Savvy-est minds that question.
From Being Savvy St. Louis, the answer was outreach. "I would use the money to reach out to families whose children are not currently enrolled in pre-school programs. In my district, preschool is not provided for children through the public schools so it is up to parents to prepare their children for kindergarten. Parents may not know that their children may be eligible for free preschool through the district if their child is delayed in an educational area. For example, a child with a speech delay may qualify to go to a district approved preschool at no cost with an Individual Education Plan."
Our expert behind Being Savvy Cincinnati asked her own team of experts: preschool teachers. She (and they) would get essential materials and resources into the hands of those who can employ them to best advantage in early learning. She would bring technology into the classroom -- a classroom that she would enhance with easy but specifically high-impact design features and pack full of inspiring real materials and manipulatives. And she would bring the community's own artists and experts in.
Being Savvy Baltimore kept the quest for a better pre-K in perspective this way: "Make learning fun and age-appropriate--remember that your prospective students will be three-, four- and five-year-olds--and avoid the temptation to tailor your programs to the demands of high-stakes testing. Keep these early school experiences simple but wondrous, heavy on socialization and play, and give the children room to make mistakes in the classroom, without fear of excessive evaluations. Supply every classroom with huge numbers of books, and promote literacy through storytelling and reading. And please, keep the class sizes small, so that every child gets plenty of one-on-one time with his teacher, and so that no child gets lost in the crowd."
And where you would start if you were in charge?
Read the rest of this article at The Savvy Source...
More from The Savvy Source:
• This week on Being Savvy, we're talking to our preschoolers about the world of work and jobs.
• A little down time: 10 activities for when you need a quiet
afternoon with your kids.
• Find great activities in your town every day with Being Savvy Local.
• For our children, every day is a learning day.
Find and
collect even more great ideas at http://www.savvysource.com/.
