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Home->Kincardine |
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Fads and shortcuts do not work in a public education system. Yet we spend millions on them. Premier McGuinty would force students to stay in school. McGuinty believes such students will miraculously become literate, bursting with numeracy skills and demonstrating surprising new study habits. It will not happen. The previous premier, Harris of Ipperwash infamy, wanted to go back to basics without knowing what the basics were. What is needed is a solid foundation. Without that foundation, time and money is wasted looking for solutions that will ultimately fail or fall short. Dr. Fraser Mustard’s research, in which he compared children’s readiness for kindergarten and standardized test results in grades three and four, concluded that children who are behind early will generally remain so years later. Jennifer Wells in the Toronto Star wrote that British studies in 1970 found that “… preschool programs were key predictors of such long-term outcomes as economic and social mobility.” It has been argued that investments in the early years of child development have the biggest economic payoff. That has tremendous implications for Canada in a knowledge economy. We are failing our children and we are failing ourselves. Kindergarten is too late for many children. The die is already cast. We have a system in which secondary schools blame primary schools for not preparing the student while universities and colleges blame secondary schools. It would be better if all three levels of education committed themselves to incorporate Early Childhood Education (ECE) seamlessly into their system making it the first level of compulsory education. I believe the Ontario Principal’s Council endorses early development, Labour Union leaders certainly support the idea, and researchers in education call for it, we need more than endorsements; we need a campaign for the implementation of ECE.
Will it cost? Yes, of course. But the cost of not doing it
continues to far outweigh any implementing and operating costs. We already
incur the cost of unproductive dropouts, behaviour problems, and minimally
effective strategies to overcome illiteracy and numeracy difficulties.
Then there are the continuing economic and social costs to society. We
cannot afford to deny our children their place in the sun and our place in
the world. |
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