Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Column: Keep children safe, healthy, ready for school

Becky Ruffner makes a strong argument for saving First Things First, providing on-the-ground experience to counter the right's allegation that the program has done nothing but gather money and talk.

I really don't get how anyone can sincerely believe that we don't need to invest heavily in early child development and education, even old farts like me with no kids. The state can be rightly criticized for failing to make a better public case for the value and effectiveness of this and many other programs, but that's no excuse for public failure to understand. Our kids need to be smarter than we were. The cost relative to the benefits is negligible.

2 comments:

Jon said...

Children need to play not be in school. That's the argument against it. Yes, they should learn, but they should be learning from their parents. The parents should be reading with them every day. But kids need lots of play time and time to imagine. The state should not be paying for babysitting programs.

Anonymous said...

dovh49-
People with opinions like yours should take some time and visit a kindergarten class room Hard-working teachers are giving students the foundation for their education on everything from letters and numbers to the skills they need to use scissors, while having fun at the same time. The babysitting angle you use is rather lazy and uninformed.