The Raising of America

What strikes you as most important in this discussion of the relationship between social policy, child development and later achievement?

What strikes me as important and interesting is that there have been four longitudinal studies researching the relationship between investing money in early childhood development and the positive results associated with the investment, and yet, as a society we have not acted on these understandings. One of the reasons may be because people are completely unaware of the importance of providing safe and interactive environments for young children so that their parents can contribute to the workforce. Personally, I felt completely unaware and rather astonished as I watched the documentary because I did not know about this relationship. I think it would be beneficial to look at those studies myself and perhaps get a different perspective on the situation.

What do you think this perspective adds to the discussion of school reform?

I think that one of the Economists made a really interesting point when he said, “What do we all want for our children? We want them to be happy and healthy and thriving. We want them to be growing and learning and be all they can be. This is a core value that we all share. The problem is, that we don’t all share a commitment to that for everybody’s kids.” Unfortunately, I think that this quote captures one of the problems when it comes to implementing policies that would invest in early childhood development and other public educational institutions that would benefit society. I think that this perspective is a voice of reality when it comes to school reform and that it is essential to view all different perspectives before coming to any conclusions about school reform and investing in early childhood development.

What is one question that these videos raise for you?

After watching this video I am certainly compelled to learn more about early childhood development and the process to create programs that would serve these youngsters. I wonder how much it would cost to begin a program like this in California and if it would be federally controlled or state controlled? Would we be creating another public education system for prenatal to 5 year old children?

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