Do Children Really Need Early Childhood Education?

Is early childhood education really necessary? Early childhood education primarily focuses on learning through playing to develop the child's physical, sensory, communicational, cognitive, emotional, and social development. Early childhood education has become a concern of the government, who pushes poor children to be formally trained before they are old enough for Kindergarten.

There are good reasons for the government to push early childhood education. Studies have shown that orphaned children who did not receive adequate care and interaction become developmentally delayed causing failure in school, and even in life. Further studies show that poor children who participate in Head Start programs are more prepared for school, less likely to end up in Special Education classes, and are less likely to receive public assistance or go to jail. (The results of these studies however have been called into question.)

There are also negative aspects to putting a child in formal education programs too early. Time Magazine online "explains that the younger the child the less his chances of adjusting to first-grade work; early failure at the blackboard can induce a defeatist attitude that endures for years." I have personally witnessed many children of my generation who went to head start programs become frustrated and bored with school before they finished high school. They complained that they had 'had been at it" forever, and did not even remember a time when they were not in school. Yet parents have been convinced that the earlier the child starts school, the better off he or she is, so they push to start children earlier.

It seems as if when deciding to educate a child early, we are trying to choose between the better of two evils. A child in a bad situation is better served by putting him in school early. A child in a healthy situation is stressed by starting school too young. Perhaps the focus should be on parent training and intervention into the lives at-risk children.

While early formal education of poor children does show great gains in the early elementary years, studies also show that this head start is really a 'false start', as the gains are lost in middle and high schoolyears. It seems that environment is a bigger factor on life's success than early education. Head Start programs have not achieved its original goal of in closing the achievement gap in poor and middle school children. Perhaps it is time to find other ways to close that gap. Adult training and job development may do more for poor and neglected children than early education in long run.