By snoadmin
Can you imagine how cute it would be to see a preschooler reading (or at least trying) “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” on an iPad Mini? This may become an everyday event if President Barack Obama manages to make preschools public.
In his State of the Union Address, Obama discussed his plan to start preparing young Americans for the new technological age at the “earliest age possible.”
In order to do so, this would require federal and state money to be used to make preschools public.
Currently, parents have to fork over a lot of money to enroll their children in a quality preschool. In some cases, parents have to enroll their children in preschool before they are even born.
Both the expense and competition to get into preschool are factors that keep many young Americans from getting a jump start on their education.
According to Obama, “study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road.”
Obama’s words couldn’t be more true. Preschool has a great effect on children and their future lives. Preschool prepares our brains when they are just starting to develop. It teaches us many useful skills that we use in the rest of education and our lives.
It is unfortunate that a child born into a low-income family could be disadvantaged for the rest of his or her life because the parents could not afford preschool.
Obama said the federal government will match every dollar states spend on creating “high quality” preschools for four-year-olds of low-income to middle-class families.
If this becomes a reality, we could see a trend of smarter and more focused Americans.
Obama’s proposal also interestingly mentions getting preschoolers prepared for a high-tech economy.
Both the federal and state government have been pushing for our classrooms to be more technologically driven. Now, we don’t think preschool classes will be held online like many college classes, but we expect to see more children learning how to use computers, tablets, smartphones and the Internet at younger and younger ages. It will be interesting to see what these kids will bring in for show and tell. Maybe it will be their high score on Words With Friends.
While making preschools public would be a hefty financial investment, our nation would be wise to move education in this direction. By prepping more children early, we are only increasing the cognitive ability of all Americans. This would be an investment in our country’s future.
