Defining education -- Does it include early education?

This is one of the more incredible developments of the year. As the back drop, the Connecticut Supreme Court rules that students in Connecticut have a constitutional right to an education that prepares them to succeed in life. A new Democratic governor and a new Democrat attorney general are elected who both claim to support early childhood education and there is widespread recognition, across the political spectrum, that access to early education program is one of, if not the most important factors when it comes to preparing students to succeed in school.

Then, in the very year these Democrats could be celebrating the steps they are taking in the right direction they ask the court to remove early childhood programs from the definition of education.

Putting aside that there was nothing – nothing at all – that required Jepsen and Malloy to file this motion is the more shocking piece of all of this.

They know early education is the key to successful primary and secondary education (this it is a part of the solution) and secondly this extraordinary Supreme Court decision is not about what will happen this year, or the next or even over the next few years. This case is about positioning our education system for 2020, 2030, 2040 and beyond.

If future attorney generals or future governors or future anti-education advocates wanted to take the dramatic step of trying to separate early education from the definition of education, they could do that, but by taking this step now, Jepsen and Malloy are undermining an extraordinary opportunity they had to make a difference in the future of this state.
Malloy’s roundabout defense was “You don't have a bigger supporter of early childhood education here." Actually governor this issue is bigger than just you.

The very future of our state is at stake and if you really were a “big” supporter of revamping Connecticut’s educational system you’d be telling the Attorney General to hold back and make the most of this moment you’ve been given to set the direction for the next 50 years.

Instead, you have joined him in undermining this legacy moment.
More about this topic at http://jonpelto.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/george-jepsen-missing-his-legac...

After a few seconds on Google, I found some information about long-term studies of the effects of pre-school. Here is one quote worth some thought: "When the researchers checked in again eight years later, things had gotten even worse for the young adults who had attended a preschool with a heavy dose of skills instruction and positive reinforcement. They didn’t differ from their peers in the other programs with respect to their literacy skills, total amount of schooling, income, or employment status. But they were far more likely to have been arrested for a felony at some point and also to have been identified as “emotionally impaired or disturbed.”

I can say this. There are always half witted nitwits that propound untested
and totally unproven theories to create their own pet projects. Pre-K education propounded by such nitwits is such one.

The real education and the behavioral patterns of a child start and are determined when it is still growing in the womb of its mother, i.e. during the 9-10 months of pregnancy. That is when the both parents should conduct themselves in a moral and proper dignified way. The mental processes of a woman are conveyed to her child at this very early stage, and they last till the end of the life of the child, like the genetic traits carried from generation to generation.

The mother of a child is (his/her) child's first teacher. Then comes the father, to be followed by an external teacher. The ageless "vedic" command is very important. and should be inculcated in the child, before it faces the outside world. This is: "Matru devo bhava", meaning "Mother is God; "Pitru devo bhava", meaning "Father is God; and "Acharya devo bhava", meaning "Teacher is God", all in that proper order.

First let us reform the society. No baby should be brought into the world unless both parents are ready and willing to support the healthy growth of their child.

Conducting ourselves in a moral and proper manner is the means to reforming education?!?!

Dang, I was thinking intensive reading, health services, family support services, developing inquiry, training students to be independent thinkers etc. I had it all wrong. If we simply behave ourselves society will fullfill Jefferson's vision of an educated populace...lucky for Fox News that's not going to happen.