What will educators, business people do to fix the education problem?

November 20, 2011

A toddler makes 700 synaptic connections in their brain every second during their formative years. The paths created will serve them – or not – for a lifetime.

Highly valued characteristics like humility, sympathy, compassion, cooperation and even optimism must be taught, usually at an early age.

Attendees at Tuesday’s Early Education Summit in Florence were bombarded with astonishing information about the human brain and the role early, early development can play in preparing said brains for learning by the time school starts.

Old stories and new information were trotted out and mixed with a compelling case tailor made for Tuesday’s audience — which was mostly business persons and educators. The bottom was this: early childhood education matters.

The work of Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman was trotted out as evidence of the latter. Heckman, a ground-breaking thinker and researcher, believes early childhood education produces a solid rate of return.

Invest in education at the earliest possible age. Most people can grasp that kids begin building their brain at a very early age.

The point of the summit is to bring attention to, and emphasis on, early childhood education to the fore on a national scale. It will take a lot of effort, for a long time, to get things turned around.

http://www2.scnow.com/news/pee-dee/2011/nov/20/editorial-early-ed-summit-was-great-now-what-ar-2724410/