Start them early

and drop the assumptions and ignorance on pre-school education

Childhood education, formative years, resources and attention better spent during early childhood than teen. These were the buzzwords I encountered today through two pieces of articles. One was what I read off The Economist, on importance of pre-school education, the title of which I borrowed for this blog entry. Another was an application essay one of my best friends wrote on the problem of orphans and how the society can do better to resolve the issue. There is a powerful link between the two articles and I could not help but paused to think about their common themes put at the forefront of both articles.It is the potency of one’s childhood experience in shaping the person into destructive or “constructive members of society”, as my friend put it. She wants to fight for greater resources and attention on orphans, as she believes childhood is too important to be wasted in the mystery of an orphaned state. We need to rescue as many orphans and as early as possible, the key in them becoming constructive members of society.

Here I must admit my ignorance. I had never thought about the issue of early childhood education in such context. I thought Singaporeans, or just parents in general are being paranoid and pre-school education is a product of our “kiasu” attitude. I despised the idea of institutionalising children as young as 2 or three. I thought it is a sin, not knowing that it is actually, a privilege.

The Economist shed light on how fund-lacking schools in Texas are trying their best to provide state-funded pre-school programmes to children from poor family. Educators and society as a whole recognise the importance of early childhood education in character-building and preparing them for formal education, the key to getting out of poverty.

Indeed, if education is the game-changer for the underprivileged, we want to make sure they don’t miss out because they can’t afford pre-school programmes that give other kids a head start.

But to brand pre-school education as a stepping stone to academic excellence for future education is a shallow thought—my ignorant thinking. It is more about building character, positioning the child in the wholesome and healthy state of mind for more to come.

I have taken things for granted. And some Singaporean parents who feel that pre-school education has been shoved on their faces might have, too. And meanwhile schools in the US are thinking creatively to stretch their thin funding to cover as many children as they can.

Let us all be more appreciative of the programme, and leave no room for assumptions and ignorance whenever education of our children is concerned.

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