ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Hooray for the previous comments! I too am very concerned about the way society is heading with regard to education. Children in cities or rural areas shouldn't need to recognize letters or be starting to read at age 5! They should be playing and be involved in quality interactions with caring adults and children. Academic success will come when children are ready - not before - and it's ok. Sooner and faster is not usually better. This is a very valid reason many parents today, including myself (a former educator), are considering homeschooling their children and keeping them out of the rat race in the school systems.

AMEN to Janet's reply!!! The schools' purpose is to teach---not reject children because they don't meet the teacher's expectations. I take offense to these comments from the study because I have a center located in a rural area and I am very proud of the quality care we provide to the community. Granted, programs are far between . However, we in the rural area are able to provide appropriate Early Childhood Education to these children.

Connie Nelson

I haven't read the study, so maybe I shouldn't comment but... I think our field is headed in the wrong direction when studies seem to point to lack of academics in the early years as the main problem that puts kids behind in school or sends them to special ed. It sounds as if we just teach preschoolers beginning sounds and letter recognition that would do it. But we ECE folks know it isn't that simple. There are always lots of other factors going on. In my generation nobody taught us that stuff before school and the patterns were the same then as now - middle class kids of educated parents did better in school than poor kids. Rural or urban, that's the way it worked then. Things may be changing slowly, but I just can't buy the story that it's simplistic approaches to early literacy that does it. That's the cheap solution and I think we'll find eventually that it doesn't work. There are loads of social issues that enter the picture - inequities in health care, nutrition. Poverty. Exhausted working parents, some of whom work two jobs to make ends meet. Not to mention violence in young children's lives. Drugs, alcohol - it goes on and on. We all know the stories. When is this society going to sit up and look at the really big changes that need to be made if all children are to succeed in school? And when are schools going to be ready for children instead of demanding that children be ready for them?

I am concerned that alphabet recognition is the factor used to decide if children are at risk for learning problems.
I would ask if rural children are more physically fit and better problem solvers even if they can't identify letters. Please let's be careful!

I wish I knew more about the study's sources of data. There are some Resource and Referral Agencies in rural areas that have a lot of information on what is available in rural areas.