*Thud*..... thud thud thud..... *repeat
The article entitled "Childhood education starting at age 2 would pay off big, new Canadian report concludes" on Yahoo.com states:
Forget about daycare, a new Canadian report recommends every child should start going to school starting at age two.The Early Years Study 3 , released Tuesday, recommends toddlers have access to publicly funded early-childhood education at their local school. The report says an "avalanche of evidence" indicates there's a big payoff for kids if they start learning earlier.
"Education is well-established and a well-valued system within our country, and it's a place we feel it should be attached to, to build on," Margaret Norrie McCain, who co-authored the report with the late Dr. Fraser Mustard and Kerry McCuaig," said in the Toronto Star ......recommendations should be easy to implement in Ontario, which already has a full-day kindergarten for children aged four and five.
"I would come down to three-year-olds, then two-year-olds and one-year-olds," Mustard said. "I'd move right down, and I'd pay (early childhood educators) well, and if you are telling me we don't have the money, I'd make the point that the risk for physical and mental health problems is actually set in early development."
The Early Years "Study" it's self says
"the three Early Years studies argue that if we truly wish to provide our children with an equal opportunity to maximize their potential, it is vital that we do everything we can to enhance their early development. Our survival as a species will depend on our children acquiring the skills they will need to cope with the social and environmental revolutions of the 21st century. Canada’s tomorrow depends on our ability to leverage what we know into policies and practices that support families and benefit children today."
As I said above, these articles literally left me with a raging headache and an inability to form the cloud of outrage in my head into simple words. But don't worry, because Jonathan McLeod seems to of taken all the anger and spluttering exasperation in my head and put it all together in a great package of words that echo my thoughts almost exactly.
*course language warning for those that are sensitive to those things
They’re Dirty Filthy LiarsJonathan McLeodNews agencies have been picking up on a new report on child, err toddler, education. The Early Years Study 3 has made some waves as theresearcherspropagandists behind it make the claim that children as young as 18 months need to be dumped into schools where they can start learning.The report is garbage.This isn’t some new study that has been released, it’s not even some meta-study, analyzing the results of various other studies. It’s a political manifesto dressed up academic garb. From the very beginning, the authors state an obvious, but insidious, agenda: their “progressive goal” to make society better. ‘Progressive’ is a funny term. It seems so beneficial, and can so easily be dropped in as a synonym for ‘liberal’, but that’s not what’s going on here. The authors have a political cause to push, and they will stop at nothing – nothing – to get disabuse you of any differing views of the functioning of society.The authors are quite clear in their intent and their concern. They aren’t worried about children; they aren’t worried about families. Yes, they dress up all their politics in fuzzy stories about trips to the library and immigrants finding a place in our cold, dark society, but their concern is only for society, not individuals and not families. Personal desires and preferences should never be a primary concern; the will of the individual should be subverted for the benefit of the state.Don’t believe me? The report bemoans the lost economic activity of stay-at-home parents. The parents, we are told, are not being productive or contributing to society. They need to be freed, apparently, from the chains of parenting so that they may serve a greater function. The report worries that if the current trend away from stay-at-home parents were to reverse, it could spell the economic doom of Canada. I’m. Not. Kidding.These people were sly. They’re incredibly dishonest, but they’re not dumb. The report (and there’s too much crap in there for me to fisk the whole thing) begins with discussions about child development, and throws in a nice anecdote about a new Canadian who needed the government to help her care for all her kids. How could you be against child development or new Canadians integrating into society? Early on, though, the fix is in. First off, when the authors begin comparing their preferred model of round-the-clock child care, they tip their hand by comparing the costs to that of other schools in the district (Toronto), but they’re only comparing a public institution to other public institutions. No private schools are ever mentioned. This is a theme throughout the entire report; education is the sole domain of the government.
To read the rest of Jonathan's excellent diatribe please click HERE
If this is the way that our government thinks we should nurture our children and "support families".... it makes me very happy to be a stay at home - homeschooling mom!!!
