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Introduction: The Preschool Years: Enhancing Classroom Readiness
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20206 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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1 / 1992 |
875 Words |
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Editor
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In his State of the Union address of January 31, 1990, President Bush announced the newly created national performance goals for education.
Our theme this month is preschool and school readiness. Goal 1 of the National Education Goals addresses this topic directly. It says:
Readiness for School
By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn.
Objectives:
· All disadvantaged and disabled children will have access to high quality and developmentally appropriate preschool programs that help prepare children for school.
· Every parent in America will be a child's first teacher and devote time each day helping his or her preschool child learn: parents will have access to the training and support they need.
· Children will receive the nutrition and health care needed to arrive at school with healthy minds and bodies, and the number of low birth weight babies will be significantly reduced through enhanced prenatal health systems.
The National Goals for Education brochure goes on to discuss three stages in a student's life: the preschool years, school years, and the after-school years. Under the topic of the preschool years it states:
American homes must be places of learning. Parents should play an active role in their children's early learning, particularly by reading to them on a daily basis. Parents should have access to the support and training required to fulfill this role, especially in poor, undereducated families.
In preparing young people to start school, both the federal and state governments have important roles to play, especially with regard to health, nutrition, and early childhood development. Congress and the administration have increased maternal and child health coverage for all families with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line. Many states go beyond this level of coverage, and more are moving in this direction. In addition, states continue to develop more effective delivery systems of prenatal and
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