Early childhood education discussed

Talk about it

WORTHINGTON — Todd Otis, Ready 4 K president, visited Slayton Thursday to talk with various educators and community leaders about the importance of preparing children for school — part of the Growing Great Minnesota Kids Tour.

Otis and Director of Community Engagement Kat Kempe engaged a dozen people in attendance in a Kitchen Table Initiative — seven questions designed to start dialog about early education. The participants included a Murray County Commissioner, a representative from the Slayton Chamber of Commerce and area representatives from Headstart, Early Childhood Initiative (ECI), Murray County Central and Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE).

“Early learning is the foundation for educational success, for the future and for the economy,” Otis said.

Only 50 percent of Minnesota kids have the skills needed to begin kindergarten, according to Kempe. Ten percent of the young children are at serious risk for school failure before they even start school.

The representatives at the presentation said they are seeing more and more children with behavioral issues and self-control problems at a preschool level.

One of the questions on the list states, “To be prepared for kindergarten, a child must: a) have computer skills; b) have self-control and be able to cooperate with others; c) be able to read and write; or d) be able to solve math problems.”

The answer is b. Children need to be able to cooperate, communicate and participate, Kempe said.

“You can’t teach children academics if they can’t sit still and listen,” said Southwest Minnesota Opportunity Council Headstart representative Judy Fiola.

Counselor Lorna Bader expressed her concern about the ability of children and teenagers to communicate eye to eye in an age filled with text messaging, social media and computers.

“They don’t know how to look at each other and carry on conversations for any length of time,” Bader said.

Others around the table agreed, stating children were into instant gratification and some of them arrived at preschool with the attitude of “Entertain me.” Parents are just as occupied with cell phones and television, often not realizing they aren’t really interacting with their children.

“We are seeing kids with severe language delays,” said Shelly Krueger of the Rock County ECI. “They are being talked at, not talked to.”

With family dynamics so different now than they were 20 years, ago, the ratio of single parents, teen parents or grandparents raising children is higher, the representatives agreed.

In the first year of life, most Minnesota children are cared for during the day by family, friends or neighbors, Kempe said.

“More Minnesota mothers work outside the home than any other state in the nation,” she said.

In past years, open daycare slots for infants were hard to come by, and some families had to resort to bringing their children to separate facilities. Lately, the representatives are reporting seeing advertisements for open infant slots. Families have started working opposite shifts or using family and friends for daycare, they said.

Another question on the initiative reveals that most brain development takes place from birth to age five.

“Studies show early life learning is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Kempe said. “Yet only one percent of the education budget is spent on early education. Forty percent is spent on K through 12, and nine percent is spent on higher education.”

When kids succeed in school, the whole community is affected, she added. A workforce and future is more certain, and the children that succeed are normally involved in other activities as well, giving them less time to get into mischief. Economically, this is less of a drain on law enforcement and the community.

Putting more money into early education, Kempe said, is a great economic plan for the state of Minnesota. The biggest obstacle to this, of course, is the budget.

Otis encouraged the people at the table to talk to the legislators in their district, meeting on a regular basis with them to educate them and tell stories about the successes of early education and the failures caused by the lack of programs.

“Everybody loves this age group — they’re too young to be blamed for much,” he joked.

Stories, he said, are more powerful than data.

Those working for funding for early education are in the position of playing defensive games, he said, rather than playing offense.

“We’re focusing on maintaining our 1 percent,” he added, “and not letting them cut more deeply.”

Tags: news, early, childhood, education, discussed