Business Summit for Early Learning

ACCEPTING THE CHARGE OF EARLY EDUCATION
Bruce Newcomb

When I was in College I enrolled in a course that was entitled Group and Individual Differences. To this day I use what I learned in that course more than any course that I had during my College tenure. I could not help but think about how things have changed just in my life time. Very few children are raised in a home where there is a full time parent. In most homes both parents are working in order to make ends meet. Over fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. Kids come home from school to an empty house without any parental guidance or after school care. Some families are just plain dysfunctional where the parents could care less about the education of their children.

Our society has changed dramatically since I was a child. We need to change the model that was developed years ago that still is our educational system today to recognize how our society has changed. Some children have what was the standard in my day and that is a parent that stays home full time and is there to teach and nourish their children but the reality is that is the exception today not the rule. It is important for our society to begin educating our children at a very early age where they enter a system that has the resources to assess at risk children. That system must have the resources to provide the tools to educate at an early age and follow through with the necessary programs that support and nourish children on a constant and consistent basis so that our children have every opportunity to be the best they can be without falling through the cracks.

You have all heard from various other speakers today, from the Federal Reserve emphasizing the importance of education to a sustainable economy, the importance of education at an early age in the development of the brain and the importance education in the development of self worth, economic worth and self esteem. I have attended many meetings in my life where great speeches were given and very important information was conveyed but when the meeting ended so did any efforts of implementation. So today we have listened to speakers from which important information was received so my charge to you, yes that means everyone of you, to take today’s information and communicate to others and develop support groups that in turn can encourage policy makers to make change so that early child development can occur.

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