“Our most important obligation is to the next generation of Montanans, to ensure they have more opportunities to succeed than we did. It’s time that Montana give every four year-old
access to high-quality, early childhood education that will set them on a path to thrive through their educational career and beyond.”
Montana Governor Steve Bullock unveiling a $37 million early childhood proposal, October 13, 2014
* * * * *
“The conversation on reducing the “word gap” in early childhood has reached new heights: Today the White House Office on Science and Technology is hosting a group of policymakers, researchers, and early childhood advocates to exchange ideas on how to help foster language development. The event is titled ‘Federal, State and Local Efforts to Bridge the Word Gap: Sharing Best Practices and Lessons Learned.’”
“At the White House: Mapping Innovations to Bridge the Word Gap,” Lisa Guernsey, director of the Learning Technologies Project and director of the Early Education Initiative in New America’s Education Policy Program, October 16, 2014
* * * * *
“It’s circle time in a Laramie Head Start classroom and a chorus of lively 3- and 4-year-olds is belting out a familiar rhyme. It sounds like fun and games, but the program’s director, Marlena Suazo says it’s something more. The goal, she says, is to help these children develop their social and emotional skills.
“’That ability to have some self-control—and be able to regulate their emotions,” says Suazo. “That is the key to them beginning to be able to learn all of those other things—their letters, their numbers, all of those things.’”
From “Wyoming Weighs Value Of Early Childhood Education,” by Aaron Shrank, September 26, 2014
Wyoming is one of 10 states without state-funded preschool.
* * * * *
Leave a Reply