Catch ‘Em While They’re Young

Catch ‘Em While They’re Young

I remember a book by Robert Fulghum which my friend and I found in downtown Booksale. It was entitled Everything I Need to Know About Life, I Learned in Kindergarten. Through anecdotes of the author’s kindergarten life, the book says that on top of other things, kindergarten teaches children to share. It also says that kindergarten teaches children how to socialize, how to play with others, how to be less self-centered, how to wait, how to follow instructions, how to take turns, how to work in a team, how to interact with their peers, and so on. These are priceless things that children learn early on, and that they carry with them along the way.

Today, we are relearning that everything we need to know about life, we learn in kindergarten.  

Republic Act 10157 otherwise known as “An Act Institutionalizing Kindergarten Education into the Basic Education System and Appointing Funds Thereof” was signed into law last January 20 and formally presented by Education Secretary Armin Luistro in Malacañang last Monday, February 27. This means that starting school year 2012-2013, all children from age five will have to undergo mandatory kindergarten before formal education.

President Aquino underscored the importance of kindergarten in a child’s life, saying that the “first step” in the country’s education process is also when the child’s mind is most active. In the long run, this will provide the people the ability to improve their lives.

Research also supports this idea. A study by Raj Chetty, Emmanuel Saez and others suggests that kindergarten can have lasting effects on students. The study examined the life paths of almost 12,000 children who had been a part of a well-known education experiment in Tennessee in the 1980s and who are now in their 30s. The research was primarily concerned about adult outcomes and not test scores by the students.

Based on test scores, those who had good kindergarten education fared no better than their counterparts by junior high. However, test scores excluded, students who had kindergarten appeared more likely to go to college, to earn more and save more for retirement, to be less likely to become teenage parents and even to be less likely to die young. Moreover, even small differences in skills and knowledge acquired through early childhood education can have a bigger effect on pay, since those who had kindergarten were found to have a 7% increase in annual earnings at age 27. Roughly translated into monetary terms, a student who had kindergarten could expect to make about $1,000 more a year than a student who just stayed at home. This finding alone could justify the enactment of RA 10157, especially since we are in an age where money and income is the top priority.

But more than the financial gains, the researchers say that good early education can impart skills that make the difference in the students’ lives – skills like patience, discipline, manners, and perseverance. Apparently the lessons five-year-olds learn make a mark in their lives, even if it doesn’t translate into test scores.

The problem is that many parents question the importance of kindergarten in their children’s lives. It is assumed that Grade One teaches the same skills children learn in Kindergarten. As far back as I can remember, I myself attended kindergarten for as long as three days only because our teacher had to give birth and there was no substitute. After that, I wasn’t interested in going anymore; anyway, I had my mother to do the teaching as she is a teacher herself. In those days though, kindergarten education wasn’t as important as it is now. Or, its importance wasn’t given more proper attention than it receives now.

Of course, not all of us have the benefit of having a mother who is a teacher at the same time, and can teach you the basics in math, science, reading, writing, and more. Kindergarten accomplishes this job for our children. If your child skips kindergarten, he may still be prepared, but not as he should be if he had kindergarten education, especially now that they’re teaching more skills in kindergarten than they used to before. Also, your child can always learn the basics of socialization, of good manners, teamwork and the like in your home, but these lessons will be learned better in the school, in the real world where he is not an only son or an only daughter, where he is not pampered as he is at home, where there are other children as demanding, as brash, as mischievous as himself.

Children’s early learning experiences have a profound effect on their development. If we give our Filipino children positive early experiences in school, if we can give them a good kindergarten education that provides challenging and engaging learning experiences, we will build their confidence, we can encourage them to see learning as both enjoyable and useful, and we can provide a strong foundation for their future well-being.

 If we catch ‘em while they’re young and drum into their minds the basic skills that they can use in later life, then we wouldn’t worry about catching them when it’s too late.