Issue: It is known that early education provides a tremendous benefit for the future. Should early education (beginning age three) be mandatory and free?
My opinion is that early education is an essential aspect that contributes to the future in a significant way, and that is, should be mandatory and free.
My reasons: The process of socializing and emotional development works better in the society. As the matter of fact, children gain the needed experience in the preschool. While early education children will not only learn how to socialize, but they will gain communicative and social skills that will help them to cooperate with other children better. Children will also learn how to control feelings. The process of socialization cannot happen in the family; the child needs to be with the same aged people to get a better understanding of how to communicate.
The next reason is that the early education will prepare kids for the studying process. With the help of experienced teachers, children will learn numbers, letters, and other general topics that will help them to be successful in future education. Children of the age of three should be taught through the game, as it is their dominant activity. Engaging in the types of games that are directed to the development of pre-math and pre-literacy skills will be beneficial for children as parent usually do not have enough time or knowledge how to teach children. Early education will prepare kids for the formal education and will create a solid base that will ease the process of studying in future.
According to the recent researches, the limitation for the success in life occurs before a child enters the school. At age three the brain faces the intense and rapid development (Satterlee, Molavi, & Williams, 2015). During this time, the child creates the base for reading, mathematics, and science. Rhian Evans Allvin, the director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children states:
There is an explosion of activity in the first five years of life, more profound than any future years. If we can capitalize on that and maximize the support and learning opportunities, then we really stand a good chance of setting young children on a trajectory of success (Skarda, 2014).
Children who go through the early education programs show better academic results that those who did not. These children are probably will not repeat the grade or struggle with the studying process. Steve Barnett, the director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, notes that the fact the vast majority of children does not attend the early education programs seems to have a negative influence on the country’s economy (Skarda, 2014).
A number of diseases are rooted in the previous experience of a child, the criminal behavior, and poor academic performance is the consequences of the governmental ignorance of the problem. The early education should be free and mandatory. Lack of investments in the sphere of education leads to severe consequences. However, one should keep in mind that studying process is the most significant aspect that influences not only personal growth but also the country in general.
Considering/Refuting opposing arguments: The major critique regarding an early education is based on the fact that it sets the limitation on the creativity and learning skills. Alison Gopnik, the psychologist, claims that attending the preschool children do not explore the world and narrow the outlook (Gopnik, Griffiths, & Lucas, 2015). However, the early education programs are developed for the need of children and use creativity and game as the primary tools to shape future academic success.
Early education programs are the chance for the child to accomplish goals in future life. It helps with better academic performance, development of cognitive, social, and communicative skills that are significantly important factors that contribute to the success in life.
References
Gopnik, A., Griffiths, T., & Lucas, C. (2015). When younger learners can be better (or at least more open-minded) than older ones. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(2), 87-92.
Satterlee, D., Molavi, J., & Williams, M. (2015). An evaluation of early education based on physical environmental guidelines. SAGE Open, 5(2), 1-11.
Skarda, E. (2014). Ask the experts: How can we fix early childhood education? Web.