A Washington Post article titled, "In D.C., public school for 3-years-olds is already the norm" highlighted the fact that the nation's capital is already doing what something the president advocated for in his last State of the Union address: made early childhood education widely available.
Rather than waiting until children are five years old, the president hopes to get children on the path to academic success at an earlier age, pushing for all children to have the opportunity to attend a public preschool starting at age four. We don't know when that will be a reality, but for now programs like Head Start can help make sure that all children, regardless of income, are able to take advantage of early childhood education.
Our federally funded collaborative half-day preschool program enrolls children starting at age three in classrooms in our Elyria, East Lorain, Southside and South Elyria centers. Our qualified and caring staff works to prepare low-income children socially and academically for kindergarten.
Some people may think that three is too early to attend school but we know that early childhood education can make a difference in a child's life. Children that start school at five with children that have already spent a couple of years getting accustomed to an academic environment, they may be at a disadvantage.
One mother mentioned in the Post article, "said she was apprehensive before her son, Joseph, started, wondering whether 3 was too young for school. But he adapted quickly. In his second year of preschool, Joseph, who just turned 5, is reading simple books. “I had no idea how good it was going to be for him,” she said. “It was really eye-opening.”
