April is the Month of the Young Child:
Since prehistoric times, children have played a central role in the development of society. Cave dwellers taught children how to survive by hunting, gathering, and protecting themselves from danger. The tribe’s future wasn’t left to chance. Today, many say what worked for grandpa is good enough for kids today.
Following that logic through many generations our systems would be the same as during our cave dwelling years. We would teach children how to hunt with sticks, fish with their hands, and build camp fires to scare off sabre toothed cats. But our world changes and how we raise our children must change with the needs of the times.
Cave dwellers didn’t leave their future to chance, why should we? April is the month of the young child. It’s a reminder not to wait until children are 16 or 17 to prepare them for a world that changes faster every year. Today’s toddlers will live in a future very different from today. It’s a moral imperative to make certain that they are more prepared than were the children of our cave dwelling ancestors. That can only happen if we are intentional and leave nothing to chance.
Without knowing anything about brain science, ancient humans began teaching their children as soon as they could walk; it was a matter of survival then. We know about brain development and how the lack of quality early childhood experiences locks children into a world of second class abilities. Isn’t this a matter of survival? Not just for the child but for American Scoiety. The workforce of 2025 is in preschool and kindergarten today. To have excellent, hardworking employees 15 years from now, we must influence the growth and development of babies today.
Consider this fable. A town near the bottom of a small cliff experienced a number of cars driving off the road at the top and plummeting to the bottom just outside the town. The town brought these people to their hosiptal. This happened more than once a day. The town council debated the need for a major addition to their hospital to handle the injured. Some said, “We must add on to the hospital!” Others argued, “It’s not our fault these people drive off the cliff so we shouldn’t have to bear the cost of an addition to our hospital.” The debate raged without resolution. The council reconvened the next week to amazing news. No cars drove off the cliff this week. They wondered, “What happened?” One person said “I went up to the top of the cliff and installed a guard rail and bright yellow, reflective signs to warn people about the hazzard.”
Quality early childhood programming is keeping the cars from driving over the cliff. It takes less effort to keep them from harm than to fix them on the back end. Any good business person knows that from experience. It’s the Fram oil filter commercial. Pay me now or pay me later; it’s your choice. But the price is much larger when we try to repair things as opposed to properly preparing them in the first place. It’s not a guarantee, it’s an insurance policy.
