Justifying the Cause of Early Childhood Learning

In April, 1997, the I Am Your Child campaign was launched following a White House conference on early childhood development. Click here to view the requests for information from I Am Your Child campaign. Click here to view organizations funding the I Am Your Child campaign.

On June 25, 1998, the I Am Your Child campaign and Kaiser Permanente sponsored a leadership forum on early childhood development at which the Children Now report, Right Time, Right Place: Managed Care and Early Childhood Development, was unveiled.

In late May, early June, 1998, Washington Governor Gary Locke launched his Early Learning Commission co-chaired by his wife, Mona Locke, and Melinda French Gates, wife of computer mogul, Bill Gates. In his press release on the matter, Locke stated,

Science has now proven the first three years of life are critical to a child's learning and development... Because these earliest stages set the stage for the rest of that child's life, parents and care-givers need to know how to make the most of those learning opportunities.

An email request of the Governor's office for the scientifically validated research in support of his contentions brought this email response, "We are pleased with the research and emphasis on the first three critical years of life" suggesting that the Governor's office had the research in hand. The email then concluded thusly, "Thank you, again, for your request, and we will send the information in the mail for you as soon as possible." That email is dated June 4, 1998. The requested material was received from the governor's office on July 20, 1998. Click here for a listing of what the "research" consisted of that the Governor's office was so pleased with, and that the Governor's office forwarded in response to the request for the validated research.

It is of note that Mrs Locke recently returned from a privately financed visit to China where her focus was early childhood education. One has to wonder what we could possibly learn from a communist nation?

Well, folks, here is the skinny on early childhood development straight from the horses mouth!!!! Click here to go to the Children Now website where all these quotes can be found.

By the time a baby is three, s/he will have formed about 1000 trillion connections - about twice as many as adults have. A baby's brain is super-dense, and will stay that way for the first decade of life ..... This research has led scientists to believe that the kind of caregiving a child receives has an even greater effect on brain development than previously suspected.

Notice that they believe, they don't know. There is a great deal of difference between what one believes (opinion) and what one knows (fact, provable). The above quote is followed, a few sentences later, by these revelations:

Research has illustrated that if a child receives warm, and responsive care by talking, reading and playing, it can help a child's brain to develop to its full potential. However, if a child is abused or neglected, problems may develop that can persist a lifetime.

Notice in the first sentence that "it can help....", not "it will help..."; and notice in the second sentence that "problems may...", not "problems will...". Can and may are nebulous, iffy, maybe; will is definitive. There is no definitive proof in these conjectures. But watch how believe, can and may get transmogrified into a definitive in the following quotes from the same website:

Breakthrough scientific research reveals that most of a child's crucial brain development occurs during his or her first three years of life. A child's experiences and environment during this essential time impact his lifetime of social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.

(Suddenly can and may become a definitive. Also notice how the second sentence only correlates to the first sentence by inference, by assumption.)

In fact, we now know that brain patterns created during these early years have a tremendous impact throughout a person's life - on healthy emotional, intellectual and social development. In short, the first years last forever. ... In response to this recent medical understanding...

(Now its not scientific research, its a medical understanding. The two are being equated but are not equal.

Since its spring launch in 1997, 'I Am Your Child' has educated millions of parents and professionals about breakthrough new discoveries in the process of brain development. These findings reveal that the first three years of a child's life are more important for emotional and intellectual growth than previously thought.

(Now can and may become are.)

These announcements followed a day of discussions by health plan leaders and early childhood experts on the implications of the new brain research ...

(Suddenly researchers become early childhood experts. Again the two are being equated but are not equal.)

Now comes the real agenda, hidden under all those words of concern and caring:

Participants will examine the health care system's role as a community institution for families with young children ... {and} how they can enhance early childhood development services within their organizations and work to set the national agenda of early childhood development services. The morning concludes by outlining the steps necessary to move the health care industry forward in this field and why this is of importance to purchasers.

I Am Your Child is a national public awareness and engagement campaign to make early childhood development a top priority for our nation.

(Gotta have that parent buy-in to the "expert" mentality.)

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 10 well-baby visits before the age of three, giving clinicians frequent opportunities to assess not only a child's physical growth, but also the child's and family's well-being.

(Like cattle, children are to be raised up to the needs of the state and parents are nothing but producers.)

As integrated delivery systems, MCOs {managed care organizations} bring together a range of health care professionals and services, potentially enhancing the degree of coordination and continuity in the delivery of care.

(Ever feel like the specimen under the glass?)

The latest discoveries also underscore the importance of high quality child care. Children need experiences with caregivers who are sensitive to their emotional and physical needs.

(Government owned and government run day cares — early childhood education through the local government, aka public, school.)

A Kaiser Permanente pediatric clinic in Washington, DC participated in a pilot program with ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families in which a child development specialist was integrated into the clinical team.

Families with four-month-olds are invited to complete a questionnaire about their child. They receive an evaluation of their child's temperament, along with tailored guidance about what to expect as their child grows up.

(An Individual Education Plan {IEP} anyone?)

Kaiser Permanente's Perinatal Home Care Program in the Denver/Boulder area provides an advanced practice nurse home visitor to pregnant and parenting families who have been referred by their clinician. Categories for referral include both low- and high-risk groups. Most low-risk families receive one or two visits, but more intensive services are available if ongoing needs are detected. Ninety percent of all deliveries in the Denver/Boulder area receive a home visit.

(Voluntary, but "more intensive services are available if ongoing needs are detected." Sounds real voluntary, doesn't it?)

And in final — this, from the Children Now Action Alert site:

Congress will soon vote on a tobacco tax bill, which provides an opportunity to gain a major increase in funding for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). The CCDBG helps states make quality child care more affordable for working parents and supports improvements in the quality of child care and afterschool programs.

Well, well, well!!!!!!

The bottom line is that there is no scientific proof that early childhood experiences have any affect — positive or negative — on brain development outside those experiences which cause physical harm to the child — whether it is trauma to the head, ingesting poisonous substances, or contracting of diseases known to cause brain abnormality. The contentions being made about the correlation between early childhood experiences and early childhood brain development are to justify government intervention into the family unit, turning parents into nothing more than human resource providers and children into human resource units, to be raised under the ever watchful eye of the government the same as a farmer raises cattle — chattel of the state to be used and discarded at will. Don't believe it? Please read on.

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