About 300 people gathered at the CSUMB's University Center Thursday to hear James Heckman expound on his studies that call for greater investment on little children instead of waiting until they're older to invest in programs that don't provide as much return.
The skills a child learns as an infant are skills that will be difficult to compensate for later in life if he or she doesn't acquire them. It's not that people shouldn't try, but it's just that the "return" on the investment won't be as high.
And the skills needed are not just cognitive skills, he said. Character, self esteem, are essential ingredients for success, and they're easier to acquire at the earliest stages of life.
"Invest in prevention, not remediation," was Heckman's message.
Because children in better-off families already receive the attention they need, it's children in low-income families who need the greatest help. They're the ones who statistically need more help later in life: they attend lower performing schools that will not be able to compensate for their shortcomings. Even if the skills gap doesn't grow any wider, it's persistent as children grow and begin attending schools.
An official meeting of the Rotary Club of Monterey, the meeting was attended by a slew of educators from all over Monterey County. Kathy Lathrop, director of early childhood education at Pajaro Valley Unified School District made an impassionate plea to the attendants to vote for proposed ballot measures that would fund education at all levels. As is, Gov. Jerry Brown's proposed budget is calling for massive cuts to early childhood education, including one extra year of kindergarten.
"We need the support of the business (community) opposing these cuts," she said. "We don't want to dismantle what's already in place."
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