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PARENTS
SHOULD MAI<E
THE BEST
TEACHERS
ft has been demonstrated that a chi/d's mental and physical
development during his first six years of life will hove a great
influence
on
his next sixty years. Yet, many parents are
unaware of the importance of personal/y educating and
developing their children at home.
by
Cfifford
C.
Mo rcusse n
F
IVE
years ago a United States gov·
ernment study revealed a startling
fact about your child's education:
The ma;or factor determi11i11g your
child's Jtlcceu iu school
is
not the
teachers experience, the pt·il¡cipal's
training, clauroom size, qNality of /ext–
book or othet' related school-cente,·ed
element.
The study was called, "Equality of
Educational Opportunity." lt was tirst
commissioned as part of the civil rights
legislation of 1964.
The results were surprising and
highly informative. "Variations in the
facilities aod curriculums of the
schools," the study concluded, "account
for relatively little variation in pupil
achievement."
What then was the major factor de–
termining success in school?
By
far the
most important factor measured i11 the
uwvey was the home backgrormd of the
individual child!
In fact, the survey dis–
covered that the failure of many minor–
ity cbildren was established before they
ever entered school.
It stated: "Whatever may be the
com–
bination of non-schoot factors
-
pov-
erty, community attitudes, low educa–
tional leve! of parents - which puts
minority children at a disadvantage
in verbal and nonverbal skills
tuhm
they enter the fi1'It grade,
the fact is the
schools have not overcome it" (empha–
sis ours) .
Formative First Five Years
Over the last decade, research in early
child education has revealed the crucial
importance of a child's home environ–
ment. At one time most educators felt
that physical growth, social adjustment,
and "school readiness" were all a child
could develop during his first six years.
Now many educators and child psy·
chologists are convinced that the first
six years of a child's life are his forma–
tive years. These are the years when a
child's personality, character, and intelli–
gence are usually set for life. They are
the child's years of greatest, most natural
and most eager learning.
Dr. Benjamín Bloom of the Univer–
sity of Chicago has demonstrated that a
child develops 50 percent of his intelli·
gence - his ability to learn and grasp
new coocepts - by age four. By age
Ambouodor Col/ogo
Photos