Spokane7
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Besides
inspecting the building for safety and assessing toys, activities, teachers
and whether or not children are engrossed in activities, parents should pay
attention to the artwork displayed on the walls.
Willing to invest for the long term? Looking for a socially responsible growth industry offering consistently high returns? Want to “buy American” and create domestic jobs without discouraging international trade? Consider the benefits of public investments in early childhood education…
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garyc on March 02 at 11:53 a.m.
Glad to see you reference that, Virginia. Here is a good early ed. blog.
http://www.earlyedcoverage.org/
It’s run by Richard Colvin and Liz Willen at the Hechinger Institute (at Columbia University). Had the good fortune to attend a seminar there on this topic and then visit the Bloomingdale School, which is legendary in early ed. circles.
Best investment we could make in this country, if done right.
BTW, loved your article over the weekend. That’s the family we adopted our dog Anna from. Small town, eh?
Tell then Anna is doing fine, though she’s a bit chubbier.
virginiad on March 02 at 3:20 p.m.
Hi Gary! That’s a great website — thanks! I attended a Hechinger Institute seminar about nine years ago when I covered education and I think those folks do an excellent job. I’ll pass along the info about Anna. Yes, Spokane is a small place. But I like it that way… Hope you’re well! We register for kindergarten this week so Z is very excited.
je9je9 on March 03 at 6:22 a.m.
I always notice whether there is carbon copy art on the walls of a school and judge it accordingly. I started school in England where individuality was encouraged and can still remember my mom’s horror when she saw dozens of identical pieces lined up on the wall in my new US school.
I remember going to an art night at the kids’ elementary school where we could paint a wooden Christmas ornament. Someone stood at the front and gave step-by-step instructions how to paint, with which colors. My two didn’t say a word, but I could see the point at which they said, “To heck with this,” and began to paint them their way. There were two hundred matching ornaments and two messy, but unique ones.
I didn’t choose their preschool based solely on art, but the co-ops which are affiliated with Community Colleges of Spokane have the philosophy that children learn through play and I liked that. There’s intense parent involvement which appealed to me and since the vast majority of children were read to and talked to and taken places, there was no need for much of a school readiness program because it came naturally. We had a lot of art and it didn’t all look alike.