Learning for the Very Young

The Economist:

BARACK OBAMA likes to call education "the currency for the information age". His presidency has brought a big shift in America's priorities, devoting more effort and resources--and an extra $2 billion--to children who have not yet started their formal schooling.

That is part of an international trend. South Korea plans to extend their early-education provision for all three- and four-year-olds this year. Turkey has ambitious plans too. Pre-school education was long neglected. "90% of the brain develops between the ages of zero to five, yet we spend 90% of our dollars on kids above the age of five," says Timothy Knowles of the University of Chicago. That is now changing. Academic studies, including in neuroscience, have highlighted the long-term effects of experiences in a child's early years.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 11, 2013 2:57 AM
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