When
we say that we have a budget crisis, it's not a shortage of money that we're
talking about. There's plenty of money. This is lobbying power, which assures
that our political system continues to try to keep the spending patterns
unchanged. The economics of it just doesn't hold up. You want to make sure you
have sustainable economic growth, invest in your kids. Everyone's saying,
earlier, the better. It's more efficient. If you wait, it's going to cost you a
lot more money, and you're going to fail a lot more ( raising children).
We
are not producing the workforce we need. We are producing a large, large number
of people who are going to be unable to compete effectively on a global basis.
And we create a two-tiered society, so we say to those kids "Sorry, we're
not going to help," even though we know how to help and we can do it in an
effective way. We know it has a great return on investment. We know it helps
children's life-long learning. Why do we not do it? It's a question I ask
myself daily.
Despite
everything we know, most states still confront fiscal challenges the old
fashioned way - offering subsidies to business while cutting back on social
services including child development. When Utah Republican State Senator Aaron
Osmond was appointed to the state's education committee, what he found sent him
in a different direction. Senator Osmond, “Our special education growth is
outpacing our normal student growth. We're spending a lot of money on special
education without the outcomes that we really want ( raising children).”
Nationwide,
special education is provided for children with developmental delays. In Utah,
the costs were spiraling. When Senator Osmond went looking for solutions, one
school district stood out. Granite District in Salt Lake City is large and many
of its families live in extreme poverty. The district decided to invest in high
quality early education, like Perry Preschool had years earlier.
Children
coming from at-risk family situations, often look like children who have
disability, and yet what they really have is a lack of opportunity. Many of
these kids come from homes where English is not spoken and in the past, would
have been steered to special education. Osmond, “What impressed me most about
their preschool program, was how engaged these young children were in the
educational process. These teachers knew exactly what was going on, the kids
knew what was going on, and they were participating in the process ( raising children). ”
This is Adam Norman, a 30-year-old father and a journalist. I consider being a father as my full-time duty, which comes before my actual job of journalism. As a father, there will always be new challenges for me to face everyday while raising my kids. This is where the idea of this website came from. I wanted to give out my experience, along with the experience of others, to all parents out there who need an advice with raising their kids.
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