One Man’s Quest: Finding The Perfect Early Childhood Nursery School.
The pursuit of education for high school graduating ‘Class Of 2031’.
Our perception of right and wrong, good and bad, legal and illegal, moral and immoral, just and unjust are shaped by our experiences, culture, society at large. These perceptions are constantly evolving. “Is the world inherently good or inherently bad?” is subjective. The prism through which we look at life today will not be the same as in 2030's.
One man’s quest to find the perfect nursery for his high school graduating ‘Class Of 2031’ child.
How do we go about interpreting the myriad of school rankings? High school completion rates, Ivy League admissions rates and a thousand other metrics. We all aspire nothing but the best for our children and wish to see them happy. Harvard’s seventy five year adult development research, often described as the longest on-going research study in the world, concludes that:
- Good relationships keep us happier and healthier
- Social connections are good and loneliness negatively impacts health, happiness and life span
- Quality of those social connections are important and high-conflict marriages have a negative impact
- Good relationships protect and enrich both the body and mind
- Fame, wealth and high achievement play an insignificant role to one’s happiness
Combine the existing school ranking metrics / system and the findings of the Harvard’s research study. What I need is a school ranking based on above factors or at least schools that subscribe to these values. How do you measure quality social connections?
“Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.” — Paul Kalanithi in ‘When Breath Becomes Air’
If we still haven’t found a way to measure these fundamental and critical aspects of life, what good is the existing ranking system? On the brighter side, with these unknowns, one thing is certain in the near-future — teacher’s will not delegate their work to a robot.
“Teaching kids to count is fine, but teaching them what counts is best” Bob Talbert
The role of a teacher is under-valued. It takes tremendous self-discipline, awareness and inner strength to deal with a room full of toddlers. To instill ‘life’ in children that will chart the course for the child’s life journey — a noble cause. There are early childhood teachers that view this profession as a job and then you have dedicated teachers who view this profession as a calling. Where do we find school / teacher rankings based on these key performance indicators?
“Slow the [gentle un-harmful expletive] down” is the best advice I received from a concerned teacher. In early childhood, the child learns and absorbs primarily through imitation. A few taps on the phone food is delivered, a few clicks and the cleaning crew shows up, a few push of buttons — dishes, vacuuming, laundry is done. While convenient and time-saving for the parent, the child imitates — curious to tap/click on the phone and push those buttons (including yours).
The elegant, repetitive motion of sweeping the floor while you sing or perform other chores will do wonders for your child. Who has the time for that — I’d rather put in the time and effort now or deal with not-so-pleasant consequences later in life. Improve your not-unimpressive ways, do the work and watch the child absorb. Oh, the joy of mono-tasking!
We live in a transient age where ‘Likes’ and ‘Shares’ determine the course of information consumption and influence our decision making. This may not be the case decades from now. An honest attempt must be made to address “What guiding principles and skills will enrich the young adult of the 2030’s and beyond?”
These may be what count’s and what school ranking’s must be based on?
- Learning to learn
- Skillfully deal with adversities
- Communication to support social connections
