2014
Of course it is! But it’s an intriguing question, is it not?
What triggered this question was watching the out-of-bounds mayor of New York rant about four-year-olds going to pre-kindergarten as essential to their future opportunities in life. It isn’t.
These progressives in their idealistic fantasy world continue to con people with their simplistic throw money at everything solutions.
Education is important, especially education that teaches the basic three Rs and education that teaches critical thinking, independent thought, and good study and evaluation habits. And, of course, education is critical for any number of professions.
But education is not the panacea to success. If that were true every college graduate would be a rousing success in life and that is the hoax played by the likes of DiBlasio. Over my long corporate career I saw many people with outstanding academic credentials crash and burn or spend years in mediocrity, sometimes surpassed by people with a lesser education, but with virtues far more important to success; a positive attitude and communication skills among them.
I’m beginning to wonder how my generation accomplished anything at all with none of the assistance we are told is essential today.
Obtain as much education as possible, keep learning all your life, read, read and read some more. Listen to others more than you talk, ask questions, explore ideas and places.
There are good reasons why certain ethnic and racial groups consistently do better in school and life; a major reason is family and a culture of learning. Pre-school is not going to take the place of that. True education is not the sole responsibility of teachers.
So while pushing pre-K sounds great, especially to those seeking more free day care and while the school environment may be better for many children, the real secret to future success resides first with the parents and then with the children as they grow into adults. Even the best education is only one tool in the quest for opportunity and success. Don’t be fooled by those who promise otherwise.
There is a life of hard work and good decisions ahead, including the decision never to give up or use the crutch of “I can’t!”
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QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
well put……however,…there is a fairly moderate correlation between education level obtained and income. In itself that does not define/gurantee success or happiness but I totally agree with what you suggest or infer….namely perhaps higher education is over rated.. pre-k funding for essentially baby sitting or day care as you refer to it is not education per se, that is unless you define all of life’s experience as educational.
the mayor acts as though pre=-k is a necessary pre-cursor to further educational and life success……i don’t think he’s immersed himself in the research which is pretty has established that any gains from early education/head start are short lived and don’t accomplish what they stated they would accomplish. The problem has been that pre-k has become a political/social issue and not an educational one!
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It does make one wonder. Right now public schools have twelve years to turn out basically educated students. If you count kindergarten, they have thirteen years. The results are terrible in most big city schools. Their answer is, give us one more year.
The problem is not how long a student remains in the production line. Its the production line.
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Good point, Vince
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