| I. Life Course Stage: |
|
Prenatal |
Raising
achievement and closing gaps warrants attending to every age and
stage of childhood. Even before a child is born, maternal health and well-being affect an infant’s readiness to thrive in the world. Then, birth to age two is a period of rapid brain growth during which important adults provide warmth and security and teach the sounds of language. Social and cognitive skills and capacities that develop during ages three and four prepare a child for formal schooling. From ages five to 8, children learn to read so that later they can read to learn. From ages 9 to 14, they read to learn and seek images of possible future selves. Then, from ages 15 to 18, capacity for abstract thought solidifies and becomes a resource, as preparation accelerates for living away from parents. Finally,
ages 19 to 25 is a time of learning for both career and later life
challenges. |
|
| 0-2 |
| 3-4 |
| 5-8 |
| 9-14 |
| 15-18 |
| 19-25 |
|
II.Adult
and Peer Roles:
|
| |
Parents |
How
successfully the nation raises achievement and narrows gaps will depend
on how effectively adults function in a host of important roles. Parents
are primarily responsible, but far from alone. Grandparents and
extended family members fill roles that parents often cannot, frequently
themselves becoming parental surrogates. Teachers in schools help
with reading, math and other subjects, but clergy play key roles as moral
educators. A multiplicity of service providers works with parents
and children, providing health, recreation and other supports that parents,
school teachers and clergy do not. Other public servants affect how resources
are gathered and applied. Finally, media personalities give children
windows on the world that, for better or for worse, blend with a host
of other influences to affect assumptions, self-perceptions, aspirations
and eventually skills and lifestyles. |
| |
Extended Family |
| |
Teachers |
| |
Religious Leaders |
| |
Service Providers |
| |
Public Servants |
| |
Media Personalities |
|
| |
III.
The Setting:
|
| |
Home |
Homes,
schools, churches, after-school programs, workplaces and governmental
buildings are settings within an institutional division of labor for
helping children learn and develop. Some settings are rich in
resources and traditions and use them to help children develop to their
full potential. Others lack sufficient resources or constitute
places where children are a low priority. Raising achievement
and narrowing gaps on a broad basis requires effective operation within
and across many settings within an expansive, nurturant social ecology. Both
internal operations and external linkages to other settings affect
how successfully any given setting helps children learn and develop. Sharing
discoveries, insights and resources for helping all types of settings
to operate in the best interests of children and families will be a
key to progress toward helping more children to reach their full potential. |
| |
School |
| |
Church |
| |
After school programs |
| |
Work (parent's) |
| |
Work (student's) |
| |
Local, State, Federal
Government |
| |
|
|
|
