I say this as a young dad seeing children going into primary school: I don't think we should underestimate the formative effect on a child of those first years in primary school.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
No matter what happens in a child's home, no matter what other social and economic factors may impede a child, there's no question in my mind that a first-rate school can transform almost everything.
Children without access to quality early education programs start kindergarten with an 18-month disadvantage, and that gap continues to widen. By the time they are in fourth grade, many cannot do math or read at grade level.
Early childhood education begins early, even before birth.
If women's choices - such as taking time off to rear children - make them less productive in the economy, does adolescent boys' behavior in school make them even less so, because they are missing the educational potential of their formative years?
I think it is shocking that 15- and 16-year-olds leave school unable to add up and with the reading ability of a four-year-old.
I think every parent knows that, like, boys and girls are different. And we just don't take that into account in schools on those things like required reading lists. 'Cause that was my experience, say, with my son, who had to read 'Little House on the Prairie' when he was in third grade.
I think there's so much negative influence on children in school settings. It becomes learning by rote to pass a test. It's not contextualized.
I believe that children have to grow up as all-round personalities, but it cannot be at the cost of academics.
There is a lot going on in high schools, and I think what we portray is fairly accurate.
Before the child ever gets to school it will have received crucial, almost irrevocable sex education and this will have been taught by the parents, who are not aware of what they are doing.