Monthly Archives: July 2008

Aren’t You Glad….

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From Teacher Magazine

Comment: The discipline of children is a big issue everywhere. It is sometimes more important that children run wild and receive no formation from parents and teachers for the sake of a childhood theory that we simply never say “no” to a child. The pool incident on Tuesday is such a case. When ANY discipline is offered a child, the nightmare looks and judgments come forth from a limp community that would rather see the following:

Tight Discipline

Separate incidents at two schools in Westchester County, New York, question the appropriateness of school discipline as parents and educators debate whose responsibility it is to discipline students. An Ardsley school board member and parent of a 14-year-old special education student resigned her post after other parents complained that school officials were too tolerant of her son’s repeated bullying and threats of a massacre and bombing, according to The New York Times.

The middle school boy received one-day suspensions on four different occasions, a lax consequence that parents of other middle schoolers said were given because of the mother’s board position. Maryanne Reda, parent and volunteer cafeteria monitor, witnessed the boy call another aid a “Nazi,” and says that he received special treatment. “The child’s behavior was quite disruptive, but it appeared there were no consequences,” she said.

Another parent is defending her son David Turano for exposing his backside at a June graduation ceremony from Briarcliff High School in Briarcliff Manor, New York, because she claims the school treated her son unfairly over the years. The school responded to Turano’s exposure by revoking his diploma but later returned it. Although Turano pleaded not guilty, his hearing is scheduled for July 24.

Unseen Dangers at the Pool by Judy Lyden

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Every year for nearly 35 years, I’ve taken children to our local pool. It’s a great pool because it’s well designed for fun and teaching swimming. The pool is crystal clean and beautifully kept. The guards are first rate, the pool management supurb, so why wouldn’t I want to take my own children as I did years ago, and my grandchildren and school children year in and year out? Every year we donate about $100. in toys to the pool for all the children to play with. So what would keep me away?

The answer could be the local ladies who visit the pool much as I did in my youth. Every year these women sit across from our group and pass judgment on us. They provide a steady stream of gossip, haughty looks, and erroneous complaints. In the past they have sent hate emails, they’ve made angry phone calls and worst of all, my staff and I are charged with a lack of care.

What these women refuse to see is just how much we really do care about the children in our school. I don’t see another single early childhood school taking their whole student body to the pool twice a week and actually teaching most of them to swim. Most places nap away a child’s summer. We teach. At the pool it’s swimming.

Today we had an incident that ruffled many feathers. One of our little girls decided she did not want to be wet, and a little boy splashed her. She went after the little boy and scratched his face. She was promptly told by one of our teachers, who has been teaching with me seventeen years, that she could not behave in such a manner. The child decided at that point to throw a tantrum. Because it’s not safe to swim while in tantrum, she was told she could go back into the pool when she stopped. It was as simple as that. She decided not to stop. There was not a single tear.

One of the “ladies” decided to intervene. I’m sure her intentions were excellent. She was obviously very upset from what she saw from fifty or sixty feet away. She came to rescue the child from her tantrum and actually picked up the child ready to pull her away from the security of the child’s teachers and friends. This presented a danger unlike any danger. It’s called stranger danger. There was a strong reprove which ended in an argument about hugs and later we made a call to the police department to report the incident.

What people outside the early childhood theatre must understand is this: real teachers act on behalf of children. We are professionals who work with a myriad of problems every day. We know when one of our children needs to be hugged and when one of our children needs to sort out his or her difficulties all by him or herself. It’s experience, not sugary sentimentalism that teaches best. Our teaching staff is an educated body of men and women who work together in a small school to provide the best possible experiences for the children in our care.

For thirty seven years I’ve worked with very young children. I’ve taught preschool for over twenty-five years. I’m an innovator, a possibility hog. My principal and I developed the program that takes children all over our area to see what can be seen and do what can be done because we believe that a summer is a time to discover and witness the world – even for children. At the same time we know that many of these children would not get to do these things outside of school. That includes the pool.

The pool is a teaching place for us, and because it’s a public place, it’s open to our children too. The numbers we bring help the pool financially, because our cost is the same as everyone else’s. And because it is a public place, we deserve the same respect and the same consideration as any other family.

This week we will go to Mammoth Cave. Two weeks ago we were in St. Louis at the zoo. Parents are always invited and many of them go because that’s the kind of relationship we have with our parents. It’s close. We see every parent every day. We talk to parents every single day about the life of the whole child, because every child is a whole child and needs his or her daily place to care about the child enough to give him or her the very best.

How do we do it? It’s a whole lot of work and a whole lot of planning goes into it. Our staff works round the clock to put together a program every single parent of a child at the Garden School can be proud of.

This year our little school won first place in the category of schools with fewer than 40 children in the Hoppining jump for Easter Seals. That’s because we care about our community and the people who live here. We care as much about the children who will probably never visit a pool right down to the other children who are swimming along side us. We never complain. We mind our own business, do our work and leave.

The Garden School promise to the parents who allow us to care for their children is to continue to provide the very best of everything including pools no matter what.

Yuck

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From Breitbart.com

Comment: this is going too far. It is reverse discrimination in my opinion and absolutely ridiculous.

Toddlers who say “yuck” when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says.

The London-based National Children’s Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to “recognize different people in their lives.”

The bureau says to be aware of children who “react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying ‘yuck’.”

“Racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships,” the guide says.

Staff members are advised not to ignore racist actions and to condemn them when they occur.

Communication by Judy Lyden

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One of the big issues day in and day out in the childcare business is communication. Believing what I once heard in a college communications class, “You cannot not communicate,” I have blithely gone about my early childcare life believing that everyone communicates – somehow – and all you have to do is listen. But recently, I think that there are some loopholes in that premise. I am beginning to believe that some children and most adults have some real impediments to what a thinker would call communication.

Communication is not the holding back of information until the pot boils. Kids do this all the time with bathroom needs. “Do you need to use the bathroom?” And the child ignores you, he shrugs, he pretends you didn’t ask. He might even go to the bathroom and stand there or wash his hands. Next thing you know, he’s got a problem, but the problem is not verbalized. He might be outside dancing around holding himself and you ask again, “Do you need to use the bathroom?” and he will look at you as if you have two heads.

The experienced provider or teacher never asks, “Do you need to use the bathroom?” The experienced teacher says, “Use the bathroom now.”

Holding back information is a bad habit that most people indulge in. I’m never quite sure if it’s a method of getting to be king of the mountain, or if it’s some other power play or some kind of evasiveness that means a kind of emotional safety zone. If you listen to or engage most people, most conversation will be about the details and minutia of someone’s life. You will hear about aches and pains, sleep, and what they ate or watched on TV. Sometimes the conversation will elevate into long reports about people the listener has little contact with or little interest in. This is American conversation and communication. This is what fascinates the speaker and deadens the listener. No wonder we are in decline.

If this is the sum total of what children are witnessing at home, God help the next generation.

The whole point of communication is sharing information. Sometimes the ideal of sharing that information is artistic. Someone’s art is the expression of that person’s soul, and it becomes our greatest communication more so than any other method of expression. No other thing allows us to more completely give information about ourselves than art. That’s why art in the classroom is so important. The knowledge of how to express the self is one of the teaching strategies of a good school.

Getting the person out of the person is a frightening experience for some kids and for most adults. The disdain for the kind of expression that runs as deep as art is often something that runs just too deep to communicate about, and that’s a shame. It’s a shame because that attitude had to be learned someplace and most likely it was learned at home or from a teacher. Adults are often less willing to communicate on an artistic level than children who always want to show someone what they have done. The scripture passage, “Unless you come to Me as little children…” comes to mind.

Yet as a writer I know that sharing information about writing is about as exciting to a listener as the minutia of my life. Artists who produce often keep the details to themselves. In my own life rarely if ever does someone ask, “What are you writing now?” And more rare than that is a willing listener to the answer. (I’m guessing that the question is not rhetorical.) The finished product of my writing is my communication with the world. It’s an enormous part of my life, but it’s also a part of my life that must be sublimated constantly by a world more interested in gossip, TV and minutia. When the ultimate response to reading my work is “That’s good” I wonder if I’m living in Oz.

Little children, on the other hand, are brash about their work and most live in Oz anyway. “Look, Miss Judy, do you like what I did?” Now there is communication at its absolute best. It’s a wide open question that asks a really intense statement. “Do you, the chosen person, like, give a seal of approval from your own soul, what I, the communicator at his best, did, his work, the effort of his mind and heart. Then is not the time for the ultimate brush off, “That’s good.”

A teaching moment with art can make or break a child’s mind and heart for a moment. The breaking of the moment drives the child into the mindlessness of minutia, aches and pains, gossip, TV and what he ate the night before. The making or encouragement from a teacher or parent often signals a child that his work is acceptable, and so is he. This elevates his curiosity, it gives him impetus to accelerate the process of thought and creation to the next level – ideas. Ideas are the greatest form of communication because ideas carried out change the world.

Art develops from ideas and a sense of inner worth. Some people express themselves through clothing, language, funny expression, acts of kindness, creativity at work, a house can become someone’s artistic expression. Sometimes it’s a garden or a collection or any number of human delights. But at the base of expression is the idea. Ideas are a constant work of art and can give immeasurable goodness at any time.

But ideas are like art today; they are stuffed inside the person and wont to come forth because all around us the talk is minutia, TV, last night’s dinner and who did what to whom. Why are so many people stuck in the quagmire of a refusal to bring forth their wonderful ideas and really communicate? Why is conversation so incredibly dull, and why is art sublimated at all costs?

Recently I watched my first “reality” TV. I could listen for about 3 minutes before I felt my brain dying. Perhaps this is the new archetype of communication? It fit the causal bill – minutia of a very boring and hapless life, gossip, TV and aches and pains. If this is the new model of communication, we all better re-examine quickly.

This year in school, one of my afternoons will be spent communicating with kids from the heart. We will do an afternoon of theater where expression and vamp will be award winning. It will be called Communication 101. I am hoping to have children talk about their dreams and their likes and be able to act out the things that interest them. It’s verbal expression, and I want to catch that and develop it.

Mrs. St. Louis is turning Friday afternoons into fine arts with the idea that she will be imparting the knowledge necessary to accomplish an understanding of what fine art is.

Miss Amy is using the late mornings for a host of different musical components. These components will be far reaching and include a lot of self expression as well as learning about the art of music.

Miss Kelly will be taking science to a fine art height. The touch, the taste, the smell, the sound, the sight of things natural and expected and those things unexpected will be her playground.

Communication is possible from every human breath. It should be welcomed by adults from children and other adults and should never be limited to stultifying reports about personal minutia or insidious recaps about TV. Think about your last conversation and ask yourself what heights that conversation could have met. It’s frightening to think that reality TV has caught us in the same muck.

Carrots

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From World’s Healthiest Foods

Carrots Carrots

Easy to pack and perfect as crudités for that favorite dip, the crunchy texture and sweet taste of carrots is popular among both adults and children. Although they are shipped around the country from California throughout the year, locally grown carrots are in season in the summer and fall when they are the freshest and most flavorful.

The carrot has a thick, fleshy, deeply colored root, which grows underground, and feathery green leaves that emerge above ground. It is known scientifically as Daucus carota, a name that can be traced back to ancient Roman writings of the 3rd century. Carrots belong to the Umbelliferae family along with parsnips, fennel caraway, cumin and dill which all have the umbrella-like flower clusters that characterize this family of plants.

Food Chart
This chart graphically details the %DV that a serving of Carrots provides for each of the nutrients of which it is a good, very good, or excellent source according to our Food Rating System. Additional information about the amount of these nutrients provided by Carrots can be found in the Food Rating System Chart. A link that takes you to the In-Depth Nutritional Profile for Carrots, featuring information over 80 nutrients, can be found under the Food Rating System Chart.

Health Benefits

Carrots are an excellent source of antioxidant compounds, and the richest vegetable source of the pro-vitamin A carotenes. Carrots’ antioxidant compounds help protect against cardiovascular disease and cancer and also promote good vision, especially night vision.

Carotenoids and Heart Disease

When six epidemiological studies that looked at the association of diets high in carotenoids and heart disease were reviewed, the research demonstrated that high-carotenoid diets are associated with a reduced risk of heart disease. In one study that examined the diets of 1,300 elderly persons in Massachusetts, those who had at least one serving of carrots and/or squash each day had a 60% reduction in their risk of heart attacks compared to those who ate less than one serving of these carotenoid-rich foods per day.

Better Vision

Beta-carotene helps to protect vision, especially night vision. After beta-carotene is converted to vitamin A in the liver, it travels to the retina where it is transformed into rhodopsin, a purple pigment that is necessary for night-vision. Plus beta-carotene’s powerful antioxidant actions help provide protection against macular degeneration and the development of senile cataracts, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly.

Carotenoids and Optimal Health

Carrots are by far one of the richest source of carotenoids-just one cup provides 16,679 IUs of beta-carotene and 3,432 REs (retinol equivalents), or roughly 686.3% the RDA for vitamin A. High carotenoid intake has been linked with a 20% decrease in postmenopausal breast cancer and an up to 50% decrease in the incidence of cancers of the bladder, cervix, prostate, colon, larynx, and esophagus. Extensive human studies suggest that a diet including as little as one carrot per day could conceivably cut the rate of lung cancer in half. Remember the study in which heavy long-term cigarette smokers were given synthetic beta-carotene, and it did not appear to prevent them from developing lung cancer? Well, not only is synthetic beta-carotene not biochemically identical to the real stuff found in carrots, but scientists now think that carrots’ protective effects are the result of a team effort among several substances abundant in carrots, including alpha-carotene-another, less publicized carotenoid. A recent National Cancer Institute study found lung cancer occurence was higher in men whose diets did not supply a healthy intake of alpha-carotene.

Carotenoids and Blood Sugar

Intake of foods such as carrots that are rich in carotenoids may be beneficial to blood sugar regulation. Research has suggested that physiological levels, as well as dietary intake, of carotenoids may be inversely associated with insulin resistance and high blood sugar levels.

Falcarinol in Carrots Promote Colon Health

Although best known for their high content of beta carotene, carrots also contain a phytonutrient called falcarinol that may be responsible for the recognized epidemiological association between frequently eating carrots and a reduced risk of cancers.

Falcarinol provides protection against colon cancer, suggests a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Three groups of laboratory animals in whom precancerous colon lesions (aberrant crypt foci) had been chemically-induced were fed a standard diet, one supplemented with freeze-dried carrots naturally containing falcarinol, or one supplemented with an extract of falcarinol. After 18 weeks, precancerous lesions in the animals given diets containing carrots or falcarinol were much smaller than those in the control animals, and far fewer of the lesions had grown in size or progressed to become tumors.

Promote Lung Health

If you or someone you love is a smoker, or if you are frequently exposed to secondhand smoke, then making vitamin A-rich foods, such as carrots, part of your healthy way of eating may save your life, suggests research conducted at Kansas State University.

While studying the relationship between vitamin A, lung inflammation, and emphysema, Richard Baybutt, associate professor of nutrition at Kansas State, made a surprising discovery: a common carcinogen in cigarette smoke, benzo(a)pyrene, induces vitamin A deficiency.

Baybutt’s earlier research had shown that laboratory animals fed a vitamin A-deficient diet developed emphysema. His latest animal studies indicate that not only does the benzo(a)pyrene in cigarette smoke cause vitamin A deficiency, but that a diet rich in vitamin A can help counter this effect, thus greatly reducing emphysema.

Baybutt believes vitamin A’s protective effects may help explain why some smokers do not develop emphysema. “There are a lot of people who live to be 90 years old and are smokers,” he said. “Why? Probably because of their diet…The implications are that those who start smoking at an early age are more likely to become vitamin A deficient and develop complications associated with cancer and emphysema. And if they have a poor diet, forget it.” If you or someone you love smokes, or if your work necessitates exposure to second hand smoke, protect yourself by making sure the World’s Healthiest Foods rich in vitamin A (carrot’s beta-carotene is converted in the body into vitamin A) are a daily part of your healthy way of eating.

Description

Carrots? The favorite food of Bugs Bunny hardly needs a description for they are well known and loved by even the youngest children in many countries. Carrots benefits are legendary. Bet your mother told you that eating carrots would keep your eyesight bright.

While we usually associate carrots with the color orange, in fact, carrots grow in a host of other colors including white, yellow, red, or purple, the latter being the color of the original variety. The carrot is a plant with a thick, fleshy, deeply colored root, which grows underground, and feathery green leaves that emerge above ground. It is known scientifically as Daucus carota, a name that can be traced back to ancient Roman writings of the 3rd century.

Carrots belong to the Umbelliferae family, named after the umbrella like flower clusters that plants in this family produce. As such, carrots are related to parsnips, fennel caraway, cumin and dill. There are over 100 different varieties that vary in size and color. Carrots can be as small as two inches or as long as three feet, ranging in diameter from one-half of an inch to over two inches. Carrot roots have a crunchy texture and a sweet and minty aromatic taste, while the greens are fresh tasting and slightly bitter.

Fancy Nancy is a Child’s Delight

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Several weeks ago, the Garden School increased our dress up play area with several wonderful Fancy Nancy items from Jakks Pacific. We got the darling little red shoes and the perfect frilly dresses and the sweet little dog and the outstanding doll, and let me tell you, the kids have not been out of the dresses since they arrived! As we are out of the school Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday every week for field trips, the clothes and dolls have been a real summer success on Mondays and Thursdays when we are at school.

What I love best about these dress up clothes is the incredible durability. They simply endure and endure! They are reasonably priced from Jakks Pacific, and they are available at Target Stores nationwide.

The children do not take their play clothes off to dress up – you can imagine what a nightmare that would be! So putting any kind of play dresses on must be really durable, and these clothes are super constructed. Every one of 50 kids have put and re-put these dresses and shoes on day in and day out and they still look brand new.

What my eye tells me is that the kids are having a wonderful time with these things, because they simply never come off the children. And they are reasonably priced so you can have enough items so that there is little fighting. Biggest problem is keeping the boys out of the dresses! The girls are very serious about their house play, and when the boys come to play, the whole play becomes crazy!

The shoes are slip on and perfectly sized to fit both the tiniest and the larger children.

Both the doll and the dog have been handled and re-handled and they are still beautiful and pristine.

These are the things you look for when buying children’s toys. I could go on and on about toys I’ve purchased for children that break, tear, soil easily, fall apart in some way, and these items stay intact and provide hours of play every day.

I’m delighted with these toys, and so are my kids. And now for the punchline: Even the boys love this kind of make believe. A great buy, a great line of toys to play with. They have my personal endorsement, so next time you’re at Target, look them up in the toy department. Judy Lyden.

The Fancy Nancy Product Line-Up Includes…

The Fancy Nancy Dress Assortment features her precious signature Fancy Nancy Poodle Dress and Fancy Nancy Posh Party Dress so every girl can be just like Nancy. $24.99

The Fancy Nancy Frilly Tutu Assortment is perfectly feminine and frilly for an every day occasion in the world of Fancy Nancy, as it is all about the attitude! $12.99

Every girl can be queen “just because” with the Tiara and Crown Assortment which includes a royal fluttering tiara and a royal ruby crown. $9.99

The Fancy Nancy Hat is vibrantly colored, frilly, exquisite and will compliment every one of her amazing outfits, even her pajamas – why not! $9.99

The Fabulous Fancy Nancy 18” Doll is a beautifully charming life-like doll which truly emulates Fancy Nancy’s character in that more is ALWAYS better when it comes to being fancy! $39.99

The Fabulous Fancy Nancy 18” Doll Dress Up features 4 spectacularly different outfits for creating fancy fun. Designed around her favorite color fuchsia (fancy for purple), they include 2 lavishly unique dress sets, 1 lovely robe and pajama set and a satiny tutu and leotard set. $19.99

The Fancy Nancy Posh Frenchy Puppy Plush is the most adorable La Salle Spaniel – a funny, playful, smart and cuddly dog and the ultimate accessory for every little girl. $19.99

The Fancy Nancy Glamorous Purse and Sunglasses Assortment allows girls to awesomely accessorize everything to the max! $9.99

The Fancy Nancy Dress Up Shoe Assortment features 4 different magically designed shoe sets including rouge heeled shoes, fuchsia heeled shoes, exquisite pin ballet slippers with leg warmers, and red ballet slippers with tie-up ribbons. $9.99

Babies and More Babies

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If you think an infant is a lot of work at night, try on this: (I got this from my daughter Katy.)

Mom:

10:30pm: I am finally falling asleep. Jasper senses my heavy breathing and begins his new nightly ritual of standing in the middle of the the living room and howling. He has never done this before this week. “Meow. Meow. Meow. (long pause–just enough time for me to fall back asleep) Meow. Meeeeow. Meeeeooooow.” Me: “Here Jasper. Come on kitty. Come on. (pat pat pat on the bed). Come on Jasper. BAD JASPER! You do not bite mommy!”

11:15pm: I am asleep. I move one toe. All hell breaks loose.

12:25am: I am asleep again. I roll over onto my left side. I feel fur. I move back over to “my” side of MY bed. Jasper is very tired and he doesn’t move from his spot. He is on his back, paws up, fangs exposed.

12:40am: I feel paws on my face. I am once again on my left side. Clearly Jasper has recently used his box because his paws smell like litter. Nice.

1:30am: A blade of grass gets unruly outside the window. All hell breaks loose again.

2:15am: I get up to use the bathroom. Jasper thinks it’s time to get up for the day. Jasper decides to hide at the end of the bed, under the dust ruffle so that when I walk back to my side of the bed in the darkness, he can be even more stealthy when he decides to wrap his 19lb body around my leg. I can almost hear him laughing at the stupid human…why doesn’t she get that I’m going to do this EVERY time?

4:00am: Jasper makes one of his many trips to my side of the bed. If I turn away from him, he walks to the side my face is on and just stands there until I pay attention to him and pet him. I pet him. He bites me.

5:15am: I have 30 minutes of sleep left before I have to get up. Jasper knows this. He decides to hunt birds from the night stand but instead of just watching the birds, he decides that as they fly away, he must jump under the blinds and make as much noise as possible. When I open one eye and give him a look, he tries to attack my face–because how dare I?

5:45am: I get up. I feed him. He isn’t interested in eating….anything but my feet. As I walk to his room with a bowl of wet cat food, he pulls a Ting Tang and crosses in front of every step.

This is really what my nights are like. He is a very bad cat. Kirsten says God gave me the cat I deserve.

I love you.

Katy

Thrive by Five!

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From Early Childhood Focus

Comment: This is an extraordinarily good article. I love the thrive by five idea.

New Group Working to Increase Access to Early Education

Posted in: Preschool, Washington
By Sheila Holland
June 25, 2008

We are born wired to learn.

By age 3, our brains have one trillion synapses — more than we’ll have in adulthood. By age 6, our brains are 95 percent the size of mom’s and dad’s.

We’ll spend 13 years in school preparing for college or the workplace. But it’s our first five years of life — those years before we ever set foot in a classroom — that have the most impact on our ability to learn, control our behavior and build relationships.

By age 5, we have the building blocks for success, or we have a tough road to hoe.

“The first five years have so much to do with how the next 80 turn out,” said William H. Gates Sr., co-chairman of Thrive by Five and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates was the guest speaker at the San Juan County Early Learning Leadership Luncheon, Friday in Mullis Community Senior Center. In attendance were educators, health and social workers, and business people from throughout the county.

The message: Investments in early learning pay huge dividends for children, families and society. By increasing the likelihood that children will be literate, employed and college-bound, we decrease school dropout rates, dependency on public assistance and trouble with the law.

The luncheon was sponsored by the San Juan County Early Learning Consortium, Thrive by Five and five county health and human services agencies. San Juan County is part of a regional partnership that has been awarded a grant to develop a business plan to make early childhood education available to all children.

Gates, whose Thrive by Five foundation has raised $10 million in two years to promote and support early childhood education, led the call for islanders to get involved locally in raising funds and building policy to ensure all children enter school ready to succeed.

Gates said Thrive by Five and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation believe all lives have equal value. The challenge is to ensure all children have access to what they need so they can lead productive lives.

Some 600,000 Washingtonians live in poverty, he said. A year of child care costs 50 percent more than tuition at Skagit Valley College. More than 50 percent of Washington children walk into a kindergarten classroom unprepared.

“It’s a moral failure and a policy disaster,” he said.

Gates pointed out how easily a child can fall behind. A child who did not have access to early childhood education and shares a kindergarten classroom with children who can read or write their ABCs can lose self-confidence early. If the child’s behavioral and social skills are not as developed as the other children’s, then the problem is compounded. The result is disinterest in school.

“Dysfunctional children grow up to be dysfunctional adults, and that leads to a dysfunctional society,” Gates said.

Studies bear out the success of early childhood education.

Some 123 children from low-income families in Ypsilanti, Mich., were followed from pre-school age through age 40; the number included children who had been randomly selected to attend Perry Preschool, a recognized program with well-trained teachers, daily classroom sessions and weekly home visits.

At age 40, almost 10 percent more of the group that had attended Perry owned their own home, compared to those that did not attend Perry. Twenty percent more earned more than $20,000 a year. Almost 25 percent more had a savings account. Twenty percent more graduated from high school on time and did not require special education.

In a similar study of children at a full-day, year-round program near Chapel Hill, N.C., almost 30 percent more of those that had attended the program didn’t repeat a grade, 20 percent more were non-smokers, and about 25 percent more attended a four-year college.

Gates said quality early learning programs offer up to a 16 percent return in the form of the child’s contributions to economic development and prosperity in adulthood. The Perry study showed a return of $17 for every $1 spent — an annual rate of return of 18 percent and a public rate of return of 16 percent.

Bill Watson, executive director of the San Juan County Economic Development Council, called investments in early education “good business.”

Denise King, director of Skagit Valley College San Juan Center, said early childhood education helps give children the learning skills they need “so they can function as employees and as productive members of society, and break the cycles of abuse and poverty.”

Jamie Stephens, a substitute teacher and president of the Lopez Island Chamber of Commerce, pointed to the need to ensure today’s children can compete in the workplace; he cited a study that predicts 45 million American workers will have at least an undergraduate degree in 2020.

The next step: Participants were invited to join the new San Juan County Business Partnership for Early Learning, which will take the leadership in developing a plan to increase access to early education. They were invited to distribute written materials and other information on early learning, and to host early learning specialists as speakers before community groups.