Education gap starts early

In America, you can achieve if you are prepared.

You can soar as far as your knowledge, drive and social skills will take you.

The hitch is that although most of our children are born with incredible potential, far too many of them never see their promise fulfilled because unnurtured potential withers.

Brain connections literally die if they don't get enough stimulation early in life.

Jon Fine, CEO and president of United Way of King County, showed slides of two brains during a speech Friday.

One showed the brain of a child who received lots of stimulation, and the other the brain of a neglected child.

There was a marked difference in the development of the temporal lobe, which meant the child who hadn't had an experience-rich early childhood will have trouble processing information.

If letting that happen to children isn't criminal, I don't know what is, especially since we know how to avoid it.

Fine was speaking at the annual luncheon of Child Care Resources, a nonprofit that works to see that more children in King County get high-quality child care, because children start learning the moment they enter the world.

High-quality early education is the surest way to address the K-12 achievement gap and to reduce the high-school dropout rate.

It could keep more people out of prison and help grow the talent we'll need to rebuild our economy, mend our environment and write brilliant music.

Think about something as simple as vocabulary. How do children acquire the kind of deep and broad repository of words and language skills that are the foundation of success in school and in life? Obviously, since you need it to succeed in school, waiting until you are in school to learn isn't the best option.

Kids learn at home from their parents, and parents aren't equally prepared to teach.

Early-education advocates often mention a book titled "Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children" by Betty Hart and Todd Risley. It includes some illuminating numbers about language.

The number of words a typical 4-year-old has heard varies greatly depending on the family the child comes from. In a professional family, it's 45 million; in a working-class family, 26 million; and in a family in poverty, only 13 million.

Better-educated parents talk and read to their children a lot. Not only that, the variety and complexity of words and language differ by family.

And that's just words. Family matters in the acquisition of emotional skills, math and science knowledge, training in middle-class cultural norms.

Kids who arrive at school behind rarely catch up.

Good day care reduces learning gaps, and so does coaching parents so they can give their children more of what they need.

Fine, in his speech, cited research indicating that with home visits from child-care workers, children from low-income families have an 80 percent chance of finishing high school. Without it, their chances are 50-50.

We know which odds to bet on.

Jerry Large's column appears Monday and Thursday. Reach him at 206-464-3346 or jlarge@seattletimes.com.