Beat
inequality with preschool
A Arguably
the most important and innovative idea proposed by President Obama in his State
of the Union address on Tuesday night was his call for high-quality, universal
pre-school education.
B “Every dollar we invest in high-quality early
childhood education can save more than seven dollars later on, by boosting graduation rates, reducing
teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime,” Obama said. “In states
that make it a priority to educate our youngest children…, studies show
students grow up more likely to read and do math at grade level, graduate high
school, hold a job, form more stable families of their own.”
C He’s right. Most Americans would be surprised to
learn that the United States
now does worse in terms of social mobility than many European countries –
especially those in Scandinavia – as well as Canada. What does this mean in
practice? It means that a poor child born in the United
States is much more likely to remain poor than one
born in Canada or Denmark.
D The Pew Charitable Trust’s Economic Mobility Project found last year, for example, that “more than
40 percent of Americans raised in the poorest family background remain stuck there as adults, and 70
percent remain below the middle.” OECD research,
meanwhile, found that while “at least 40 percent of the economic advantage that
high-earnings fathers have over low-earnings fathers is transmitted to
their sons,” the comparable figure for Nordic countries, Canada and Australia was less than 20 percent.
E The main reason for this, I believe, is that many of
the countries with higher mobility invest a great deal in children of all
backgrounds, early in their lives, in terms of daycare, nutrition and
education. And what the research increasingly shows is that if a child has
missed out in the first few years of life in terms of nutrition, in terms of
attention that adults pay to them, in terms of cognitive stimulation, then it
is very difficult for them to catch up because they have been so disadvantaged
– some of them neurologically. Countries with strong programs for the very
young, in contrast, tend to have an advantage.
Adjusted to
(1)
arguably – zřejmě
boost – oživení
remain stuck – uvíznout
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Call for equal preschool education
2 Economic research
3 Countries which invest more have an advantage
4 Investment into preschool education is convenient
5 Many poor children remain poor as adults in the US
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 What is Obama’s opinion?
2 Why is equal preschool education important??
3 What is the situation of poor children in the US like?
4 What did the economic research find out?
5 How can be the situation changed?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 universal pre-school education
2 reducing violent crime
3 high-earnings fathers
4 children of all backgrounds
5 disadvantaged
4) Answer the following questions.
Why is preschool education important? Who are
economically disabled children? What is segregation of children? What are
problems of economically and socially handicapped? What does Czech government
do for equal education?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)
ZAKARIA,
Fareed. Fareed Zakaria: Beat inequality with preschool. CNN News [online].
2013 [cit. 2015-09-22]. Available at: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/18/fareed-zakaria-beat-inequality-with-preschool/
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