TOPIC 13: EDUCATION

READING
Read the following passage and check the meanings of the words/ phrases in yellow high-
light.
Early Childhood Education
New Zealand's National Party spokesman on education, Dr Lockwood Smith, recently visited the
US and Britain. Here he reports on the findings of his trip and what they could mean for New
Zealand's education policy.
A
‘Education To Be More' was published last August. It was the report of the New Zealand
Government's Early Childhood Care and Education Working Group. The report argued for
enhanced equity of access and better funding for childcare and early childhood education
institutions. Unquestionably, that's a real need; but since parents don't normally send children to
pre-schools until the age of three, are we missing out on the most important years of all?
B
A 13-year study of early childhood development at Harvard University has shown that, by the age
of three, most children have the potential to understand about 1000 words - most of the language
they will use in ordinary conversation for the rest of their lives.
Furthermore, research has shown that while every child is born with a natural curiosity, it can be
suppressed dramatically during the second and third years of life. Researchers claim that the
human personality is formed during the first two years of life, and during the first three years
children learn the basic skills they will use in all their later learning both at home and at school.
Once over the age of three, children continue to expand on existing knowledge of the world.
C
It is generally acknowledged that young people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds tend to
do less well in our education system. That's observed not just in New Zealand, but also in
Australia, Britain and America. In an attempt to overcome that educational under-achievement, a
nationwide programme called 'Headstart' was launched in the United Slates in 1965. A lot of
money was poured into it. It took children into pre-school institutions at the age of three and was
supposed to help the children of poorer families succeed in school.
Despite substantial funding, results have been disappointing. It is thought that there are two
explanations for this. First, the programme began too late. Many children who entered it at the age
of three were already behind their peers in language and measurable intelligence. Second, the
parents were not involved. At the end of each day, '' children returned to the same disadvantaged
home environment.
D
As a result of the growing research evidence of the importance of the first three years of a child's
life and the disappointing results from 'Headstart', a pilot programme was launched in Missouri in
the US that focused on parents as the child's first teachers. The 'Missouri' programme was
predicated on research showing that working with the family, rather than bypassing the parents, is
the most effective way of helping children get off to the best possible start in life. The four-year pilot
study included 380 families who were about to have their first child and who represented a cross-
section of socio-economic status, age and family configurations. They included single-parent and
two-parent families, families in which both parents worked, and families with either the mother or
father at home.
The programme involved trained parent- educators visiting the parents' home and working with the
parent, or parents, and the child. Information on child development, and guidance on things to look
for and expect as the child grows were provided, plus guidance in fostering the child's intellectual,
language, social and motor-skill development. Periodic check-ups of the child's educational and
sensory development (hearing and vision) were made to detect possible handicaps that interfere
with growth and development. Medical problems were referred to professionals.
Parent-educators made personal visits to homes and monthly group meetings were held with other
new parents to share experience and discuss topics of interest. Parent resource centres, located in
school buildings, offered learning materials for families and facilitators for child care.
E
At the age of three, the children who had been involved in the 'Missouri' programme were
evaluated alongside a cross-section of children selected from the same range of socio-economic
backgrounds and family situations, and also a random sample of children that age. The results
were phenomenal. By the age of three, the children in the programme were significantly more
advanced in language development than their peers, had made greater strides in problem solving
and other intellectual skills, and were further along in social development, in fact, the average child
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on the programme was performing at the level of the top 15 to 20 per cent of their peers in such
things as auditory comprehension, verbal ability and language ability.
Most important of all, the traditional measures of 'risk', such as parents' age and education, or
whether they were a single parent, bore little or no relation to the measures of achievement and
language development. Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of socio-
economic disadvantages. Child abuse was virtually eliminated. The one factor that was found to
affect the child's development was family stress leading to a poor quality of parent-child interaction.
That interaction was not necessarily bad in poorer families.
F
These research findings are exciting. There is growing evidence in New Zealand that children from
poorer socio-economic backgrounds are arriving at school less well developed and that our school
system tends to perpetuate that disadvantage. The initiative outlined above could break that cycle
of disadvantage. The concept of working with parents in their homes, or at their place of work,
contrasts quite markedly with the report of the Early Childhood Care and Education Working
Group. Their focus is on getting children and mothers access to childcare and institutionalised
early childhood education. Education from the age of three to five is undoubtedly vital, but without
a similar focus on parent education and on the vital importance of the first three years, some
evidence indicates that it will not be enough to overcome educational inequity.
Questions 1-4
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-F in boxes 1-4 on your answer sheet.
1. ______ details of the range of family types involved in an education programme
2 ______ reasons why a child’s early years are so important
3 ______ reasons why an education programme failed
4______ a description of the positive outcomes of an education programme

Questions 5-10
Match the programmes and the characteristics
A the ' Headstart' programme
B the 'Missouri' programme
C both the 'Headstart' and the 'Missouri' programmes
D neither the 'Headstart' nor the 'Missouri’programme
5 ______ was administered to a variety of poor and wealthy families
6 ______ continued with follow-up assistance in elementary schools
7 ______ did not succeed in its aim
8 ______ supplied many forms of support and training to parents
9 ______ received insufficient funding
10 ______ was designed to improve pre-schoolers’ educational development

Questions 11-13: TRUE- FALSE-NOT GIVEN

11 ______ Most ‘Missouri’ programme three-year-olds scored highly in areas such as listening,
speaking, reasoning and interacting with others.
12 ______ ‘Missouri’ programme children of young, uneducated, single parents scored less highly
on the tests.
13 ______ The richer families in the ‘Missouri’ programme had higher stress levels.
VOCABULARY: Word form
1. Dr Lockwood Smith is the (speak) _______________on education in New Zealand.
2. My (child) __________was spent moving from place to place as my father was in the army.
3. She is (question) _________ good at physics.
4. I'm burning with (curious) _______ - you must tell me who won the English speaking contest!
5. The number of children who are sent to pre-school institutions has increased (drama) ________
6. I've always looked to my father for (guide) _________ in these matters.
7. I think teachers should play a role as a (facilitate) _______, enabling their students to work in the
way that suits them best.
8. These research (find) __________ are exciting.
9. It gives you a sense of (achieve) ________ if you actually make it to the end of a very long book.
10. Children in the programme performed equally well regardless of socio-economic (advantage)
____________.
GRAMMAR: Passive voice
1. Annually, the government publishes figures showing how many students drop out of school.
-> Annually, figures__________________________________________________________
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2. We’re going to launch a new Internet services company next month.
A new Internet_____________________________________________
3. They claim that the human personality is formed during the first two years of life.
It is _____________________________________________________
The human personality _____________________________________________________
4. It is reported that a pilot study in this field has been conducted for three weeks.
A pilot study in this field is _________________________________________________
5. He is said to have dropped out of Harvard University when he was first-year student.
-> They say that he ______________________________________
6. It is believed that family stress affects a child’s development.
Family stress ________________________________________
7. They find that poor parent-child interaction at home leads to children’s poor performance at
school.
Poor parent-child interaction ________________________________________________
8. People suppose that he was brought up in a well-educated family.
He is supposed _____________________________________________
9. They consider that early childhood education plays a vital role in developing intellectual skills in
children.
Early child education is considered _________________________________________
10. It is thought that a child can has better pronunciation if he/she learns a foreign language at the
early age.
A child is thought________________________________________________________________

FURTHER PRACTICE

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 Sentence transformation

Verbs + preps Collocation

Word form

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