Recently, a group of Harvard researchers and economists found that having a great Kindergarten teacher could translate into increased earnings as an adult!
The researchers interviewed students—now 30-year old adults—from a 1980’s study of 12,000 Tennessee kindergartners called Project Star. Originally, the study was intended to reveal the importance of smaller class sizes. But because the classroom size and socioeconomic mix of each class had been similar, the vast difference in performance as adults could not be explained without looking at the individual impact of their teachers.
They came to the following surprising conclusions:
The students who learned more in Kindergarten because of a “great teacher” were (1) more likely to have attended college, (2) more likely to be saving for retirement, (3) less likely to be single parents, and (3) more likely to earn more money.
The New York Times article, titled, “The Case for $320,000 Kindergarten Teachers” caught my attention not because I have a Kindergartner, nor because of the disparity in the amount proposed that a teacher is worth versus what they earn. I was intrigued with the findings because of the skills mentioned that great teachers taught their young students. They didn't name the subjects of reading, writing, or mathematics. The lifetime skills that the “great” Kindergarten teachers imparted to their students were “patience, discipline, manners, and perseverance.”
If you're like me, you're impressed when young children learn to read, how early they learn to write, or how quickly they can add or subtract. But this study seems to suggest that timeless values are an incredibly strong predictor of a child's success as an adult.
For those of us who fall into the categories of parent, mentor, grandparent, relative, babysitter, neighbor, coach or concerned adult of a 5-year old child (or student of any age for that matter), this study is a mandate to raise our standards and make any little changes in our lives that will have big results in the lives of those we know and love.
Is it time to go back to school and refresh your skills of patience, discipline, manners, and perseverance!?
Be encouraged,
Becky
Thanks for the inspiring post Becky. I enjoyed it greatly.
ReplyDeleteIt is encouraging to read this, especially because I was my children's home-school kindergarten teacher. Two of my college graduates married college graduates, then had children. The third is single, with no children, and planning her 4th year of college.
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