The Tennessean – Keel Hunt
“The most important thing in the news last week — apart from the coming of Pope Francis and the going of Yogi Berra — was the rising discussion in Nashville about the educational needs of children. The shorthand educators use for this is “pre-K” — meaning instruction before kindergarten — and the big idea is to prepare 4-year-olds and even younger kids to be ready to succeed on their K-12 journey. But it gets complicated. The concept has multiple forms, and scholars and policymakers grapple with the shape, scope and cost of the ideal program. The history of early education is long, especially in Nashville. For over half a century Vanderbilt’s Peabody College has been a big part of the nation’s pre-K learning curve. (Disclaimer: Vanderbilt is a client in my day job, and I have worked with Peabody research faculty. But maybe the larger influence on me was my mother, a Peabody grad and elementary teacher.).”(more)