Getting It Right from the Start: The Case for Early Parenthood Education

Overview & Synopsis

Hearing language is the first step in learning to read, write, and make sense of the world. The language gap that results in the achievement gap begins at home. Schools can and should do their part to close this gap, but parents, by reading to children and interacting with them in positive and encouraging ways, need to do their part, too. The idea that families need to provide enriching educational activities is not new. In 1908, Edmund Burke Huey, regarded as "one of the foremost leaders" in educating children with learning disabilities, wrote, "The school of the future will have as one of its important duties the instruction of parents in the means of assisting the child's natural learning in the home." Today, a substantial body of scientific evidence supports Huey's call for the instruction of parents in the means of improving children's learning. Much evidence comes from the best research in early childhood education and, in particular, one recurring finding: the most effective early childhood education programs include early parenthood education. The results of studies of major early childhood education programs suggest that some of the long-term academic and social outcomes of early childhood education result not so much from the direct education of the children, but from education provided to highly disadvantaged parents. Changes in parenting help explain why relatively short-term education programs for children could sustain them through school, and into adulthood. Better parenting provides a long-term educational intervention for children. As Huey understood--and cognitive scientists have since demonstrated--literacy follows oracy, so parents who foster their young children's listening, speaking, vocabulary, and knowledge are also fostering success in school. Early parenthood education should take its place alongside early childhood education as a primary means of getting education right from the start.