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Please see the personal note if you are curious about the history of Super Start.

There was a time when a person could make a living without knowing how to read. Then the requirements moved up a little and the basic three Rs became necessary. Stories of people who have done well with only a 3rd-grade education are common in this country's lore. The requirements moved up a little again, and for a long time a high school diploma was sufficient. All of that is ancient history. Today's statistics say that the median income of males ages 25-34 without a high school diploma is about $14,000 annually. With a college degree, the median income is roughly $32,000, more than double.

Each new innovation makes life easier, but adds yet another layer to the level of knowledge required for survival. Each new discovery opens a door to the promise of still more discoveries. It has always been that way, but improved tools have increased the pace of innovation, and improved communications have spread knowledge of them at almost the speed of light. The result is that our children must learn much more than we had to learn, and the requirements are growing exponentially. It has been a struggle for the schools to keep up, and there have been mistakes (see Illiteracy: An Incurable Disease or Education Malpractice?), but there are reports that corrections are being made, at least in some school systems. The real solution however, remains in the home where children get the singularly most important foundation to education. It is most important because it comes at a time when the greatest opportunities are presented, especially in language.

What happens in the home makes a huge difference in a child's life. It is not uncommon for a 3-year-old to know the alphabet and several numbers. Such children almost always do very well in grade school. Their grandmothers think they are geniuses, but that's their job. The research says that perfectly normal kids can, in fact, achieve even more. Often, the reason children do well is because one of the parents stays home and reads to and teaches them. They also read for their own enjoyment, which provides a powerful example. Sometimes one stays home not because the parents are rich, but because they have made that choice. They have given up a lot in order to provide their children the beginnings of an education at what the researchers say is the most crucial period of a child's learning life.

The point here is to emphasize that these are normal kids. I think when you read the research you will agree that normal kids can acquire signifanct knowledge very early. Most people know that it's easier to acquire language as a child than as an adult. The research indicates that other basic information can be just as easily learned, providing care is given to provide the atmosphere for learning.

There is definitely a relationship between the quality of care a baby gets and later achievment. One study, for example, stated that higher quality child care for very young children (0 to 3) was consistently related to high levels of cognitive and language development ("Mother-Child Interaction and Cognitive Outcomes Associated with Early Child Care," NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (1997) -- see The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development site for more reports). But providing for that crucial period of education isn't always possible. Too often, both parents have to work just to provide food, shelter and clothing. There is less time to give to children. Also, while there are many very good child care facilities to select from, studies have shown that child care outside the home doesn't always provide what children need to succeed, especially if a facility is unregulated. (see Child Care for Young Children: Quality from The Department of Health and Human Services)

It's bad enough not to be able to provide a child with early developmental help for economic reasons, and, even if the money is there, not to know if the care will be safe and adequate. But there is another problem that makes it difficult or impossible for some parents to provide a child with the stimulation needed for a reasonable shot at getting a decent education. It was the problem that provided the inspiration for Super Start in the first place. In 1987 I started reading disturbing literacy statistics for this country. They haven't changed much since then. In 1993, 40 to 44 million adults in this country were functionally illiterate, and 50 million more were at a level just above functionally illiterate (see The scope of illiteracy in this country ). That means that a significant number of adults are in the sad position of finding it difficult to read even basic materials, much less fill out job applications. According to Literacy Volunteers of America , experts believe that adults with skills at these two levels lack a sufficient foundation of basic skills to function successfully in our society. Of course literacy is relative to the requirements of society. A person in our society has little choice but to aquire a higher level of knowledge than most of the people in the world. Those who don't will find it increasingly difficult to survive.

The rapid expansion of knowledge requirements has widened the gap between those who know how to survive in this technological society and those who do not (see The Rand Institution's Closing the Education Gap: Benefits and Costs ). The people who are left behind do what they feel they must do to survive. Survival at the bottom usually means eking out a living barely adequate to feed, clothe and shelter a family, going on welfare or making it through criminal activities. Studies verify that a lack of education is a contributing factor for being on welfare for reasons other than disability, or in prison for non-white-collar crime and, according to the Literacy Volunteers of America Fact Sheets, "one-half of all adults in federal and state correctional facilities cannot read or write at all" and "U.S. Department of Education statistics show that 60% of prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems."

The Carnegie Corporation's web site The Quiet Crisis and the sites A Nation At Risk , A Nation Still at Risk and America Tomorrow provide more insight into the basic problems we face.

All is not lost. There is a solution. Recent research demonstrates that education begins in infancy, well before a child first walks through the doors of a school building, and that the successful early development of children is the key to their successful education -- it starts at home.

We will now take a look at the research to see what the learning capabilities of infants and very young children are. You might be surprised. I think you will also see where a system such as Super Start can help.