Op-Ed: The case for child development

Our society depends on the well-being of children. Our economy, our crime rates and our politics hinge on what we invest in children now and the measures we take on their behalf. Currently, we stand to do better.

The American education system presents itself as an equalizer, but differences in race, class, sexual orientation and religion can derail a student’s academic achievement. Students of color and students living in poverty face higher rates of school punishment, drop out at higher rates and experience higher rates of arrest.

What we fail to note is that these disparities begin long before graduation or secondary education; they begin in early childhood.

When children are enrolled in underfunded early care programs with critically underpaid teachers, we create a gap between these children and their more privileged peers that only widens with time. Without a prioritization of early education, we cannot expect to reduce these disparities down the road.

When I came to Tufts, I did not know much about early education or education in general. I gravitated towards child development out of a love for developmental and brain science, children and issues in social justice. A few semesters later, I ended up here, studying early education and advocating for the children in Massachusetts without access to adequate early education programs.

Massachusetts leads the nation in education, but exposure to early education policy has shown me the challenges we still face in this field. Despite increasing research pointing to the need for better programs in early childhood for all children, the proposed Massachusetts state budget allocates no additional funding for early childhood education than the year before. In fact, the early education budget actually does not match the amount of funds from last year, when adjusted for inflation. Governor Baker cites his budget as seeking to improve the quality of early education, but without funding, his plan for accomplishing that quality is unclear.

Within Tufts, there is a large movement around social justice for all people, and I feel that this student body is not one to ignore the inequities being exacted on the children in the Boston area and across the state. I propose that we look deeper into issues of poverty and systemic racism by examining the whole span of the human life and broaden our understanding of social justice to include and emphasize child advocacy.

Child advocacy should include everyone who cares about social justice. Through child advocacy, we recognize that none of us are unaffected by the failures, dropouts, convictions and deaths of children and adolescents in this country. We can identify the inequities around us and fight to reduce them.   

We can move forward in creating a more just society and better world.

 

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