Political Quotes

“I thought, as children are going back to school across the country and in our States, we ought to take a few moments to think about the education they are receiving and how we as parents, not just in our role as legislators, can make a real difference in how our children develop. The truth is, we have come to know the foundations of learning begin long before a child ever gets to school. Babies from birth to age 3 years old are learning fundamental language skills at this time. Research tells us that 50 percent of a child's mature learning intelligence develops by the time that child is 3 years old. We can play a very large role in determining how successful that learning function is. We do this by reading to children even before they are old enough to hold a book. We do this by talking to them. We do this by interacting with them. Over the August recess I traveled around the State of Missouri, focusing on the issue of literacy and working with young children who were in preschool classes or, in Missouri, in our Parents as Teachers Program. I found it to be a very exciting, a very interesting, and a rewarding experience, and one that I hope we can show--all of us, as colleagues, as others who are concerned--is a very rewarding activity for the parents. We have always thought that early childhood was a key learning time. That is common sense. But now we have seen it validated by science.”