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Early education choices
key to family well-being

Mahalo nui to the Star-Bulletin for the insightful article "Investing in schools will aid economy, says expert" (Nov. 18). I am writing in support of the idea of "quality beyond the four walls" as a native Hawaiian early childhood professional and perhaps more importantly as a parent of two children under the age of 4.

Parents must have a choice of options for providing high-quality early education and care for their children, so that they can make decisions on the basis of their family's values and needs. Research tells us that our families are our keikis' first teachers and that ohana play the most important role in their education. At the same time, society tells us the best way to ensure your child receives quality early learning experiences is by placing your child in the care of others.

In my family and among my friends and associates, many children stay at home with tutu or other family members. Being a parent of two young children, I too have entrusted my mother with the care of my children. My mother didn't know the meaning of developmentally appropriate practices and she didn't use words like cognitive development, gross motor, fine motor, social-emotional health. But she did know what to do when Wai'ale'ale cried, played with her, told her stories, read her books, and let Wai'ale'ale help with preparing lunch and dinner. She even made toys for her, placing beads in a small plastic juice bottle to make a rattle.

Quality education and care can be found in many other environments beside the classroom. It can be found in family and culturally friendly programs like Keiki Steps that provide early learning experiences for children and families in a play and learn group environment, in family childcare homes and at home with tutu. With an understanding of what all these options mean, we as parents can make better choices for our keiki. Our family has used the spectrum of options including the play and learn group, ohana care, family child care and center-based preschool for my children. What was critical for us as a family was that we have the right of choice. We have the right to choose what we believed was in the best interest of our children and our family.

The education debate under way in our state is an important one, but it is too narrowly focused. We need to look beyond the four walls of the classroom to educate and prepare our youngest keiki for school. We need to give parents the right to make choices that are best for their children.

It is time to broaden our thinking about quality early childhood education. As a century ago Hawaii invested in kindergarten, we should now provide more quality early childhood program options to our state.

Success as a state depends on leadership at the highest levels, from our elected officials to business leaders to voices from labor unions. We spend millions upon millions on remedial education, a growing prison population, welfare benefits and crime prevention. Our state budget is essentially a set of values and choices. We can invest now or pay later by leading the way and giving families the full range of options of high-quality early childhood programs for our most precious resource, our future.

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