Role of the Early Education in the Personal Growth of a Person

Introduction

In the contemporary world, education has become a very critical part of human lives. In most countries, childhood education has been prioritized as a primary need, and thus many governments across the globe offer such training without any fees. Another type of education, which has emerged, is an early childhood education, during which children are exposed to learning at a tender age. In most parts of the world, children now go to school even before they learn how to speak. Mostly, these early education institutions accept children as young as two years old. However, despite this development, there has been a heated debate on whether the early education has any impact on the human personal growth. Some scholars have argued that this practice is vital, as it helps in the child’s development, and the implications are witnessed in the personal growth of each individual. Others claim that when education starts at an older age, the effect is the same. This paper aims at giving an argument on how early education plays a vital role in the personal growth of a person. It will argue that early education help in future lives achievements, better communication skills, the growth of confidence, development of relationships and social skills, the creation of good values and ethics, and proper development of emotions.

Supporting Arguments

An important effect of early education, as opposed to education that starts later, is that it influences the achievement gap in the personal growth of people. Research on neural development has shown that 85% of the total brain capacity develop during the first five years of life. During this time, children’s intellect is defined by the immediate environment that they come into contact with. When they become introduced to education at this stage, it means that intellectual growth will boost their brain development. Early education also prevents children from being exposed to violent neighborhoods and toxic behaviors at home. These factors, thus, give the children who are educated young an intellectual edge over those who starts education later. In terns of personal growth, such gap in intellectual development leads to a difference in achievements. For example, children that are introduced to early learning are more likely to complete their primary and high school education as compared to those who start learning at a later date. Such difference is also evident in future career achievements, when children who have started their education at an early age tend to graduate from college, thus achieving better employment.

Early education also influences the personal growth of individuals in terms of communication skills. Children develop their language mostly between the age of two and the age of six years. This means that spoken vocabulary as well as reading and writing skills are best acquired during this time by the kids. However, most preschoolers start their education at the age of six, missing the valuable time. Having an early education that starts before preschool can, thus, be imperative in the language development for children. A study in the United States demonstrated that children introduced to school early have a much wider vocabulary, sometimes twice of that demonstrated by the kids who join school later. The variation in the development of language, thus, means that early education has an enormous impact on communication skills, because this ability relies on language. The future capability of people to express themselves in the culturally appropriate manner, using the proper language and vocabulary, thus, relies profoundly on when they started their education. Those who have started ahead of their peers will also have an upper hand in excellent communication skills.

Early education is also important in personal growth, as it helps in the development of confidence and self-esteem. Children are not born confident and with internal faith in their abilities, but such confidence and trust emerge when they are exposed to new things and became familiarized with them. High level of exposure to new experiences is, thus, important for ensuring that children learn as much as possible for them to develop these two important traits. Education is always the key to such exposure, as it presents all kinds of challenges: physical, social, psychological, and mental ones. Consequently, early education helps children to be thoroughly exposed to new experiences, and thus develop strong internal faith in their abilities as well as confidence. On the other hand, individuals that are introduced to education at an older age usually find it hard to develop high confidence and healthy self-esteem. Thus, those people who have been introduced to education when they were very young are likely to be more confident and have higher self-esteems in adulthood as compared to those who have joined at an older age.

Early education is also critical to personal growth in terms of relationships and social skills. The key to developing good social skill is having good exposure to all sorts of people. However, when kids are young, they are more likely not to be exposed to a lot of people, because they just interact with family members and a few neighbors. Such limited exposure to different people does not help them to hone their future relationship and social skills, and thus there is a need for them to be exposed to a more versatile environment. Early education usually ensures that children are brought together in one common place, and thus it gives them a chance to interact. Here, children meet people of different genders, races, relations, nationalities, and backgrounds. They are, thus, able to develop a relationship with each other which is not based on the stereotyping and prejudice typical for their community. Children who attend the institutions of early education are, thus, more likely to develop much superior social skills and relationships compared to their peers who have started education at a later date, and thus they are likely to live a more socially active life.

Early education also impacts positively on the growth of humans regarding values and ethics. Those people that are well founded on good values and proper morals are likely to be more successful in life, as they know the right thing to do and when to do it. However, such values do not develop by themselves unless they are cultivated in the right manner. Early education is of tremendous significance in this area, as it shows children the importance of ethics and good values. Young people are mostly taught the importance of sharing with each other, helping those in need, and being kind to other people. These values are paramount for future life, as they determine what kind of a person the child will become in the future. However, it would be much different when education is started at an older age. By this point, most people already have personal values, which have developed without important guidelines given in education centers. Therefore, those individuals who develop their values and ethic in an early school system are more likely to have good values than those who develop them on their own.

Lastly, early education also helps in the future emotional development of a person. When children are born, they are not aware of the existence of emotions people feel. However, as the kids continue to grow, these feelings start appearing in their lives. It is usually very hard for these children to recognize and manage them, as they are not aware of what the feelings are in the first place. However, early education bridges this gap, as it provides lessons on emotions, which make children aware of their feeling and those of others. Children are, thus, able to identify complex emotions like shyness, shame, guilt, embarrassment, pride, and empathy, which are very critical in determining their future personality. At this young age, they can cultivate positive emotions, and thus, by the time they become adults, they can handle their emotions in a productive manner. Later age education is usually different, because these feelings are hard to modify at that time. Thus, those who start school later are likely to show weak control over emotions like shame and shyness.

Counter Argument

Despite the above-outlined importance of early learning in human development, some scholars and education stakeholders have opposed to the practice, calling it pointless and a torture. Studies have shown that the intelligent quotient (IQ) of the children who attend early education institutions is no different compared to those who join the school system at a later date. In the long term, both these groups always catch up with each other, and thus there is no point in having an early education, which gives children no advantage. The argument also shows that early education denies young people the right to learn from the society and enjoy being free, and thus it is a kind of torture to children. The practice is, thus, said to have no positive effect on future human lives, and thus it is not relevant. However, this counter argument has weaknesses, as it only focuses on the intellectual advantage of early learning. The above-outlined supporting evidence is not intellectually based but is still paramount to human growth.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the above exegesis presents an argument on how early education has a vital role in the personal development of an individual. It has been revealed that such education influences positive achievements in life, helps create good communication skills, and acts a crucial role in the confidence and self-esteem development. Early education also ensures that people develop healthy relationships and better social skills, good values and ethics, and proper emotional control. A counter argument, however, refutes the importance of early education, claiming that it has no future intellectual advantage, and it is a torture to children. Nevertheless, this counter argument can be criticized for its focus only on the intellectual development without considering other non-intellectual benefits.