These same rule makers of evil, those involved in the “rebellion of the angles”, will all eventually gather in the “Vestibule of hell”, crowded with yes men. Those, the gutless, that refuse to align against the obvious evils of uncharted secularism and State control.

Kudos to this author for his stand against one of those evils, the destruction of the individual mind.
And all praise too, for Dante and his warnings from Inferno.

“Abandon hope all Ye that enter here”.

Andrew: As an essay of applied intelligence and fact-based authoritative, and properly validated reporting? This article receives a great big fat F for fail from me.

Every credible study ever done on early ed has shown, for every one dollar invested in early ed, returns at least four to the economy! And improves the lot and lives of kids, a well as their long-term future prospects. And hard to start too early!

Children don't need to be free. but need to learn proper social manners/skills and basic literacy numeracy as early as possible.
Otherwise might grow up to be Lord of the flies?

Or worse?

Home indoctrinated social misfits?

Bullies and wife abusers etc-etc? No names no pack drill.

So, Andy, F for effort, F for research and as my final encapsulation. Risible rubbish, bird's fur, horse feathers and BS shovelled by the shipload.
You'll have a nice day now, y'hear.
Alan B.

I couldn't agree more with this article - thank you Andrew!

you are a breath of fresh air Andrew.

It looks very much like Andrew Russell started with an ideologically based conclusion and then tried to find evidence to justify it. What he found was sparse indeed.

It is unfortunate that many people see university education's main value as signalling, but to think the same would apply to early childhood education is laughable. Who does he imagine this signalling would be aimed at? Anyway, even if such signalling existed, Shorten's plan is to make ECE available to all, so it would make signalling less of a concern.

The institutionalisation argument is similarly feeble. Though it's a valid and important concern for children two to three times as old, it's entirely irrelevant here! Those in ECE are far too young to be safely left alone. Nor is social politics a concern at that age, though the interaction with other children could help develop the skills to withstand it by the time it becomes significant. And rather than taking over the children's lives, ECE would provide an additional range of experiences.

And the idea that dependence on institutions prevents a sense of individuality is just rightwing propaganda with no basis at all in reality. Individuality is innate. Depending on an institution may reduce the opportunities to express individuality, but that's a sign the institution in question may need reform rather than a feature of all institutions.

I'm with Alan B. I can't quickly think of having read anything that makes less sense.

As Alan B says many studies show early childhood education gives a great return to the kids and to the economy. Both my kids kindergarten teachers said the kids who went to day care were generally far ahead of the ones who stayed at home. One of the kindergarten teachers was in her 50's and she said that in the days when kids didn't go to day care as much, she spent the first 6 months teaching numbers and the alphabet. Now, she said, they all know their numbers and letters and we can move forward much more quickly.

The idea that leaving kids alone will allow them to develop better than kids who go to school is insanity. Anybody who has been involved in education has had experience with kids who due to illness or family circumstances had to miss big chunks of school and it is universally considered negative.

And the idea that since there are soft subjects at university means that there shouldn't be early childhood education as one of the cornerstones of his proof is laughable.

At its worst this makes me think that the author and his acolytes don't want people to learn so that they can stay in control of the poorly educated as the dictators do in totalitarian states.