I always loved school. Here are my memories from childhood: I would just have finished my annual pre-school clothes shopping marathon with my mom, and I was always so proud and excited about my new year's collection of clothes for the fall and winter. I'd have new pencils and other supplies and was always so eager to meet my new teacher and see what kids would be in my class. I loved school but always forgot that it got very boring for me because I was quite bright. Still I loved to learn and the beginning of school each year couldn't be beat, even through medical school. On the first day of school even though I was only in 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade, I walked the third mile up the winding hill alone to the converted mansion which was my little school.
School and education make all the difference for children and have great impact on many aspects of everyone's future. Did you know that early education as well as education in general affects:
- Actual brain formation that lasts a lifetime and impacts all higher thinking functions and decision-making, etc.
- Health outcomes over one's entire lifetime
- Lifelong economic status that in turn affects health
- Mental health including depression and risk of suicide
- Risk for poor behavior choices such as at-risk sexual behavior, substance abuse, tobacco abuse, etc.
- Poor judgement
- Lifespan- longevity is strongly associated with educational level
- Lifelong sense of fulfillment
- Voting likelihood
- Likelihood of participating in one's community, volunteering and feeling connected - even getting out and socializing
- Trusting others, not only personally but trusting institutions such as the government
- Happiness and life satisfaction
- Income which also affects health outcomes
- Employment opportunities
- Crime rate
- Poverty rates which affect all of the above
In fact, the higher the education level attained, the lower the risk for any of the above negatives and the higher the chances for all of the above positives to come to fruition. So when you pack little Johnny or Jane's healthy lunch in their shiny new lunch box and send them skipping off to their first day of school this year, consider this - You are not sending them off to their first day of school, you are sending them off to the first day of their healthy and much brighter future in every possible way!