College awareness: How much is too much?

Carol’s Summary:

A Michigan School district has recently started a program to inform children about college options from as early as preschool and kindergarten, which begs the question: How early is too early for children to start thinking about college? 

During the district’s week-long college awareness program, elementary school children write about what career they’d like to have and even take a walking tour of Eastern Michigan University. There are concerns that a program like this may put too much pressure on such young children.

In San Francisco schools, a program was announced to begin next fall that will provide a college savings fund for each child entering kindergarten in one of their public schools.  Between $50 and $100 in deposits will be put in each child’s account annually, and they will also be encouraged to start thinking about college at an early age.

While it is important for children to think about college and what they would like to do in the future, what age is an appropriate time to do so? At LifeBound, we believe it is important to discuss the importance of all stages of education in all stages of life.

Our book Success in Middle School introduces students to the possibility of going to college and what steps to take to succeed throughout middle school and beyond, in order to build and maintain a strong academic basis for attending college. For more information about Success in Middle School and other Lifebound books, visit www.lifebound.com or e-mail contact@lifebound.com.

Article:

The Washington Post

June 3, 2010

College awareness: How much is too much?

By Valerie Strauss

How old should children be before they are asked to start worrying about going to college? Eight years old? Ten? Thirteen? Fifteen?

How about 5?

Here’s part of a story in the Detroit News about an early awareness program in the Kalamazoo School district:

At age 5, Jeremiah Kagumba spoke often of playing professional basketball. But after his elementary school held a college awareness week, he decided he would become a doctor.

To read the full article:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/higher-education/college-awareness-in-kindergar.html

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