MARCH 27, 2006
Members Statements
Early childhood learning

R. Cantelon: I rise today to make comments about early childhood learning and its importance. As a new MLA I was struck by the fact that one in four children is not ready for school. This is really a comment, as much as anything, about our society.

           What does it say about our society? It's not just that far too many of our children are not ready for school. It is certainly, of course, not the child's fault that they don't understand what's expected of them. Nor can we too quickly assign blame to the parents or, as is more often the case, to the single parent or, as is again more often the case, to a single mother.

           Parents are the first teachers of our children, and it's clear that many parents are themselves not prepared for this responsibility. In many cases this causes a cycle of despair and hopelessness where the unhappiness and the unhappy situation of the parent are then visited on the child. The child does not get a fair start to school or in life in general, for that matter. Many studies have shown that a child who begins with a poor start in school has societal difficulties all their lives, and so the cycle begins and is self-perpetuating.

           This poor start involves more than just early childhood learning issues, of course. It usually involves emotional and health issues as well. Clyde Hertzman, in his work on early childhood development, has put forward the concept of HELP, an acronym that means human early learning partnerships, which involves public health, early intervention, support for child care and support for the family.

           Anthropology has taught us that the early tribes raised the children. In today's modern society too many people become isolated and are left on their own to raise a child — or children, often — without support or assistance from the community. The pressures of low income all too typically fall upon the shoulders of these single parents to make this problem even worse.

           Early success in school can make a big difference. Governments can help, and indeed, it is a priority of this government and this budget to support the well-being of vulnerable children. However, I'm not going to speak here of the budget initiatives but discuss how communities can become engaged and respond to government programs and how often they can inspire us with imaginative and independent initiatives.

           The Central Island Independent School Society recognized the need in Lantzville for daycare. It was about more than just daycare though. They, too, recognize the value and importance of early childhood learning. In planning their new facility, they discovered that there was no facility in Lantzville to provide daycare with a learning environment. They took advantage of the federal-provincial program to build such facilities and will be building a brand-new facility to accommodate up to 50 children in the area.

           Bill Robinson, on his own in Nanaimo, has partnered with school district 68 and the Nanaimo Clippers hockey team with a concept called Hidden Heroes. This brilliant program focuses on the greatness of simple, positive acts that make a difference in people's lives. The heroes are hidden. They are everyday acts of everyday people doing good things from the generosity of the human spirit to help others with no expectation of reward or recognition. That is why they are hidden and often go unnoticed in our busy and self-centred lives.

           Young students are encouraged to find people that make a difference and find out why. They learn about positive values, character and commitment, and in doing so, learn about themselves. A grade one student saw herself as a hidden hero because every time she and her mom visit auntie, she takes care of baby cousin so that the adults can visit. Two grade 12 students chose to eat lunch every day for a week with a student who was isolated and emotionally bullied. Some of their friends became his friend, and the isolation and bullying ended.

           School district 69 has embraced the concept of community involvement in a universal program for the community. They call it Building Learning Together. BLT gives it an appetizing and familiar acronym. This wonderful program was the brainchild of Deborah Davenport. The concept is to enhance children's development by supporting strong family relationships and community capacity through effective learning opportunities. The learning opportunities include 18 preschool literary initiatives to deliver a strong commitment towards early learning intervention and prevention.

           The opportunity includes Words on Wheels, 13 Mother Goose and Friends sites, Outreach Bus, Hug-a-Book and many others including the latest, Munchkin Land. All of these are as creative as they sound and are very successful in capturing the imagination and interest of young children and are designed to hook these youngsters on reading and learning. And it works.

           The community involvement is what really makes it happen. Over 100 businesses and community organizations, including the RCMP and Canada Post, are committed supporters. One of the biggest is the Grand-Buddies. Over 200 seniors are involved as buddies to help with everything from driving; to outreach; to reading to painting, sawing and hammering facilities. This is real community leadership, and their success is a model for other communities. I invite you to look at their website, www.sd69.bc.ca.

           BLT demonstrates that communities need to become involved, if we are to make a real difference, by breaking the cycle that begins with early childhood learning. My point is that governments can support and supply funding, but it takes the individual leadership that I have talked about here today to re-create in a modern setting what in ancient times came naturally to a tribal society. I hope all members of the House will be inspired to encourage such leadership in your communities.

R. Cantelon: In responding, I'd first like to thank the member for Coquitlam-Maillardville for her comments. I think we're probably on the same page and the same wavelength here. It isn't that this government certainly hasn't done a lot, and that's why our budget commits to…. We call it the budget of the children here, with $421 million committed to improving and expanding services for children.

           But the real key here is not just about money. It would be a horribly tragic irony if we were to run deficits simply to add to the debt of the children we're trying to help. So the first step is to continue, as we've done, to run a fiscally prudent and responsible balanced budget and work within that. But also, in responding to the member opposite, we need to do it in a way that responds to the community. The community has to be involved; the community has to take initiative.

           We have to be very diverse, as many of the programs that this government — and previous governments, I would acknowledge — have initiated to respond to genuine community initiatives and needs. We need to break this cycle. If we're to achieve our goals, certainly as we put forward as a golden decade, we need to inspire and to break the cycle of poverty and hopelessness that too many people are involved with.

           It is really a comment when we know and we say that one in five children is not ready for school that what we're really saying and recognizing is that one family unit in four is not with whatever we consider to be our society's program. With whatever we consider to be success in our society and as a contributing unit of our society, one in four ain't with the program, and that has to change. One of the most effective ways to change it is to engage with early childhood learning to break that cycle.

           As the previous speaker from White Rock had mentioned, one of the challenges of all governments now, today, is to develop models of service delivery. The classic top-down, institutional, one-size-fits-all does not work. There are community differences, ranging from cultural to resource-based economies that create different working and parental groups and cultures within the regional areas, to immigration with a wide range of cultural background differences. The government needs to be flexible in producing programs that respond to all these in a diverse way.

           But the most exciting ones, as I've mentioned today and the speaker opposite has mentioned today, are those that truly start with community roots and that can rise from the community itself to respond to these needs. If we are to achieve greatness in our society, it has to begin, and it has to begin in a very diverse and coordinated yet expansive way in assisting children to get a really good start in school.

           We've done many small things, such as the startup program for $4 million so that young children can go to school with their heads held high, with some dignity. We need to do much more.

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