19 august 2013, the knee bone’s connected to the...

I have for a long time tried to think about not just schools and education, but also - what is now well-used jargon - the early years. Though there has been some commentary about its use, the photo on the cover of graham allen's excellent report sums up well the importance of that period. By age 3, whereas most of the body is 18% its full adult size, the brain is 90%. Babies are born with about 75% more brain cells than they need, and do not use them until they are connected via synapses, the connections between neurons. As they are biologicaly finite, if these synapses connections that come through parental and other stimulation are not made by this age, use of those brain cells is lost for life. There is a mirroring when children are in a stressful state, when they produce cortisol, which causes brain cells to die and reduces the connections. These early emotional attributes are shown to have strong correlations to many things in later life, including violence, employment and academic achievement. The window of opportunity then is a narrow one and the case for public policy to seize it very strong, which is what the early intervention foundation is about (where manchester is a "pioneering place"), and I am wholly supportive of it. Modern science and methods though only illuminate and heighten our awareness, as hundreds of years ago we were already saying give me the child at seven and I'll show you the man.