Education begins before birth
Preamble: In 2009, I was elected to the Frankfurt Future Council as a member of the scientific advisory board. In the years from 2017, I worked there in the education competence team. In this multidisciplinary team of different scientists and practitioners, we dealt with the future development of education. My task was to report on the role of prenatal and early childhood influences, especially on the role of parents during this period. Together with the essays of our team colleagues, we published the book ‘Zukunft der Bildung – Bildung der Zukunft’ (Future of Education – Education of the Future) at Wochenschau Verlag, Frankfurt. In the following, I present the summary, the vision of the future and the conclusion of my contribution ‘Education Begins Before Birth’. You can read the entire essay at the following link.
Translated publication: Education begins before Birth (PDF)
Educational interventions and brain development
Summary
Education requires biological preconditions in the form of a central nervous system (CNS) with the brain as an information store and processor and the nerves as information mediators. The development and qualification of the CNS depends on a variety of factors, which already exert an influence in the womb. Stress during pregnancy, in whatever form, can have a negative effect on the maturation of the CNS and thus on the child’s later life via epigenetic mechanisms. From birth onwards, age-appropriate physical and social/emotional stimuli are necessary for the adequate development of the CNS, which reaches its maximum development in the third year of life. If these stimuli are lacking, a network without competence develops. The earliest teachers of children, their parents, should therefore learn how to interact with their children in an appropriate way. A good partnership is a prerequisite for this. Both can be taught in ‘birth and family preparation’ and in ‘play education support’ for parents and childminders. This not only optimises the biological conditions for education, but also facilitates equal opportunities and integration, with far-reaching positive effects for social coexistence. The measures outlined can help to strengthen people’s trust in themselves and others, thus reducing their fear of the demands of the future. This way, people can shape the future, rather than the future shaping them.
Vision of the future of education
Education is available to everyone – everyone receives the same good educational opportunities.
Education enables citizens to lead a self-determined, dignified life.
Insufficient education of the parents no longer causes insufficient education of the children.
Education reduces the gap between rich and poor.
Clever citizens elect clever governments, stabilise democracy and maintain peace.
Education and social competence reduce undesirable developments in economic systems, as in the financial and economic crisis, and prevent society from spending too many resources on the re-stabilisation of these crisis-ridden systems, instead of on measures that benefit all citizens.
Education facilitates the citizen-friendly management of crises.
Education facilitates the integration of fellow citizens with foreign roots.
Education reduces the risk of people slipping into extremism.
Education enables the use of new technologies for the benefit of people.
Education stabilises the reproduction of
Education reduces hunger in the world and thus also the desire to migrate.
Education takes away the fear of the future.
Education makes the world a little happier.
Conclusion
Comprehensive education is the way to solve a multitude of social problems.
Education is only possible if people are able to store and link the knowledge needed for this.
The biological prerequisites for this must be optimised.
The development of the nervous system begins in the womb and is at its most rapid in the first years of life.
If the nervous system is not provided with adequate information during this time, it loses its potential efficiency.
Maternal stress and stress in the family also have a negative influence on the development of the child’s nervous system.
In order to reduce damaging influences and improve the child’s development, the following community-funded measures should be initiated for all citizens:
preparing potential parents by means of school-based ‘partnership-centred learning’ and expanding the study curricula to include ‘learning self- and relationship skills’
preparing parents-to-be for the challenges that lie ahead by
integrating family preparation into birth preparation
improving the living situation of pregnant women
providing play-based educational support for mothers (parents) and children in the months following the birth
Qualification of ‘supportive care’ in daycare
This approach not only optimises the biological conditions for education, but also provides a basis for equal opportunities and facilitates integration.
The measures described contribute to the consolidation of the personality, which leads to a relatively fearless acceptance of the challenges posed by technical progress and globalisation; this makes it easier to cope with future upheavals.