When Does School Life Begin? Zuckerberg's New School To Admit Fetuses

theodp writes: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan's latest initiative to tackle educational inequity is The Primary School, a "private, non-profit school" which will eventually provide both free education and free healthcare for 700 low-income students from the Palo Alto area. "In addition to early childhood and K-12 education," Zuckerberg explained in a Facebook post, "The Primary School will also provide prenatal support for families and on-site healthcare for children. By bringing healthcare and education together in one place, the goal is to support families and help children from underserved communities reach their full potential." A job listing for Assistant Teachers notes that "the school will admit students at or before birth." Zuckerberg joins other Silicon Valley luminaries like Elon Musk and Sal Khan in what Wired calls The Tech Elite's Quest to Reinvent School in Its Own Image.

Comments

No, dumbass

[Applehu Akbar]

"Prenatal support" means that the program serves pregnant women, not that we're educating the fetuses.

Honest suggestions from new'ish parent

[trybywrench]

My kids are 5 and 3, my oldest spent a lot of time in daycare as an infant since both my wife and I were working. Here's a couple honest suggestions if anyone is listening

Our best experience with a daycare was one with a stable solid staff. The lady that ran the place was a no nonsense hardass. A stickler for procedure and didn't take shit from anyone. This really helped us feel like someone was in charge and on top of things. The lady who took care of our infant was there the whole time we were enrolled and had been there for quite some time before. It really helps the child when there are no staff changes, the child has to get adjusted and use to the adult and feel comfortable and secure. If there's high rollover then it can really make things awful for the child and therefore the parents.

One final suggestion, it would be useful to have some sort of program that reaches out to parents and helps them emotionally as much as possible during enrollment and especially the first day. It's pretty gut wrenching to drop off your child who hasn't left your arms in months to a stranger, you can always tell the new kids because their parents are the ones crying their eyes out in the parking lot. It's hard on fathers (i cried) but especially mothers. My wife couldn't do it, I had drop off duty every day.

Re:Honest suggestions from new'ish parent

[Archangel Michael]

Here is another thought.

Stop pursuing money for gain while you have kids under 60 Months of age. Whatever you spent on daycare it wasn't worth it. Your kids would rather have you, than the things the second job affords.

Re:Honest suggestions from new'ish parent

[trybywrench]

"Stop pursuing money for gain while you have kids under 60 Months of age. "

For our first we didn't have an option. However, I was able to make a large jump in pay when the second came and my wife is now a stay-at-home-mom so it's a much better situation. She's going to go back to work ( she's a high school teacher ) once the youngest is in 1st grade. No mother I've ever met chose daycare out of convenience it's usually just not an option to stay home.

Re:Irony

[fahrbot-bot]

College dropouts championing schools.

Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates, Dell, Ellison, Branson, etc.

Dropouts from (if I recall correctly) fairly well-to-do families...