Complely Off Topic - Starting Early

So I read a really interesting article over lunch and I thought I'd share it. It was talking about early childhood development and its' effects on later success. It was pretty amazing the statistics they were showing. Here's the cruxt of the article:

Researchers who study early brain development say the best time to improve a child's prospects in school and life probably is from birth to age 5, when the brain is rapidly making and losing connections.

In the 1960s, the landmark High/Scope Perry Preschool Study began tracking low-income children who received high-quality, preschool in the 1960s, compared with a control group that received none. Over the next three and a half decades, researchers found that every dollar invested in preschool saved $12.90 in public money.

Multiple studies have found that children who attend high-quality preschool programs do better academically, are more likely to graduate from high school and earn more money. They also are less likely to have babies as teenagers, commit crimes or depend on social welfare.

Here in Portland, they've started handing out "micro grants" for small daycare providers to help pay for books and learning materials to get them away from parking their kids in front of the TV all day. They give out like $500 and the results from what I've read are pretty impressive. What a cool concept and a great way to simply attack a problem on a small scale. Ok...back to the regularly scheduled programming...