Bloom, Benjamin
Please post your comments and suggestions for this article.
Comment by Ruth Canon on January 22nd, 2013 at 11:54 am
Very thorough article for the most part. However, you omitted Dr. Bloom’s later recanting of the value of Head Start in schools. I remember reading an article regarding his change of mind about the efficacy of Head Start in a education union newspaper in the late eighties. To get further clarification, I corresponded with him and also talked with him on the telephone. He told me that most children with attentive, responsive mothers, regardless of low-income status, would make better and more lasting progress with their children at home than the children would accomplish at school. He seemed to agree with Dr. Barbara Tizard, the prominent British educator who wrote Young Children Learning (Harvard U Press), who also believed, after much research in preschoolers in the home and and at nursery school, found that preschoolers’ intellectual leaps were found almost totally in the home in everyday conversation with their low-income mothers.
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on January 22nd, 2013 at 6:09 pm
Thank you, Ruth, for your feedback. The article will be revised to include the point you made about Bloom’s findings that early experiences in the home have the greatest impact on later learning and his change of mind regarding the value of Head Start.
Thank you again for taking the time to comment and for helping to make NWE a valuable informational resource.
Jennifer P. Tanabe, Ph.D.
Social Sciences Editor, NWE
Comment by Alex Jewell on April 6th, 2023 at 10:17 am
It is noted that bloom served as an educational advisor for multiple countries listing india and isreal/palestine however there is no complete list of the countries he served later in the article. Can you link me something that. says where all he served as an advisor?
Comment by Jennifer Tanabe on April 15th, 2023 at 11:17 am
Thank you, Alex, for your comment.
That information will be researched and added as appropriate.
Thank you again for taking the time to help make NWE a valuable information resource.
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