‘Leelanau Grown’

To the editor:

When we talk about “education,” the spotlight often falls on K-12 schools, standardized test scores, and college readiness.

Yet the most consequential chapter in a child’s entire educational journey may well be the one that comes before kindergarten — the early childhood years from birth through age five. This is a window of development so remarkable, so fleeting, and so foundational that what happens during these years shapes the arc of a child’s life in ways that are difficult to overstate.