So here is what I believe is a better way - a way that we can still do - there is time to do better.

The work is to "Grow" a system that can have a positive impact along the entire continuum of development from conception to 6.

To do that we have to see the latent system that exists and work to make it more connected and healthy and so able to use the "Network Effect" to add a multiplier effect to any public investment we make - the opposite of what we are planning to do now.

The system looks like this - the work at first it to see all its nodes and to connect them. Have we missed nodes? The Doctors are not in the system yet. It is public health nurses that do the evaluation for Best Start - they are not here yet either.

The only two bodies that are on the inside now are the Government and the ECDA - everyone else is out. 

Parents are seen currently as spectators or sort of board members - they are the epicenter - it is they that influence the child. The system is as much about them as it is about the child.

There has to be a body at the centre that authentically represents ALL the nodes. We are moving to an OPEN System not a closed one which is at the core of the current plan. We know that in other areas Open Systems are trouncing all closed alternatives - we have to go down that road.

That implies that this is a democratic system not a top down one.

This group settles on the measurable overarching goal.

It is likely that it will look like this. The problem is that too many kids enter the school system in trouble. The ideal number is 10% - we have 30%. Most of these kids are not touched by the new plan. They have to be the focus. The battle is the vulnerable.

We know the names of every one of these kids today. We know their address.

They are not a mystery of a "group" we can follow them all the way.

This brings us to the money. In an Open System, the money does not go to the institution it goes to the participant. This is the Copernican shift in thinking. The Plan attaches the money to the institution. This cannot work. It makes the institution and not the outcome the point.

So won't there be chaos? No - we know how to operate Open Systems - we use standards - but standards set by the community not by an outside party or one interested party. Here is how Dr Fraser Mustard and Margaret McCain see the work unfolding:

The key here is how the standards are set - today ECDA and the Department are setting them according to a plan that focuses on only ONE part of the system.

Much of the work will be in making the connections and in creating process where the Docs can talk to public health about A CHILD - where the Parenting Centres can talk to the Early Years centres ABOUT A CHILD. Where the Early Years Centres can talk to Kindergarten ABOUT A CHILD. 

Where we track each child and help each child as an individual until they leave school. Where the entire system is focused on that child and on her family.

PEI is fortunate in having many of the nodes in existence. Some of them already have process to communicate with each other.

It is not too late.

When Open Systems are clearly in ascendance we cannot frame this as a closed system. We can do this - if we really do care about our kids. We must do this if we care about ourselves for if we waste too many kids now, we will all fail as a society.