In Texas, football isn’t a sport and it isn’t an extra-curricular activity. No, it’s almost been elevated to the level of a religion. To say that Texas high school football fans are passionate about the spot would be an understatement; a huge understatement.

Friday Night Lights may have been first a popular book and then a film but it all started with the true story of one season with the Odessa Permian Panthers. Hollywood didn’t need to pump up the real life story of this Texas high school team with fabrication; the real story was already enough of a legend to carry it all the way to the silver screen.

If you think you know high school football, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen it from the Lone Star State. Even the smaller schools really get involved. It’s not uncommon to see entire caravans traveling the Texas highways on Friday nights; the football team, drill team, cheerleaders, marching band and sponsor. All of that can easily require a dozen buses or so. And that’s not even including the hordes of parents and fans that travel right along with them. In relatively few other events will you see devoted fans travel hundreds of miles for a playoff game; and keep in mind that in Texas that’s entirely possible. The border from east to west stretches almost one thousand miles.

So, what is it exactly about Texas high school football in particular that seems to appeal to such a mass audience? While there may be no definitive answer for that question, there is definitely one certainty: nothing else on earth has quite the same intensity and passion to it. You can feel it reverberating in the air when you step into any high school football stadium throughout the state.

High school football fans in Texas are not just passionate about football; they live it and breathe it. On any given Friday night during football season in Texas you’re likely to see just about as much violence in the stands as you are on the turf if one fan happens to aggravate another.

And that’s not even mentioning the rivalry that can take place between teams in Texas. While it’s not uncommon at all for neighboring towns throughout the country to form high school football rivalries, Texans take it to a whole new level. In many cases, extra policeman have to be called out during big rival games just to keep the peace among the crowd. In a few instances, some towns had to stop even playing one another at all because of the violence that ensued between fans in the stands and on the sidelines during rival games.

The exact allure of Texas high school football may be somewhat difficult to describe, but one thing is certain: you feel it when you experience it.

If the rest of the world loves soccer, Texans love football.

According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNICEF, proper early childhood programs can produce more agile minds, better school attendance, lower repetition and dropout rates and stronger academic skills. And at a time, when most parents are increasingly finding it difficult to spend adequate time with their children in USA, playschools or preschools in USA, by providing early childhood care and education, have come to play a very significant role in the proper development of skills and ethics of the future American citizens. Therefore, it is very important to take stock of the emerging trends in the preschool education of USA and analyze the implications they bear for the future.

Preschool Education in USA:

United States of America has a federal structure and education is primarily a State and local responsibility. This is reflected well in the expenditure pattern on America’s education. While the local communities, private organizations and State agencies contribute more than ninety percent of education budget; federal expenditure generally remains below ten percent. States and communities, as well as public and private organizations of all kinds are involved in establishing schools and colleges, develop curricula, and determine requirements for enrollment in educational institutes of USA.

Emerging trends in Preschool education of USA:
While, by allowing private players to provide elementary education, a healthy competition is sought to be promoted among the playschools in USA, the government is also taking some measures to make preschool education available for all. In order to make early childhood education and care available for the disadvantaged section of American society, the U.S department of education sets aside the Title-I grants. Moreover, the Early Reading First program, established in the No Child Left Behind Act, provides competitive grants to school districts and pre-school programs, such as Head Start centers. The grants fund the development of model programs to support the school readiness of preschool-aged children, particularly those from low-income families. In order to make the children with disabilities succeed in their life, the Special Education Preschool Grants and State Grants program are constituted. They would provide formula grants to states to make quality preschool education in USA available for the 3- to 5-year-old children with disabilities. Thus, while several preschools in USA are making profit by taking care of the young children, some measures are also being taken to make quality early child care available to the marginalized sections of the society as the Bush administration has promoted the “Good Start, Grow Smart” policy when it comes to preschool education in USA.

However, all is not hunky-dory when we look at the state of preschool education in USA and despite all the efforts to provide quality preschool education to all, preschool fees in several parts of USA have gone sky high. According to the Forbes magazine, the admission fee in some of the preschools has crossed $30,000. The admission fee in New York’s Ethical Culture Fieldstone School has gone up to $ 30, 440. Another preschool in New York, bank Street charges $ 27, 450 and the Center for Early Education in Los Angels charges $ 15, 400. This rising admission cost of preschools in USA paints a picture of preschool education in USA that is in sharp contrast to the European model where most countries prefer to provide state sponsored free quality preschool education.

Conclusion:

While competition among the preschools to provide best facilities and education cannot be dubbed as bad, a check on the rising cost of preschool education in some of the preschools in USA would definitely help driving away feelings of alienation from the various sections of American population and help in producing quality human capital for the nation.