A recurring promise in President's Obama's campaign was to spend more money on preschool education. At first glance, that might not seem like something high on the priority list of secondary school principals, but as the demographer Harold Hodgkinson pointed out, the one great truth of demography is that in 10 years, everyone who is still alive will be exactly 10 years older. So, if secondary school principals want little girls (and little boys) to grow up in the most delightful way, they should pay attention to and be invested in what's happening at preschool. Certainly, that's the way Nobel laureate economist James Heckman sees it. As an economist, Heckman is interested in which investments bring the greatest returns to society. He contends that, more than most other education interventions, preschool education is such an investment in "schools, skills, and synapses"--also the name of a paper he wrote for the Institute of the Study of Labor. Heckman (2008) lays out his broadest take on the topic using his own research and that of many others. This article offers several of his main arguments and the author's own annotations.