What is your outlook on Head Start?
“It’s just daycare.”, “The only thing they do all day is play.” and “Your job is easy.” Can you believe people actually say these things? I am a Head Start teacher, qualified to do my job and love it. This is not an easy job it entails a lot of hard work and passion. Head Start has a bad rap and I would love to know why. It’s not just ABC’s and 123’s.
More than half of my students enter our program without any alphabet knowledge, cognitive skills, phonological awareness, fine or small motor development and they have not developed any social/emotional skills. All of these things play an important part in a child’s development holistically. Dealing with the population we deal with their parents have no idea what their children need to succeed in school and in life. How can they implement or emulate the proper practices if they weren’t shown these things themselves. Most parent think it’s just daycare until the actually learn about the program.
People make assumptions about the Head Start because they don’t know anything about Head Start and probably have never tried to find out about it. So you ask “What is Head Start?” Head Start is a national child development program for children from birth to age 5, which provides services to promote academic, social and emotional development for income-eligible families. Created in 1965, Head Start is the most successful, longest-running, national school readiness program in the United States. Head Start is a child-centered, family focused, comprehensive and community-based program. Head Start provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, dental, mental health, social services and parent involvement opportunities to low-income children and their families. More than 21 million pre-school aged children have benefited from Head Start (Glazer 1993).
Experts question whether Head Start children actually experience lasting benefits (Glazer, 1993). Head Start children do experience lasting benefits. I have students that are in high school and their parents come back and tell us how proud of them they are and how much we as the teacher play a big role in their success. Immediatley after finishing a Head Start program, participants score higher on achievement and IQ tests than other disadvantage children who have not attended (Glazer, 1993). By having positive experiences, they gain confidence in asking questions, using appropriate language and following directions (Glazer, 1993). Many supporters of Head Start claim the program can reduce teen pregnancy, crime and welfare dependency among participants (Glazer, 19993).
As a Head Start teacher I feel this program is very important for the population it attracts. Children can gain so much for Head Start they are able to learn how to socialize with their peers outside of their home environment. I have eighteen three year olds in my class and more than half of them will be writing their name, counting pass 25 and able to recognize upper and lower case letters and much more before they move on. Head Start is the start of success these children and parents depend on us to guide them and teach them. As President Barack Obama says “Yes We Can” and they will.
Glazer, S. (1993, April 9). Head start. CQ Researcher, 3, 289-312. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from the CQ Researcher database.
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