THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610300157
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 126 lines
THE YOUNGEST students at P.D. Pruden Vocational-Technical Center this year are barely 3 feet tall and lean toward Power Ranger backpacks and Bugs Bunny sneakers.
They are 4-year-olds - part of the Early Start programs of Suffolk and Isle of Wight County. The energetic tots also are important elements of a new child-care career-training program at Pruden.
Started last year, the program is based in the wing in which horticulture students used to cultivate young seedlings. The demise of the horticulture program left room to create a classroom and two laboratory classrooms to house the new program, where secondary students learn to nurture the human variety of young sprouts.
Stephanie Hall, 17, and a junior at Nansemond River High School, works part time after school with 2-year-olds at the First Baptist preschool in downtown Suffolk. She signed up for the child-care career block to better prepare herself for a career as a kindergarten teacher.
``It has been a lot more work than I expected,'' Stephanie admitted.
Each day, 43 juniors and seniors from Isle of Wight and Suffolk attend a three-hour morning or afternoon session at Pruden Vo-Tech in the child-care program. The two-year program covers child development from birth to school age, focusing on psychological, emotional, physical and intellectual growth.
Other academic topics include safety, nutrition and health issues as well as day-care regulations and issues. The students develop lesson plans in language arts, social studies, art and music to guide them through the most popular part of the program - actually working with the 4-year-olds.
Thirty-two 4-year-olds spend the day in regular Early Start classrooms with one big difference - lots of extra attention. Each of the two laboratory classrooms has a full-time teacher, a teacher's assistant and student helpers from the child-care class who spend two to three sesions a week working with the children.
Mindy Miller, 18, and a senior at Nansemond River High School, signed up for the program when it began last year. ``I thought it would be an easy grade,'' she said with a laugh. ``But now I am glad I did it because I like working with the children. And because I like it, it is an easy grade.''
Cathy Sabo, 18 and a senior at Lakeland High School, agreed. ``The hands-on part makes it really easier for me to do well,'' she said. This is her first year in the child-care class, and Sabo plans to return to Pruden next year as a postgraduate to finish the two-year program.
Karen Gunter, the program's teacher, has noticed that most of her students genuinely like children and will usually work hard. ``Frequently they will be more successful here than in their other classes because this is something they like and it is hands-on,'' Gunter said.
Some of the students, like Mindy, initially think that the course will be more fun than effort. ``Then there is that first test when they have to know something, and I can see the realization in their eyes that there is a lot to learn to be an effective teacher,'' Gunter said.
The two-year program meets the Pruden Vo-Tech mission to prepare students for transition into employment or into the next stage of career development. The curriculum was developed with the guidance of an advisory committee of local child-care professionals and early childhood educators.
``We look for programs that offer students lots of options so that they can go right into the job market after graduation or opt to continue their education at a higher level,'' said Peggy Wade, Pruden Vo-Tech director.
Wade emphasized the professional aspects of the program's training. ``This is not a class for pregnant teens, parenting skills or baby-sitting skills,'' she said, adding that while those personal needs are important too, they are already in place elsewhere in the school systems.
State projections indicate that the need for child-care workers will grow by 22 percent in Virginia and by 28 percent in Hampton Roads by the year 2000. Currently it is a growing occupation with high turnover so the demand for child-care workers, especially those with training, should remain high. (Projections are from the Virginia Occupational Information system based at University of Virginia.)
Students in the Pruden Vo-Tech program are gathering some of the experience and fulfilling other requirements for certification as child development associates. The nationally recognized credential is earned through a combination of in-service training and work experience. Candidates must be 18 and out of school to apply for the certification.
Also recognized by the Virginia child-care center regulations and by the Head Start program, the associate's certification assures qualifications to be a lead teacher or a supervisor in a child-care setting.
This is the first year that the 4-year-olds have been included in the child-care program. Pruden Vo-Tech's carpentry teacher, John Thompson, spent the summer renovating the former horticulture class area into two preschool classrooms, one with a one-way observation window, and an open classroom for the secondary students.
The laboratory classes are part of the Early Start program at Mount Zion Elementary School just down Pruden Boulevard.
``A lot of secondary child-care programs have a special lab school but it is for just a few hours a week and put together just for them,'' Wade said. ``Here we have a real program where the child-care students can observe real kids and real teachers all day every day.
``All the problems that can come up are going to come up.''
Several of the child-care students find that their vocational lessons have some personal relevance also. Tokara Savage, 19 and the lone male in the class, is a GED student at Pruden Vo-Tech and in his first year of child-care classes.
Recently Savage became a father and finds himself thinking about his infant son as he studies in class. ``I wanted to learn more about communicating with children,'' he said. ``I have learned that it is better to talk to a child when he has done something wrong instead of beating him because if you beat him it will make him worse.''
Jessica Daniels, a 1996 Windsor High School graduate who has also worked in a day-care center, has returned to the center for her second year in the program. She discovered that she learned as much from the little children as she did from her books.
``They taught me lots of things like that they want to be independent, to do things on their own, they like to talk when they get to know you, and they want to be comforted when they are sad or sick,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: ON THE COVER
Staff photos including color cover by JOHN H. SHEALLY III.
Early Start teacher Gayle Morgan works on a project with Jamalia
Gibson at Pruden Vo-Tech.\
Stephanie Hall, a junior at Nansemond River High School, helps
Antonius Carter with some artwork at Pruden Vo-Tech.
Above: Tokara Savage, left, the lone male in the child-care
career-training program, talks with teacher Karen Gunter at P.D.
Pruden Vo-Tech Center.
Jamalia Gibson gives a hug to her Early Start teacher Tammy Coker. by CNB