THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 6, 1996 TAG: 9609040115
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: 83 lines
Kids coming to kindergarten four or five years behind in their life skills are not a new problem, but the numbers seem to be growing. Having to deal with so many of these children continues to plague the public schools - not just in Portsmouth but everywhere.
Some children never catch up by sixth-grade testing time, no matter how hard the teachers work. Teachers often must spend so much time bringing kids up to kindergarten and first-grade level that others in their classrooms suffer.
The numbers of ill-prepared children arriving at the public schools unprepared for kindergarten have increased dramatically since I first became aware of them.
Some 30 years ago, during my short first stint with The Virginian-Pilot, I went to Virginia Beach to do a story about a Navy captain's wife who was raising the hackles of her neighbors in her Beach neighborhood. Assisted by some fellow Episcopalians, she was bringing a van load of toddlers from Seatack to her house at Bay Island for a private head-start program.
She introduced me to kids who didn't know the names of colors such as red, green and yellow. Some of them never had eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich until she gave them one and then they wanted to eat peanut butter all morning. Others never had seen indoor toilets and found excuses to go flush the commodes in the house, exhibiting great fascination with the swirling water.
One especially bright-faced little fellow gave every indication of being exceptionally smart - except he couldn't talk. With some loving care from his patient volunteer teachers, the 5-year-old was beginning to say words, the same words most toddlers learn in the first two years of their lives.
That story was a real eye-opener for me. I've never forgotten those kids and always wondered how life has turned out for them. I might add, I've never forgotten the neighbors who were seeking an injunction against the good Christian woman who was trying to give those children a chance in life.
Having met those kids all those years ago, it was no surprise to me to hear our school folks talk about the struggle to deal with children who flunk kindergarten.
This is a big concern across the nation, not just in Portsmouth.
In the September-October issue of The American Prospect I came across an article by Irving B. Harris, who lays out a case for starting a formal educational process almost from the time a child is born - or even before, by working with their mothers.
Harris is not a man living in an ivory tower and dealing in theories. He's an executive of the Pittway Corp., makers of First Alert smoke detectors. His company was part of a private-public project to work with children who otherwise would be ill-prepared for kindergarten.
He said that about one-third of the children in Head Start programs for ages 3 to 5 often already are beyond help. He noted an experiment in Minneapolis, where 10 percent of the kindergarten class flunked tests to go to the first grade.
In Portsmouth, Head Start reaches some but not all of those who need it, and that program may come too late in life for many. A scattering of other programs for infants and their mothers is not compulsory.
I've said it before, and I still think the answer is compulsory day care, beginning when they are infants, for children whose families receive social services assistance. The day-care program should encompass the mothers, who would be required to accompany their children as long as they were not working. The mothers could help care for the facilities as well as for the children. In the process, they would learn about nutrition, discipline and other things that are important to a child's success in school - and in life.
The mothers, forced to go to the facilities to get their paychecks from social services, also would be learning skills that could serve them well if the limits on welfare assistance stick.
If this sounds expensive, look at these figures Harris used in his article. In a Syracuse experiment more than 20 years ago, a program was offered to families with children between six months and 5 years old. Fifteen years later, the 80 children from the program were compared to children who were not. One of the long-term advantages was that the children who were not in the program cost society 10 times more by age 15 than those who participated. The participants had cost an average of $186 per child for court-related activities compared to an average of $1,985 per child for others.
These numbers do not even begin to measure the toll the kids take on the public schools and the community in other ways.
Some people have argued with me that the city has no right to make day care compulsory in exchange for public assistance. I think it's as simple as passing a law saying infants and mothers must attend day care as one of the requirements for receiving a check. by CNB