THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701230127
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 154 lines
A little girl, about 3, sat quietly in front of a plate of carrots in her preschool classroom.
In her right hand was a dull knife, and with a look of concentration, she sliced through a carrot and offered a piece to a companion.
Nearby, another child turned on the spigot at the waist-high sink and poured a cup of water. Sitting down at the table adjacent to the carrot cutter, she accidentally spilled a few drops on the table and floor.
A third child dashed over to grab a paper towel and handed it to the seated child, who wiped the table.
``We might need the mop,'' one little girl suggested to the other.
This is not your average preschool.
There are no Disney characters taped to the wall. Instead, there are works of art by Degas.
There is no one who gathers the toys at the end of the day. Instead, it is the children themselves, ages 2 1/2 to 5, who put each and every puzzle piece and pencil back into place as soon as they're finished using them.
At this preschool, even though they don't realize it, the youngsters are learning life-coping skills as well as zoology, geography, geometry and language.
And, in the process, they're giving valuable insight to parents, teachers and other students - college students who are ``studying'' these preschoolers.
Welcome to the Child Development Lab at the Virginia Beach campus of Tidewater Community College. It's a ``class inside a class'' where college interns in the child development curriculum get hands-on experience dealing with children and the many methods of teaching them, and where parents are sometimes given the chance to watch the children in action behind a two-way mirror to gain valuable insight into positive discipline and behavior.
It's also a place where a kid can be a kid and parents can go to work knowing their children are learning, socializing and having fun.
``My youngest daughter cries when I come to pick her up. She doesn't want to leave!'' said Denise Bieszczad, whose 3-year-old daughter, Sarah, is a regular attendee. Bieszczad's oldest daughter, Kristen, 6, has already graduated from the program.
For these children, the day begins much the same as it does for hundreds of others. They arrive just before 8 a.m., hang up their coats, remove sneakers, shake hands with the teacher and then go to work in whatever section of the room they wish until the end of the morning session at noon.
They can read a book, write in their language journals or play with beads intended as a math lesson. Of all the ``stations'' set up in the classroom on a recent morning, only one remained conspicuously empty - the housekeeping corner.
``It's not stimulating enough,'' said the lab director, Nancy Guarnieri, who added that it's up to the children to decide which activity they want. ``We provide a positively prepared learning environment and everything the child's exposed to has an element of success built in.''
Mingling with the youngsters are the teaching interns, often just observing, standing by to see if a child needs help reaching a certain object or cleaning up a spill. Usually they go to work when a child is new and needs help interpreting a learning tool, maybe showing a youngster how to fit a wooden dowel into the right-size hole.
Once children grasp the particulars of a lesson, they're free to do it time and time again until they've mastered it all by themselves.
The curriculum, devised by Guarnieri, combines different styles of learning, including the Montessori and Piaget methods.
Maria Montessori was an Italian physician and educator who devoted her life to the education of children. The Montessori method uses a prepared environment to develop the potential of children with specially trained teachers and materials.
Jean Piaget was a former student of Montessori and developed some of his own methods for teaching children.
The styles are intertwined and incorporated into the lab on a daily basis and ``combine to have the very best lab, based on the best of research and experience from the past,'' Guarnieri said.
She said the combined program helps to prepare the child for first grade, builds confidence, sets the stage for reading, writing and math, and boosts self-reliance and self-control.
Children are free to walk and talk at will as long as they do not interrupt or interfere with others. There's an emphasis on the feelings and rights of others, and children work at their own pace without competition.
The lab's furnishings, from tables and chairs to brooms and mops, are small and positioned at a child's level.
The materials used to learn - the beads, the blocks, the puzzles, the colors and shapes - are designed to be self-correcting, meaning that if somehow the puzzle doesn't fit, children can go back themselves and figure out where the problem was.
Bieszczad, a TCC faculty member, said she has seen proof of the program's success. When her daughter Kristen started attending first grade last year, she was more than adequately prepared for the challenge.
Children in the program come from all walks of life and yet none are obviously different from the others. Some are the children of faculty members, others have learning disabilities and others are simply from the neighborhood or were referred by specific organizations.
For adult students, or interns, the program works in two ways. Those seeking a career in early childhood education, which TCC offers, must complete 60 hours of hands-on training at the lab to be eligible for certificate and degree programs for careers as teaching assistants, child-care providers and program administrators, and for associate degrees in early childhood development.
The community college also offers a Montessori teacher training program, where students learn the Montessori method and tools and become eligible to take a certification exam. Students in this program must spend a minimum of 500 hours in the TCC lab.
Working in the hands-on lab has made a big difference for student intern Jamie Ridgway, who already has 340 lab hours in the Montessori internship program.
``Doing this in the lab, you learn a lot more working directly with the children,'' said Ridgway, who has 2-year-old twin sons and one on the way. ``You're learning a lot more than just baby-sitting.''
Interning in the lab also has afforded Ridgway first-hand experience in working with the Montessori tools and presenting those tools to the children.
She has even made her own Montessori-style tools for her sons at home.
The lab program is not subsidized by the school, said Guarnieri, who has obtained many of the learning tools at her own expense. The school provides insurance and a place to hold the lab. Otherwise, parents paying tuition are the ones who enable the program to continue.
Guarnieri oversees the entire program, from budgeting to the curriculum and has since she joined TCC in 1982.
The public is invited to view the interns and children in action at almost any time. High school students or medical professionals often fill the viewing room to observe through the two-way mirror.
``The teacher is always in the background and the child is the focus,'' said Guarnieri, whose three grown children were raised using the Montessori method. All three, she added, are graduate students. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos, including color cover, by STEVE EARLY
Tidewater Community College student and early childhood intern
Nikkisha Bell works with Megan Phalon, left, and Shaina Pope.
Nancy Guarnieri directs the child development lab.
Early childhood intern Jamie Ridgeway, left, uses a globe to give
Shardea Williams, 4, a lesson about land and water at TCC's Child
Development Lab in Virginia Beach.
Shaina Pope, 5, works at an easel.
Graphic
AT A GLANCE
The Child Development Lab at the Virginia Beach campus of
Tidewater Community College offers morning and afternoon sessions.
In the morning session, from 8 a.m. to noon, children learn at work
and play stations. The afternoon session, from 1 to 4 p.m., is used
for storytime and group activities.
The cost for the weekly morning session is $50; the afternoon
session is $35. For a full day, the cost is $85 a week. There is
also a registration fee for the lab, which operates from August to
May.
For more information, call 427-7282.