DATE: Sunday, June 15, 1997                 TAG: 9706140052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   90 lines

FATHERS IN CLASSROOM GO TO THE HEAD OF THE CLASS

WHEN LOWELL GOODMAN strides into the classroom of his 5-year-old son, Christopher, it's not just his son's eyes that light up with excitement.

A whole class full of kids looks up with anticipation.

The children want the man in the suit, tie and boutonniere to ``gimme five,'' pose for pictures and sit next to them.

That enthusiastic response is why Goodman has been coming to the Berkley-Campostella Early Childhood Center for four years now.

First off, he's had two sons - Aaron and Christopher - who have gone to preschool classes there. Second, he's seen first-hand the importance of children seeing fathers in the classroom.

The world of early education centers and elementary schools tends toward the feminine side. Most of the teachers are women. The aides are mostly women. And over the years, the parent volunteers have mostly been women as well.

Goodman is trying to shift that image a bit by being one of the first members of ``Men on the Move,'' a group of fathers who started meeting twice a month about four years ago.

Their goal? To be good male role models to the children at the Berkley-Campostella Early Childhood Center, where 3- to 5-year-old children learn skills that ready them for school. A core group of 15 fathers has raised funds for the school, gone to classrooms to make art projects, read stories, held the small hands of children on field trips, and planted trees and flowers on the school grounds.

They are, as the name implies, always on the move, and you never know where or when they might pop up at the Cypress Avenue building in Norfolk. A graduation ceremony for the children on Monday honored this special group of fathers, who accepted awards and flowers and hugs amid whoops and hollers from children and teachers.

The vision of male faces in the classroom is important in a country where four out of 10 children go to bed each night in a house where their father does not live. A society where parents in general spend 40 percent less time with their children than parents did a generation ago. And a country where the number of children living only with mothers grew from 5.1 million in 1960 to more than 17 million today.

The children in these hallways, and in every school, need to see more father faces.

It didn't take preschool teacher Chris Meissel long to figure that out when he came to teach at the center in 1991.

On the rare occasions when a man showed up in class, Meissel noticed a look of surprise on the children's faces. Many of them would call the male visitor ``Daddy,'' and follow him around. Meissel wanted to make fathers in the classroom a more ordinary experience.

So he started Men on the Move, recruiting men from the ranks of students' families, and from nearby neighborhoods.

The twice-monthly meetings not only bring the men into the classrooms of their children, but also make available to them workshops where they can improve parenting skills, learn about education and job training, and talk about improving the community around them.

Goodman has been a mainstay of the group. He works for Portsmouth as a business manager for the city police. He's married and has six children. He's active in ministry activities at his church. And when he comes to the classroom, Meissel introduces him as such to drive home the characteristics of men who make solid contributions to their communities.

Goodman, in turn, tries to spend time with each of the students in his son's class. Sometimes he doesn't realize the good he has done until he's ready to leave: `` 'Bye Mr. Goodman, we'll see you later,'' the students chorus.

``I didn't know I made such a difference,'' he says.

His son likes having Dad in the classroom, too. With gentle urging from his father, Christopher describes in sentence fragments just what his Dad does at the school: ``Reads. Plays blocks with us. Has cookouts.''

Derek Anderson is another regular member of Men on the Move. He joined the group when his 5-year-old daughter, Brianna, started attending classes at the center a year ago.

He said he had to get used to reading to a whole classroom of children, rather than the usual one-on-one time he has with Brianna and her 8-year-old sister, Brittany. But he gradually learned how to show the pictures in the book to the whole class, ask questions afterward, and include everyone in the circle.

``It's important for little ones to see male figures in their lives, whether it's fathers, brothers or uncles,'' said Anderson, who is a captain with the Army, and often arrives at the school in uniform.

Goodman, too, sees the face time at the school as an important impression to pass along to children early in life.

``There are so many negative things going on in society today,'' Goodman says. ``In a community effort like this, you can see a way to effect change. We can help get these children off to a good start.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Lowell Goodman visits his son Christopher, 5, at the

Berkley-Campostella Early Childhood Education Center.

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