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JANUARY 2008

BANK STREET COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Children at Risk: Communities of Caring Help Get it Right from the Start

By Margot Hammond, Director, Bank Street Center For Early Childhood Professionals

Earlier this year I was facilitating a group on  teaching writing in a high needs school in an  urban district. During a review of student work, a  kindergarten teacher shared a picture with a few  words created by a five-year-old student. “I am  sad,” the boy had written, “because my dad is  dead.” The illustration depicted a child with big  tears running down his cheeks standing over a  body lying on the ground in a pool of red…red  crayon used to draw blood. Violence is so common  in this community that the boy’s teacher had  not even been informed. This child and thousands  like him need us to provide the support he requires  for a better life, now, before it is too late.

Research on child development is quite clear  about what a healthy start requires, the activities  and routines that support growth, the kinds of  relationships children need, and what happens  in terms of brain development when a mother,  grandfather, or caregiver plays peek-a boo with  a baby, takes a toddler for a walk, or plays chase  with a preschooler.

And research on helping underserved children  tells us that that support must begin in the earliest  of the early childhood years. Well-known  studies, such as the Perry Preschool Project and  Chicago Child-Parent Project, have shown that  in school, and in life, children with high quality  early education have higher rates of achievement  and graduate high school more often and more  quickly. As adults, they earn more and are more  likely to own a home. The same studies demonstrate  that quality helps to reduce grade retention,  special education, teen pregnancy, and crime and  incarceration. With an early positive start, children  are much more likely to do well, emotionally,  physically, and cognitively; without it, they  are much more likely to experience difficulty as  they grow and enter school.

I see the results of what happens when children  receive the support they need and what happens  when they don’t. Children who have gotten attention,  children exposed to some of what the world  has to offer, get along well. Children who have  not (and in poor communities they are far too  many) are in trouble from the very first day. They  struggle to learn the basics, fail, and then drop  out of school before they learn nearly enough  to be successful in life. We must not continue to  deprive a whole segment of our youngest citizens  the foundation they need in order to succeed.

I know many of these children personally. They  are intelligent, curious, active, and, given a better  start, would definitely have greater success. Eager  for learning, wanting to make friends, and curious  about reading and writing, they are artists who  spend hours drawing pictures of their families,  singers with beautiful voices, and cub scouts proud  to carry the flag during assemblies. If given what  they need, these children have the potential to  become scientists, mathematicians, poets, storytellers,  athletes, and musicians. It is our responsibility  to see that they do, to give them what they need.

Here is what works: Supporting the adults who  support children. When we engage families and  staff in family support, and enrichment and education  activities, and provide opportunities for building  community and learning and growing together,  care and education for young children improves.

Creating a comprehensive quality system that is affordable and accessible to all.

We know how to create comprehensive services  to meet both the educational and social service  needs of children and their families, a system in  which (1) families are well informed about care  and education options, and provided with the  services and support they need to raise healthy  children; (2) teachers are prepared, certified, well  compensated, with access to ongoing professional  development opportunities; (3) classes have a low  group size, high teacher to child ratios, and developmentally  oriented activities and curricula are  the norm; (4) wrap-around services include full  day, year round childcare as well as education,  enrichment, and family support, so families have  the comfort of knowing their children are well  cared for and educated.

But although we know what we have to do,  and dedicated professionals work hard every day  to make things better for children and families,  somehow our society as a whole lacks the courage  and will to face the political costs of making  certain that all our children receive the quality  care they need and have a right to expect. If we  cannot summon the will and solve this problem  once and for all, the fate of that sad little boy  whose daddy was killed, and many of his playmates,  is all too easy to predict.#

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