Controversial in '82, early education now seen as must by Cathy Hayden
chayden@clarionledger.com, The Clarion Ledger, December 17, 2002
WEST POINT — At age 2, Asjah Bell seems to have it all together at the
Clay County Community Day Care Center.
She is articulate, animated and throws herself into every activity dreamed
up by day-care worker Charlie Carter and Barksdale Reading Institute
child-care technical assistant JoAnn Kelly.
When Kelly, as part of the institute's pilot project called Leaders in
Literacy, coaches Carter on how to do a flash-card rhyming activity, Asjah
shouts "cat-hat" and "car-star."
Asjah is learning language skills now that, at age 5, should make it
easier for her to learn to read in public school kindergarten.
"If we're going to really be as effective as we can be in the K-3 effort,
we've got to concentrate on children before they get to kindergarten,"
said Claiborne Barksdale, director of the Oxford-based Barksdale Reading
Institute.
Public school kindergarten for 5-year-olds became a contentious symbol —
and the cornerstone — of the Education Reform Act of 1982.
"The element I'm most fascinated by is that kindergarten was such a
controversial thing at the time. There was a lot of questioning about how
necessary it was. And here we are, 20 years later, with the whole nation
imbued with the idea we need to be doing more for 3- and 4-year-olds,"
said Richard Boyd, hired in 1984 as the state superintendent of education
to carry out the reform act's provisions.
Brad Pigott, a Jackson lawyer who served on the state Board of Education
from 1989 to 1994, sees the same irony.
"It was very forcefully debated whether the community should be involved
in the lives of 5-year-olds. Now we're talking about is it too late?" he
said.
"Early childhood education is the next big set of issues for adding more
to the plate of public schools."
"You're seeing kindergartners at age 5 who are (developmentally) at 3
years old. How do you get those children where they need to be? We've got
to reach those children early, early, early," said Barksdale, whose
institute trains teachers in 78 Mississippi schools.
Lori Alford, a longtime Clinton kindergarten teacher, sees the gap
first-hand in her classroom. "One child is reading on a second-grade
level. I have one ... the only letter he knows is the letter A," she said.
She has to teach children from both extremes and all those between.
Ron Sellers, deputy superintendent for Jackson school district, said the
years between birth and age 5 are "windows of learning opportunity.
"We've got to find ways to reach those children," Sellers said. "Until we
find ways to reach those children, they will not be able to succeed in any
formal education."
More and more educators and policymakers are jumping on the early
childhood bandwagon.
Their mantra: Strengthen the preschoolers who aren't getting needed
nurturing. Many of these children live in impoverished, single-parent
homes, experts say.
"We have to concentrate on creating a system that does not let anybody
fall through the cracks, particularly those that come from have-not home
situations, socially and economically ... which means we've got to
concentrate on getting kids a lot earlier than kindergarten," said former
Gov. William Winter, the architect of the Education Reform Act.
Consensus is lacking on exactly what kind of early childhood program is
needed, where it should be housed and how it would be funded.
Various ideas and proposals are floating around.
One of them is the Barksdale Institute's pilot programs at West Point and
Greenville day-care centers.
Barksdale hopes to use the results of a study of the Greenville project to
push through the 2004 Legislature some sort of early childhood program and
funding.
Kelly, who has a two-year degree in child development and is a former
monitoring specialist for 15 Head Start centers in three counties, in
October 2001 began visiting the day-care centers that agreed to be part of
the project. They get free training, free books and other materials from
by the institute.
Kelly demonstrated for the day-care workers techniques she uses to develop
preschoolers' language skills.
"We're going to be doing some things with rhyming today," she said to
Carter, a 25-year day-care employee who is working on her two-year degree
in early childhood education at Mary Holmes College, which is in the
throes of accreditation problems right now. "I'm going to be leaving a set
(of flash cards) with you."
"Y'all sit down for a minute," Kelly said to the toddlers. "We're going to
do some rhymes. It's words that sound alike."
While Asjah was fully involved with the lesson, several other children
didn't seem to be paying attention.
When Kelly held up a picture of a star, Asjah sang, "Twinkle, twinkle," in
reference to the song Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.
Carter is thrilled with the training.
"I love it," she said. "Ms. Kelly is just great. All the different
activities and materials she brings ... It really helps me."
While the day-care approach is one possible solution, many others could be
on the table.
One includes tapping into federal Head Start programs, an idea fostered by
former state superintendent Richard Thompson, and adding more
prekindergarten programs in elementary schools.
Janet McLin, Meridian schools superintendent, said that if the state could
do only one thing to help struggling schools, "I would say fund
prekindergarten classes."
Meridian's Witherspoon Elementary, with some of the state's lowest test
scores, has two programs for 4-year-olds.
"I definitely think it helps," said Brooke Lee, who has been teaching a
class four years. "When they get to kindergarten, they want to sit with a
book, they know letters go left to right — little things that our children
may not have an opportunity to get" if they don't attend a
pre-kindergarten class.
