Pre-K as Equalizer
March 10, 2009
Originally published on Inside Pre-K. You can also read more from J.M. Holland on his personal blog, Circletime.
Public preschool has played a large part in the role of education as an equalizer for social injustice. Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty created Head Start as a major battalion in an effort to address systemic poverty in America. Since 1965 Head Start and other targeted pre-k programs have consistently shown their benefit to the at-risk students they serve and on a larger scale to society. But, school has become less about social leveling and more about business-like effectiveness and efficiency. It is this focus on business-like efficiency that has made the debate about funding preschool an argument of cost to the state instead of benefit to the child. In tough financial times, the public wants to fund programs that "pay off."
In the past 20 years, the nation's economic landscape has changed. The median family income rose mostly due to middle class families moving from one paycheck to two with less time for quality interactions with children. The increase in single parent families has also contributed to the influence of childcare on families and schooling. The quality of childcare outside the home ranges widely. As a result, children enter kindergarten with large gaps in their prior knowledge, social skills, and experiences. State and local communities have a fundamental obligation to ensure that every student has the opportunity to fulfill his or her greatest potential by entering school ready to learn. This obligation applies not only to poor students or to rich students, but to all students. The three purposes of preschool are to increase cognitive skills, school readiness, and social and emotional development in children ages 3-5 years old. All three areas contribute to the child's aptitude for success and the quality of future human capital available to the state and the nation.
Georgia, Oklahoma, and Washington D.C. have made bold commitments to every child's future by adopting Voluntary Pre-K. America needs to make a similar statement about all of its children. Every child matters and every child should have the opportunity to start from the same starting line, to come to school fundamentally ready to learn. It is not fair that the poor must start from behind the educational starting line because of the effects of poverty. Nor is it fair that disparity is created because high Socio-Economic Status (SES) students start the race farther ahead. Should we hold back the high SES students in order for the low and middle SES students to catch up? Will the achievement gap ever close completely? Maybe not, because the rich will always seek advantages for their children, just as poor parents seek advantage (or more precisely, equity) for their child when they sign up for a state or federally funded pre-k program, and as the middle class scramble to find high quality services they can afford. It only makes sense to move every citizen up to the highest level of readiness we can before the race starts in order to create a fairer system.
______________________________
About John Holland
I have always felt that stories are an intricate part of how people live and interpret their lives. Having good stories to tell is part of why I became a preschool teacher.
It is not uncommon to hear young teachers say they grew up wanting to teach"perhaps influenced by a great teacher they had early in their life. All too often this story ends with young teachers deciding to leave the profession in their first five years. My story is different. I really backed into teaching, and perhaps that's why I've stayed. I do know that teaching has become my passion.
I never planned to be a teacher at all. I went through college thinking that I was going to be an artist. Ever the optimist, I sheltered myself from the reality that being an artist and paying the bills is not easily done at the same time. So when my future wife said, "You can do anything you want as long as you can pay your half of the rent," I was faced with two choices: a) I could continue working for a painting contractor painting houses and come home from work with stories about watching paint dry; Or b), I could try teaching. At least with teaching, I told myself, I would come home with better yarns. And although I am now embarrassed to say it, in those pre-career days I also thought: "I'll get the summers off to make art."
I began by substitute teaching, to get my feet wet and make sure I was headed in the right direction. And I did it all. I substituted in every possible situation, from preschool special education classes to high school P.E. I worked in urban and suburban school districts. I spent class time with kids who came to school without warm clothes to wear in the winter"and with kids who came in the latest designer fashions. Even though I had never wanted to be a teacher I found that I was good at it. I relied on my spontaneity, my creativity, my empathy, and my willpower to get me through each day. The kids taught me about the real heart of teaching by letting me know very quickly what they needed in terms of respect, guidance, humor, and love.
Then I went to school to learn how to be effective.
After an amazing experience as a long-term substitute in a Head Start classroom, I chose to teach preschool. Though I use the word "chose" to describe the decision, the feeling was really, "This is it. This is my calling. This is what I am meant to do." Spending every day with the same little kids in that long-term sub position helped me see that I could make a huge difference in 17 lives each year. As a man, I was often the first male authority figure my students had ever encountered on a daily basis. This responsibility helped me see how my ability to communicate what a man actually is could affect my students for years to come.
As a preschool teacher, I am primarily responsible for teaching social skills, thinking skills, beginning reading, and math. I am the students' first teacher, and I can select content that will be important (perhaps life-changing) for them, no matter what path they choose to take later in life. Most importantly, I teach my students how to learn.
I still love to paint. Canvas, not houses. But as a male pre-k educator, I know I contribute to society in a profound way. And I have much better stories to tell my wife after work.
I have been a preschool teacher for the past 12 years. I am one of the only male National Board Certified pre-k teachers in the country and a member of the Teacher Leaders Network. As a member of the Center for Teacher Leadership I have been the moderator for the Virginia Forum, an online community of accomplished teachers. I am pursuing my doctorate at Virginia Commonwealth University and serve as a National Board coach, mentor, workshop presenter, and university student teaching supervisor. My current passions include ethics in educational policy, teacher leadership, and 21st century learning. I am also a relentlessly positive professional artist and education writer and professional developer.
Read more from John at his blog, Inside Pre-K.
Public preschool has played a large part in the role of education as an equalizer for social injustice. Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty created Head Start as a major battalion in an effort to address systemic poverty in America. Since 1965 Head Start and other targeted pre-k programs have consistently shown their benefit to the at-risk students they serve and on a larger scale to society. But, school has become less about social leveling and more about business-like effectiveness and efficiency. It is this focus on business-like efficiency that has made the debate about funding preschool an argument of cost to the state instead of benefit to the child. In tough financial times, the public wants to fund programs that "pay off."
In the past 20 years, the nation's economic landscape has changed. The median family income rose mostly due to middle class families moving from one paycheck to two with less time for quality interactions with children. The increase in single parent families has also contributed to the influence of childcare on families and schooling. The quality of childcare outside the home ranges widely. As a result, children enter kindergarten with large gaps in their prior knowledge, social skills, and experiences. State and local communities have a fundamental obligation to ensure that every student has the opportunity to fulfill his or her greatest potential by entering school ready to learn. This obligation applies not only to poor students or to rich students, but to all students. The three purposes of preschool are to increase cognitive skills, school readiness, and social and emotional development in children ages 3-5 years old. All three areas contribute to the child's aptitude for success and the quality of future human capital available to the state and the nation.
Georgia, Oklahoma, and Washington D.C. have made bold commitments to every child's future by adopting Voluntary Pre-K. America needs to make a similar statement about all of its children. Every child matters and every child should have the opportunity to start from the same starting line, to come to school fundamentally ready to learn. It is not fair that the poor must start from behind the educational starting line because of the effects of poverty. Nor is it fair that disparity is created because high Socio-Economic Status (SES) students start the race farther ahead. Should we hold back the high SES students in order for the low and middle SES students to catch up? Will the achievement gap ever close completely? Maybe not, because the rich will always seek advantages for their children, just as poor parents seek advantage (or more precisely, equity) for their child when they sign up for a state or federally funded pre-k program, and as the middle class scramble to find high quality services they can afford. It only makes sense to move every citizen up to the highest level of readiness we can before the race starts in order to create a fairer system.
______________________________
About John Holland
I have always felt that stories are an intricate part of how people live and interpret their lives. Having good stories to tell is part of why I became a preschool teacher.
It is not uncommon to hear young teachers say they grew up wanting to teach"perhaps influenced by a great teacher they had early in their life. All too often this story ends with young teachers deciding to leave the profession in their first five years. My story is different. I really backed into teaching, and perhaps that's why I've stayed. I do know that teaching has become my passion.
I never planned to be a teacher at all. I went through college thinking that I was going to be an artist. Ever the optimist, I sheltered myself from the reality that being an artist and paying the bills is not easily done at the same time. So when my future wife said, "You can do anything you want as long as you can pay your half of the rent," I was faced with two choices: a) I could continue working for a painting contractor painting houses and come home from work with stories about watching paint dry; Or b), I could try teaching. At least with teaching, I told myself, I would come home with better yarns. And although I am now embarrassed to say it, in those pre-career days I also thought: "I'll get the summers off to make art."
I began by substitute teaching, to get my feet wet and make sure I was headed in the right direction. And I did it all. I substituted in every possible situation, from preschool special education classes to high school P.E. I worked in urban and suburban school districts. I spent class time with kids who came to school without warm clothes to wear in the winter"and with kids who came in the latest designer fashions. Even though I had never wanted to be a teacher I found that I was good at it. I relied on my spontaneity, my creativity, my empathy, and my willpower to get me through each day. The kids taught me about the real heart of teaching by letting me know very quickly what they needed in terms of respect, guidance, humor, and love.
Then I went to school to learn how to be effective.
After an amazing experience as a long-term substitute in a Head Start classroom, I chose to teach preschool. Though I use the word "chose" to describe the decision, the feeling was really, "This is it. This is my calling. This is what I am meant to do." Spending every day with the same little kids in that long-term sub position helped me see that I could make a huge difference in 17 lives each year. As a man, I was often the first male authority figure my students had ever encountered on a daily basis. This responsibility helped me see how my ability to communicate what a man actually is could affect my students for years to come.
As a preschool teacher, I am primarily responsible for teaching social skills, thinking skills, beginning reading, and math. I am the students' first teacher, and I can select content that will be important (perhaps life-changing) for them, no matter what path they choose to take later in life. Most importantly, I teach my students how to learn.
I still love to paint. Canvas, not houses. But as a male pre-k educator, I know I contribute to society in a profound way. And I have much better stories to tell my wife after work.
I have been a preschool teacher for the past 12 years. I am one of the only male National Board Certified pre-k teachers in the country and a member of the Teacher Leaders Network. As a member of the Center for Teacher Leadership I have been the moderator for the Virginia Forum, an online community of accomplished teachers. I am pursuing my doctorate at Virginia Commonwealth University and serve as a National Board coach, mentor, workshop presenter, and university student teaching supervisor. My current passions include ethics in educational policy, teacher leadership, and 21st century learning. I am also a relentlessly positive professional artist and education writer and professional developer.
Read more from John at his blog, Inside Pre-K.
