HEAD START APPROACH

Head Start Approach

Head Start Approach

Introduction

The years before school garden represent a critical period for children's intellectual growth. Since there is no doubt that investing in preschool years means more success in school and in life. In 1965, when the initiative began Head Start in Washington DC, planners relied on the Bloomingdale Family Program as their model. Back then, as now, Bloomingdale illustrates how combining the participation of parents with a strong early childhood program can establish a base of academic success for some of the most vulnerable children in the nation. Bloomingdale model is based on the following key components: an enriched curriculum, qualified and caring staff, the early identification of potential concerns about child development so that appropriate intervention and support can be provided, and a strong role and voice for parents, which empowers them to become advocates for their children.

The success of this approach is well documented and is profitable. Children who receive support services Bloomingdale move to primary school, ready for the challenge and eager to learn. If you are struggling on the road, Bloomingdale's there to support after school for student and family assistance. Bloomingdale continues to serve as a demonstration program that Head Start giving all that it can offer kids and their parents. Program planners, educators and researchers, graduate students, and government representatives from the United States and abroad come to see how Bloomingdale creates an environment where children become students become confident and where parents are encouraged to continue their own educational and career aspirations. They observed how parents, students, school and community as partners in a human enterprise where every voice is heard and every voice is important.

Discussion and Analysis

History

Prior to the 1960s, the structure and availability of federal and state funding for child care programs was spotty, ebbing and waning with pressing national issues. During the Great Depression, government involvement in child care came as a result of escalating unemployment rates (Cohen-Vogel, 2005). Federal jobs were created under the Works Progress Administration and “day nurseries” were established to provide for children of parents on “home relief” (later Aid to Families with Dependent Children) so that parents could work. The day nurseries served a dual purpose by allowing parents to fill jobs created by the federal government and providing employment for educators displaced from their jobs during the 1930s. By 1943, the unemployment rate decreased and most of the day nurseries were subsequently closed.

Throughout this period and into the mid-1960s, then federal funding for child care was available only for finite periods of crisis; as a result, few programs were able to sustain themselves. All of that changed with President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. As poverty and care for children in poverty became the nation's focus, the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act (EOA) allowed for a reliable stream of funding for early child care programs, most notably Project Head Start (Cohen-Vogel, 2005).

Philosophy of the Model

To trace the evolution of Project Head Start, we present a chronological review and analysis ...