Can someone give me their thoughts on this statement about head start?

Question

The Head Start program focuses mainly on social skills and not academics because many of these at risk children are from broken homes.

Answer 1

I'm not a fan of Head Start. Isolating these kids with other similar kids is not doing anything to assimilate these kids or enculture them into what society deems 'normal'. Basically what it is doing is having government raise children.

Studies have shown that most of the positive effects of Head Start are erased by second grade anyway.

Answer 2

I disagree with this statement! I was a teacher at Head Start for 3 years. Yes, they do teach social skills, but the preschool age is the foundation to learn about relationships and social skills; without them, they cannot grow to be productive citizens. They focus on the entire child physical, emotional, and academic! My students came from both broken and non broken homes I would say about 75% were single moms as well as single dads. The other 25% were young marrried couples trying to make ends meat and provide the best they could for their families. Also, as a teacher we had to do home visits and go to each student's home twice a year. You would not believe how some of these kids live! If you cannot afford a dinner table, how can you learn table manners? If you do not have a bed to sleep in, then how can you not be grumpy and irritable? School is a safe haven and a vacation for many of these kids. I strongly believe in the Head Start program and have had many wonderful families in my class. Head Start is very family oriented and close nit. I now teach at the elementary level and I rarely ever see the parents. At HS, I saw them daily at pick up and we were on a 1st name basis. I even tutored one of my parents who was struggling with college remedial English. Broken homes are everywhere. Sadly, they have become a part of today's society. That is why it is more important than ever to teach the entire child and to meet their basic needs physically, emotionally and academically. You cannot have one without the other!

Answer 3

Head Start does not mainly focus on social skills. It focuses on many aspects of learning that are developmentally appropriate for three and four year olds. Extremely few children of those ages are ready for academic study. Students in Head Start programs appropriately work on learning many academic readiness skills. It is a very rich program that is designed to benefit any child of that age range. The original idea behind it was to make sure that children entered school on par with their more economically advantaged peers. The schools had found that many of the children in the lower income families lacked the kinds of experiences that gave them the language and life experiences to build on when they entered school. It is easier to learn to read about cows if you've seen one. Etc.

Answer 4

I was a head start teacher and we focused on both social skills AND academics.

I do think the social skills are more important in the preschool setting. One of our goals was to get the kids to learn to communicate their feelings, needs and wants with full sentences so others would be able to understand them. For example, if a kid knows how to read when entering kindergarten but hits his friends when they don't do what he wants instead of talking to them, he's in a worse off place than a child who may need to practice her ABC's but knows how to ask the teacher for help and to express herself to her peers.

Not ALL the kids are at risk or from broken homes, but being from lower incomes (which is a requirement for entering the head start program) many had parents who either worked more than full time to support their families on minimum wage and/or didn't have a high school diploma. For many of the kids in those situations, they haven't had the kinds of social experiences that would help them succeed in kindergarten and beyond.

Answer 5

I dont like it because it sounds like 'The Head Start Program' doesnt care about academics when in fact academics are just as important as social skills. Children are children and they need to learn social skills as much as they need to learn academics weather they come from broken homes or not.

Thats just my opinion though. :)

Answer 6

I don't like the way it is expressed there but head start tries to do socializing because without this a child who is in an unstructured poor violent environment will not adapt to the classroom and will not internalize the will to succeed. Head Start is a wonderful concept that works IMHO.

Answer 7

Pretty much it means that these kids (and mine was one) are from divorced parents or low income parents that are usually in a daycare or with one parent all the time. These kids are therefore exposed to other children and adults to "socialize" them, or give them a different "atmosphere" than what they are used to. It DOES help the kids to a certain extent.

Answer 8

it is when the head starts to bob up and down