From the Cradle to the Grave

One of my clients yesterday told me that she will be enrolling her six week old son in "head start", starting on Tuesday. Six weeks old and he will be going to head start, which is supposed to prepare children for school.

The whole idea sends chills down my spine as a think about the warning my parents used to give that if they can the Government wants you from the cradle to the grave. I thought about that a lot last night and this new program that is being implemented in my community.

Even though this program has been around since 1994 it is new to this area, not opening until late this fall in fact, it is a federally run program that takes infants and toddlers of low income families and educates them much the same way that Head Start does.

My first question is still yet to be answered though, what can you possibly educate a six week old baby other than that it's parent is no longer around and now it is dependent on the state.

Officially started in 1995, Early Head Start is a branch off of the traditional Head Start which provides in preschool setting for low income and disadvantaged families, with the hopes of providing a better chance at sucess.

According to their website EHS; "is a storehouse of early childhood expertise that promotes the building of new knowledge and the sharing of information" EHS NRC

EHS NRC stands for Early Head Start National Resource Center, through this program Early Head Starts throughout the country are linked together and share information and resources, as well as coordinated various opportunites for learning through out the Office of Head Start's community.

They also are charged with creating, collecting, and disseminating information relevant to comprehensive early childhood programs. Making sure this information is timely, accessible, and easy to use.

Along with providing professional development opportunities for the Early Head Start and Head Start community via face-to-face meetings and state-of-the-art distance learning.

Early Head Start is a federally funded community-based program for low-income families. They work with Pregnant Women, infants and toddlers. Their mission is to promote healthy prenatal outcomes for pregnant women, enhance the development of very young children, and promote healthy family functioning.

Beyond that basic information the website doesn't really go into what the EHS program hopes to do, or what it has managed to do since it's inception in 1994. There is information about the 'advances' in infant development, but really al the site states is with advances in infant development now is an exciting time for early head start to be around.

What advances? How does head start help to promote healthy family functioning when they are encouraging unworking stay at home moms to enroll their babies in the program? Granted my client who is doing this program does work but I have spoken to other parents who are stay at home moms who have been approached to place their babies in the program because their older children attended head start at three and four years old.

1. High Quality: Programs that will develop polices and practices founded in knowledge, skills, and professional ethics. Which are embraced by the fields of child development, familiy development, and community building. The program must spring from an awareness of both the opportunities for intervention and the fact that young children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of a negative caregiving environment.
2. Prevention and Promotion: Healthy child development and family functioning begins before conception, and continues prenatally, upon birth, and through the early years. With an emphasis on promoting healthy development, the prevention and detection of developmental concerns should occur at the earliest possible time.
3. Positive Relationships and Continuity: These relationships include the child, family, and staff, and recognize the parent-child bond as the child's most significant relationship. Infant and toddler caregiving practices must support child attachment by minimizing the number of different caregivers and supporting long-term caregiving relationships. The relationship between staff and family is based on respect for the child and family's home culture.
4. Parent Involvement: The Early Head Start initiative supports the highest level of parent involvement and partnership. Programs will make a special effort to support the role of fathers in parenting activities. Programs will recognize the parents as the child's primary nurturers and advocates. Parents will also be active participants in policy and decision-making roles.
5. Inclusion: Programs will welcome and fully include children with disabilities. The individual needs of each child will be evaluated and responded to in a way that builds upon individual strengths. Programs will also support the child and family's full participation in community activities.
6. Culture: The home culture and language of each family will be supported as an important aspect of early identity formation. Programs will also explore the role of culture and language in child and family development, and community values and attitudes.
7. Comprehensiveness, Flexibility, Responsiveness, and Intensity: Works off of the belief that families can identify their own needs and strengths, set their own goals and are capable of growth. Therefore the program must be flexible enough to respond to the families needs.
8. Transitions: Programs are responsible for facilitating a smooth transition from Early Head Start into Head Start or other high quality programs and support services. A smooth transition is important to ensure each child continues to receive enriching early child development services and each family continues to receive the support services necessary to healthy family development.
9. Collaboration: Collaboration with local community agencies and service providers will maximize the resources available to families with young children in a cost-efficient and comprehensive manner. Early Head Start programs, with the recognition that no one program can meet all of a child and family's needs, will seek to build strong alliances within the communities in which they operate.

Babies need to be held, cuddled, loved. Some experts suggest that babies can be taught to read. That if you expose them to certain colors it helps improve brain development, but babies need more than being exposed to certain colors or being taught to read by one year old. They need that close contact that comes from being cuddled. They need warm individuals who will treat them with love and respect. They need cooing, and cuddling.

When I took one of the older children to head start a couple weeks ago because the bus wasn't running I was asked to sign him in, so they would know that he was there and later when I picked him up, I was asked to sign that he was gone, and I wondered if the baby head start will be the same, impersonal, will the little babies just be a name or a number, will they love and cuddle them the way that little babies need, or is all about who they can put through the system, a system that barely works with the older children.