My Mother Made Me Do It
Dear Leading Ladies,
I grew up in the ’50s and ’60s in a segregated town in northern New Jersey. I walked across the street and up a little hill from my all-white street to my all-white school. Diversity, not a word in common usage then, might only be applied to the two or three Jewish and Italian families on our block. Not three or four miles away, however, was an all-Black elementary school where my mother taught kindergarten. Same town but fewer resources, larger class sizes, reduced extra-curricular opportunities, different outcomes. My mother’s students would continue to receive inferior schooling until they reached the large and integrated high school where most of them would be tracked into non-college prep classes.
In between the two neighborhoods where I went to elementary school and my mother taught, were a couple of very wealthy white enclaves, some middle and upper middle class white areas, and other Black schools and neighborhoods.
As the Civil Rights movement gained strength, Black parents contested the
de facto segregation of the Montclair schools, only to be met with the argument that the school populations were based on living patterns that reflected people’s choices. Eventually, court rulings and pressure from parents and outside civil rights action led to a magnet school movement in Montclair that integrated schools at the junior high level, but left many elementary schools Black or white.
Why am I sharing this story?
For two reasons.
First, because this tale of racism and discrimination is a reminder of the history the North played and still plays in perpetuating inequality. We need to know it and recognize it so we can fight it where it still rears its ugly head.
iStock
Second, there is more to the story that involves my mother and me.
In the midst of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960s, his administration brought together a group of child development experts who created the Cooke Report as a “blueprint” for what would soon become Head Start. “What started as a Summer program by the Office of Economic Opportunity, with the goal of breaking the cycle of poverty through the care and education of 561,000 children, Head Start has since served more than 37 million children and their families,” according to the First Five Years Fund, which works to protect, prioritize, and build bi-partisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level.
My mother decided that during the summer of 1965 she and I should be among the first volunteers for the Head Start program in our hometown, in a Black neighborhood near the one where she taught. I don’t remember much about the experience except there were a bunch of very cute little kids who loved all the songs and stories my mother told them, just as I had when I was little. As she had done for most of her adult life, my mother was giving another group of young children social and academic skills that would serve them well as they grew up.
Head Start in our hometown is now celebrating more than 60 years, growing early on from a summer program to a full-year, federally-funded program for low income children from birth to age five, helping prepare them to start school. Head Start now provides pre-school lessons, health screenings, social services, and nutritional programs.
The research shows that Head Start delivers on its promise.
According to the National Head Start Association, graduates of a Head Start program:
Make significant progress in language, literacy, and math
Gain better impulse control, approaches to learning, and social skills
Develop healthier eating patterns
Are less likely to enter foster care (if parents involved with Head Start)
Improve language and cognitive development
Increase performance and attendance in school going forward
Demonstrate good health habits in later years
Are less likely to have problems with the law in later years
In addition, Head Start parents report spending more time with their children and improving their own education
So what’s the problem?
The Trump administration has been threatening to gut the Head Start program for months. Just a few days ago, a report was released cataloging some of the changes that may be implemented.
For one, Trump wants to give back to the states many of the decisions about how Head Start is run. This could wreak havoc in states where the leadership does not prioritize programs that benefit the poor, immigrants, or people of color.
Additionally, the number of children under the care of one trained teacher may be increased. Small ratios between caregivers and young children has always been considered an important factor to effective learning and development, so this is a red flag for early childhood education experts.
Cutting administrative costs is another Trump goal. On its face, this could be positive, but needs clarification. What will be considered administrative and what is crucial to good practices?
The report also calls for minimizing multi-language services and concentrating on English, in contrast to the emphasis Head Start has put on reaching out to parents whose primary language is not English.
The call for an increase in physical activity as part of Head Start could be positive, but as a report on NPR emphasized last week, deserves close scrutiny. What will be sacrificed for the time spent in physical activity?
Head Start has long been the benchmark for quality early education. We need to look carefully at the changes being suggested by an administration that has long given short shrift to the needs of the people who are served by the program. What is ultimately enforced may look different from the initial 75-page proposal.
What can we do?
Share this information with others.
Submit a public comment to federalregister.gov
Write our federal and state representatives (since one of the proposals is to move the administration to the states). The First Five Years Fund makes it really easy to know who to write to and what to say. Go to ffyf.org/take-action/
Let’s all keep our eyes on the ball. For the sake of the nearly 700,000 children nationwide now in Head Start programs that are helping them bridge gaps in their readiness for school. And because my mother, Sophie, the consummate teacher, would want us to.
Judy (she/her/hers)
Therese (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team
Leadingladiesvote.org
ladies@leadingladiesvote.org