Head Start, and all sorts of other programs are hated these days by Congress. I was a graduate of Head Start in 1974, because I had a speech impediment. I know: you'd never know it now; however, Head Start fixed my mouth.
What does Head Start do? well...
The Head Start Program is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. The program's services and resources are designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance children's physical and emotional well-being, and establish an environment to develop strong cognitive skills. The transition from preschool to kindergarten imposes diverse developmental challenges that include requiring the children to engage successfully with their peers outside of the family network, adjust to the space of a classroom, and meet the expectations the school setting provides.[1]
Launched in 1965[1] by its creator and first director Jule Sugarman, Head Start was originally conceived as a catch-up summer school program that would teach low-income children in a few weeks what they needed to know to start kindergarten. Experience showed that six weeks of preschool couldn't make up for five years of poverty. The Head Start Act of 1981[2] expanded the program.[3] The program was further revised when it was reauthorized in December, 2007. Head Start is one of the longest-running programs to address systemic poverty in the United States. As of late 2005, more than 22 million pre-school aged children had participated. Since 2000, the program's effectiveness has been debated in a range of studies: some have claimed that its successes are obvious, others have claimed that it produces both substantial successes and substantial failures, and yet others have claimed that its failures are sufficient to warrant its abolition.
More at this link: The Head Start Program is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. The program's services and resources are designed to foster stable family relationships, enhance children's physical and emotional well-being, and establish an environment to develop strong cognitive skills. The transition from preschool to kindergarten imposes diverse developmental challenges that include requiring the children to engage successfully with their peers outside of the family network, adjust to the space of a classroom, and meet the expectations the school setting provides.[1]
People dislike Head Start, and the idea that people like me, who were, frankly, White Trash, should not have the opportunity to heft themselves up to High School and College. I did. Lots of other people did. Because LBJ and other people who adored America made it simple: We'll help you, and afterwards, you can help yourselves.
There is so much dislike of the idea that poor people--I was poor--should not have the right to stand up and elevate themselves. That is, as I see it, the way we tend to think of our Country.
Discussion? Let's have it.