IS OUR CHILDREN HUGGING?

Bush Seeks Big Changes in Head Start, Drawing Criticism From Program's Supporters: The president called for a major overhaul that would add an academic focus and give some states the right to control financing. (ELISABETH BUMILLER, 7/08/03, NY Times)

The bill would require Head Start employees to teach early reading, writing and math skills, much like many state-financed and private preschool programs. "We want Head Start to set higher ambitions for the million children it serves," Mr. Bush said.

The president also promised that there would be safeguards to ensure that Head Start money sent directly to a state would, in fact, be used for Head Start. "What we really don't want to do is say we're going to focus on Head Start, the Head Start money goes for, you know, the prison complex," Mr. Bush said.

Head Start advocates and the president's opponents said they remained skeptical about the administration's motives and worried that the eight-state pilot program would be, as one education expert put it, "the camel's nose." Critics say that states cannot be counted on to uphold the quality of Head Start programs and that the centers, which are often staffed by former Head Start mothers and operate like neighborhood centers, will lose their character and close ties to their communities.

Other Head Start advocates said they were worried that the nurturing approach of Head Start would change if there was increased emphasis on early literacy skills.

"There's a big tension in the early childhood community between huggers and teachers," said Amy Wilkins, the executive director of the Trust for Early Education, a lobbying and research group. "There's still this fear, despite all this brain research about how eager children are to learn, about the hurried child and too much, too soon."

It's a dubious program no matter, but if all they're doing is hugging instead of teaching, it's even harder to justify its existence. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 8, 2003 9:11 AM