Mistrust can occur between students and teachers who differ in their cultural backgrounds. This mistrust can be caused by misunderstandings between them. Under these circumstances, the students may find it difficult to learn. All teachers need training to understand grade school students from various cultures. Many schools have a majority of African American, Hispanic or Asian students and others have a majority of a variety of minority students. Sadly, 82% of our teachers are Caucasian. We need more teachers from a variety of cultures and races in our grade schools so as to avoid relationships of mistrust.
Pre-K brain development is an active process that requires the careful attention of a parent, skilled caretaker, or Pre-k teacher. The Pre-K brain develops continuously starting in utero and continuing into adulthood. An appropriate and healthy start can lead to the development of a contributing citizen in society. But a traumatic Pre-K experience can increase mental health and other problems that prevent a child from adapting to school and later on to community life. The brain development includes learning words, of course, read more…
Essential programs that help our Pre-K children may be cut by Federal Legislators in mid-December. Let’s help Pre-K children by raising our voices in unison to make a difference. Promise the Children supports funding for programs that help Pre-K children living in poverty. Families living on minimum wages cannot afford to pay for adequate health care, food, quality pre-K and, too often, even housing for their children. Both father and mother must work multiple jobs, and are not paid a living wage. Contact read more…
When we use harsh discipline to punish children’s bad behavior, we encourage feelings of failure and start children on a pipeline to prison from pre-K. Harsh punishments include in-school and out-of-school suspensions and hurtful corporal punishment, that is still allowable in 18 states. Adults, including parents, caretakers and teachers of Pre-K children should view discipline in terms of positive reinforcement of “good” behavior. The atmosphere at home and in Pre-K classrooms should be upbeat and child friendly. As adults, we read more…
Pre-K may not improve performance in our public grade schools. However, quality Pre-K can stimulate the huge early learning potential from birth to age five. Without quality control being a part of Pre-K programs, children can fall behind in kindergarten and never catch up. This may lead to failure, dropping out of high school and entering the juvenile justice system. A new Peabody study of the Tennessee Voluntary Pre-K program reports that Pre-K works, but the gains are not sustained through the read more…
By Ellie Richardson Anxiety in children usually comes from a sudden turn of events, or a fear of that sudden change happening. This is why it is always important to explain to children what is happening, or better yet, what is going to happen, so that they know what to expect in situations they may not be familiar with. Today, during my volunteer work, two different children in my group had melt-downs due to a lack of this explanation. The read more…
By Ellie Richardson Having volunteered at the same organization for a few weeks now, I’ve begun to notice a pattern in the way the children’s activities are structured. Because this particular program is focused on literacy, the class always begins with reading a book to the children. This part of the class is also paired with a short “discussion” period, in which the topic of the book being read is introduced. For example, one day we were reading a book read more…
At our literacy program children made the letters in their names out of pipe cleaners. This was easy for some, but others needed a lot of help to visualize the letter and imagine making it, rather than writing it. Every child liked to roll up the pipe cleaner to make the dot for the small “i”! Eventually, each child had their name at their place on the table. Our literacy program is well supervised. Each volunteer has an interview, must read more…
Teaching isn’t just providing their students with information, it’s also listening to the students for information about themselves and how they learn. One day while doing my volunteer work at a summer literacy program for young girls, I was put in charge of making sure each girl wrote a sentence about the picture they were drawing. Sounds easy, right? Wrong. In fact, this sentence-writing activity was apparently one of the biggest activities of the year that marked each girl’s progress in read more…
Please sign up and join 500 other volunteer advocates who support the safety net for our nation's children. We send monthly emails suggesting ways to help. Too many parents are working for low wages that prevent them from paying for safe childcare, early education and adequate health care. They need support!
