Preschool

“It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”, said Frederick Douglas more than 150 years ago. Today he would add women. He would know that children are born with millions of disconnected brain cells and that most cells connect in the first five years of life. These connections don’t just happen. The full attention of parents, teachers, and caretakers is required so the infant can become a strong child who can cope with kindergarten and beyond. U.S. read more…

Many of us, including our policemen and women have become accustomed to solving conflict with violence. There is too much violence in our lives. We are losing our ability to resolve conflict verbally. Many adults and children live in terror that they or a loved one will be killed or maimed by a gunshot. We can change this by; curbing all gun sales, teaching gun safety at home in school, and using internet resources, linking schools to local community mental read more…

Traditional and charter schools can cooperate so as to improve our children’s education. One example is in the town of Lawrence MA where cooperation resulted in increased rates of graduation, and a reduction of school drop-outs. The relationship between traditional and charter school occurred after the Lawrence school district went into receivership because of extremely poor performance. This occurred five years ago when fewer than one-half of the students graduated from High School. The receivership focussed on student achievement rather than internal bickering. Additional read more…

Low-waged single parent(s) cannot pay market rate for child care. Many children are in risky situations where they are neglected or abused.  Some are lucky enough to have a relative or neighbor to provide care. Some are supported by childcare vouchers or are in Head Start. A minimum waged single parent working 40 hours weekly may be earning as much as $15,080 annually. This is below the Federal poverty line. The median income in the United States is estimated at $51,939. This is read more…

By Terry Roderiques, OTR/L Promise the Children, Volunteer As an Occupational Therapist that travels to many schools in my system, I have the pleasure of working with a number of very talented teachers. In researching and thinking over the topic of what qualities I would want in a pre-school teacher, I decided to pick 8 of my most favorite characteristics. This is a limited list and my opinion only. I have listed some references of several articles I found online. read more…

by Grace Pires, High School Student & Volunteer at Promise the Children and Girl’s Inc. With the way the world is now seamlessly interconnected– whether through technology, trade, or facilitated travel– it is beneficial for people to speak more than one language. Oftentimes young preschoolers are only taught English, and begin studying another language at middle school age. This is great for monolingual children, but it can hurt children who are already bilingual. In the classroom, children don’t have many read more…

by Grace Pires, Junior High School Student & volunteer at Promise the Children & Girl’s Inc. There’s no denying that America is a multicultural melting pot. So it’s only fair that the American education system openly acknowledges various white and non-white cultures and promotes diversity in the classroom. By teaching students about other cultures, starting in pre school and continuing in grade school, teachers can enable young children to respect others whose traditions and appearances are different from their own. read more…

By Melissa Orlowski This year I’m working as a para-professional teacher (until I take all my exams). And I am leading a kindergarten class which allows me to assess the preparedness of the children who had pre-k against those that didn’t. It’s not mandatory; pre-k that is. When I was starting primary school in Massachusetts twenty years ago, even kindergarten wasn’t mandatory. I went right into first grade. I don’t remember it much, but my mum says I struggled to read more…

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…