The Old and the New

This is the most fabulous idea.

Seniors join preschoolers at day care center
Sunday, January 29, 2006
BY MARGARET McHUGH
Star-Ledger Staff

It was not a traditional wood shop class. The teachers were all over 82; the students were all 4.

Using tools accumulated over a lifetime, the residents of a Morris County retirement community were giving four preschoolers a lesson in woodworking.

The men, most with hearing aids, helped their little partners make spinning toys out of wooden disks and string during a half-hour lesson. On Henry Czarnecki's order, 4-year-old Matthew Holder yanked the arm of a noisy drill press to make holes in his disk.

"Good job!" the 85-year-old mentor said as he inspected Matthew's work.

While more and more intergenerational day care programs are opening nationwide, the 14-year relationship between the seniors of Heath Village and the children of Friendship Center is unique in New Jersey, according to one official. Heath Village is the only retirement community in the state to have a day care center on its grounds, said Patrick Brady, CEO of Heath Village and president of the Friendship Center.

Friendship Center is on the edge of Heath Village's 100-plus acre campus in Long Valley, a section of Washington Township.

The arrangement allows the seniors to share time and expertise with children from ages 2 1/2 to 6, under the supervision of the day care staff.

"We wanted to make the life of child care children better," Brady said.

About 30 of the 400 Heath Village residents volunteer with the Friendship Center. They teach the children woodworking and hand- bell music and take them on nature hikes on the grounds. Some read stories to them, either at the day care center or in the retirement community's library. Some head to the day care center for special occasions to decorate cookies or do crafts with their assigned child.

Marie Springstead, 83, teaches hand-bell ringing to kindergartners. In the fall, they learned three hymns and performed them at Heath Village's nursing home.

"It's such a disciplined thing, and they catch right on," said Springstead, a retired teacher and school psychologist in the South Orange school district.

Like Springstead, 78-year-old Jim Madigan, known to the children as "Mr. Jim," hasn't lost his flare for teaching. He reads to preschoolers each week, after practicing aloud at home.

"The teacher never quite got out of me. It's fun and it's a lot different than teaching high school," said Madigan, who considers the youngsters "my extended family."

According to Donna Butts, the executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Generations United, an advocacy group for seniors and children, intergenerational day care programs are growing nationwide.

"The past five years have seen a real increase" in day care centers that cater to children and adults, Butts said.

Butts estimated there are 500 shared-site facilities nationwide, and more than 1,000 service-based programs in which adults or children do something for or with other generation, like seniors tutoring students and youngsters bringing meals to shut-ins.

Different space and staffing requirements between the age groups have been obstacles to shared facilities.

"Public policy doesn't really encourage it," said John Rother, policy director for AARP and chairman of the board of Generations United.

Locally, Mount Olive refused to let the Paragon Village retirement community convert its adult day care center into one for children, saying it violated its zoning rule limiting a property to one principal use.

Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis ruled in November that since adult and child day care facilities are "essentially the same," Paragon Village could make the conversion.

Paragon Village intends to start an intergenerational program like the one at Heath Village, administrator Kim Polachek said.

Children and seniors seem to benefit from intergenerational programs, although "there is little we know about the long-term outcomes," said Shannon Jarrott, Virginia Tech associate professor and research director for the university's Adult Day Services.

Studies have shown senior citizens who participate get a mood boost and children tend to be more comfortable around older folks, Jarrott said.

Children in such programs "don't look at it (aging) as a horrible thing," Butts said. For seniors, being around children helps them think outside themselves. "They're talking less about who died and what hurts," she said.

True intergenerational programs involve sustained contact "so that there is a relationship," as opposed to a children's group visiting a nursing home only on occasion, she explained.

Jarrott said some intergenerational programs don't last because the staff isn't trained to deal with needs of both children and adults. Some organizers decide it doesn't work or isn't worth the effort.

Medford Leas Retirement Community in Burlington County closed its on-campus day care center in September 2003 because residents had to subsidize it, spokeswoman Jane Weston said.

The Friendship Center, which operates independently of Heath Village, was operating in the black within a year of opening, Brady said. It enrolls about 55 children, although on any given day about 35 attend.

Tara Ligos chose the Friendship Center for her children, Jake, 5, and Maddie, 3, because of the seniors' involvement. Ligos' parents don't live nearby, and because her husband's mother is ill, she can't do all the things she wants to do with the children, Ligos said.

"All my childhood memories are of my grammy and my poppy," said Ligos, who lived with grandparents until she was 7. "I wanted that for my kids."

For 85-year-old Stephen Riddleberger, who only sees his own grandchildren a few times a year, being Jake's pen pal fills a void.

"I love it. The kids are so great," the retired machinist said. "Jake is very shy, but I'm slowly but surely bringing him out."

Margaret McHugh covers the Morris County Courthouse. She can be reached at mmchugh@starled ger.com or (973) 539-7119.

Tax Waste

I love this kind of thing. It's what childcare has had to endure for as long as I can remember. The money is there, the money is given away, the money is a pawn of state, but the money never hits the classroom. Has anyone ever looked at an early childhood classroom and seen the shortages? Do most people know what it takes to run an early childhood classroom? Because children don't read, they need the materials to learn to read and that's a lot of stuff. Most classrooms are bare. If one calculated how much money actually dribbles down to the child in the classroom, I bet it would be about one cent on a dollar. I know every time there is a grant in this town, it goes into front desks, new hallways and classroom doors to keep noise down. Noise is important; it means kids are busy and enjoying their lives.

Today's lesson: Wasting tax money

WHEN someone gives to a campaign, the money should be used for that purpose. That doesn't always happen due to loopholes in the law. Assemblyman Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, used campaign funds to entertain his staff in Las Vegas, for instance.

Now, cigarette tax dollars earmarked for early childhood education and health-care are being used in an $18-million ad campaign to launch another initiative that would usher in taxpayer-funded universal preschool for 4-year-olds. That's just not right. Worse, it's against the law. It is illegal to use taxpayer funds to support political campaigns and ballot initiatives.

The man behind the original initiative that established the First5 program that has handed out welcome grants to communities such as Pasadena and Rowland Heights among other communities in Los Angeles County and elsewhere, is Rob Reiner. Reiner now chairs the First5 Commission. The actor-activist is also the prime mover behind the preschool initiative. While Reiner's actions are well-intended, siphoning First5 money to push another initiative is, well, meatheaded.

While the First5 TV spots never mention the upcoming initiative, they tout the importance of preschool. They also allude to studies that supposedly found preschool benefits all children.

Some of those studies indicated that children in single-parent families, already at a disadvantage, and socioeconomically challenged communities do indeed benefit from preschool. But other studies point out that not all children, especially boys, thrive in such a structured environment at a young age. It's a subject that needs much more discussion and much less sound-bite education.

We've noticed that First5 commercials of late have returned to their usual good advice to parents without mention of preschool merits. Perhaps the call by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to pull the ads met with success. Now, the preschool initiative should repay First5 for all that very expensive airtime.

Bingo

This is an outstanding article and well worth reading. It makes me realize that what we have been doing for ten years is right on target. What Mrs. Faulk wanted is available, but not necessarily at the big places. Our teachers have known for years that educating children must be the primary goal of any good place and we have fought a steady shunning from the early childhood clique locally because our kind of education is just not doable in other places. I thank Cecelia for a wonderful article.

By CECILIA LE
The News Journal
01/29/2006

Shannon Faulk wanted her son in a preschool program that would offer a real education -- not just a babysitting service. She wanted to expose him to a diverse group of youngsters. And she wanted something affordable.

But the 41-year-old paralegal and mother of 4-year-old Seth didn't know if such a place existed.
"They were either for really, really poor people or people with really, really a lot of money, but there were not a lot of stimulating programs for, dare I say it, 'middle-class' people like me."

The problem she faced is common in Delaware: Government-subsidized and regulated preschool programs, such as Head Start, are available only to underprivileged families, while high-quality early education remains difficult to identify and difficult to afford for the middle class.

"Middle-income children are being left behind," said Libby Doggett, executive director of Pre-K Now, a national advocacy group that supports universal access to preschool. "Children in poverty have access to Head Start. Upper-income parents buy whatever is best for their child -- usually a preschool of very high quality. It's the middle class that's getting squeezed."

In Delaware, preschool programs cost anywhere from $100 to $1,000 for a four-week month -- lower than comparable states such as New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. But the quality of instruction and education level of teachers isn't as good, according to a recent University of Delaware study.

According to the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University, Delaware's state-funded preschool programs met seven of 10 quality standards in 2002-03. Delaware was praised for having fewer than 20 students in a class, serving a meal and giving teachers specialized training. However, Delaware preschools didn't require teachers to have a bachelor's degree. Arkansas met all 10 standards, while Pennsylvania met only two.

Several initiatives are forming to improve early education in Delaware -- such as a task force to study increasing teacher training and pay, and a star system to rate preschools -- but they are still in their infant stages.

"This state has put a lot of concentration on reforming the K-12 system, but we've done very little with early childhood education," said Evelyn Keating, provider services director with The Family and Workplace Connection, a Delaware nonprofit child care referral agency. "We can't wait until they get to kindergarten because then we're just playing catch-up."

Help for poor

Delaware children in poverty -- defined as a family of four making $19,350 or less annually -- and children with disabilities are eligible for free, public preschool from birth to age 5.

Families making up to twice the poverty level can get state vouchers to pay for child care. About 14,700 children -- nearly a third of those in child care -- receive such a voucher, which can cover all or some costs depending on income.

With poor children taken care of and higher-income families taking care of their own, the remaining middle class are left without the means to pay for a high-quality preschool or the knowledge to even identify one.

Faulk got references and used her own sleuthing skills to make her choice: St. Michael's School and Nursery in Wilmington. She was drawn to it because of its educational programs and the diversity of its students and staff.

The school, which received the Governor's Award for Excellence in 2002, charges about $550 a month for prekindergarteners. Preschool teachers, who handle newborns to 3-year-olds, have at least an associate's degree. All kindergarten teachers have a master's degree or are completing one.

And as director, Helen Riley has 35 years of experience.

The school Faulk picked is one that met many quality indicators in a 2003 University of Delaware study of 200 programs in the state.

The study determined that quality is connected to price, staff education and the director's experience. While publicly funded and regulated programs for poor families were of better quality than others, the study found the overall quality of Delaware's programs was mediocre to poor.

Many were lacking in language and literacy development, reasoning activities and even basic health and safety.

Authors pointed out that the quality of care is probably even worse than the study suggested, because the centers that allowed researchers to visit were of higher quality.

Shopping for quality

In the public eye, preschools have traditionally been seen as educational settings where children learn letters, numbers, manners and other skills to prepare for kindergarten. Day cares, in contrast, have been regarded more as babysitting services.

Nowadays, because all providers are expected to provide learning activities, the state Office of Child Care Licensing doesn't distinguish between preschool and day care. Any licensed center can call itself a "preschool," but faces minimal requirements for teacher training and curriculum.That means it's up to parents to shop the wide variety of programs available and recognize the ones of high quality.

National research shows children who attend high-quality preschool do better throughout school and, as adults, are more likely to go to college, get jobs and pay taxes.

Many states are expanding their programs in response to such research, as well as federal demands that they get all children up to grade level in reading and math.

States spent $3.6 billion on pre-K education in 2005-06, compared with only $200 million in 1998, according to Pre-K Now.

Another UD study tracking more than 700 disabled and poor children found that by fifth grade, those who had attended government-funded preschool were on a par with their peers in reading, with 73 percent passing state reading tests. The group that hadn't had preschool was doing far worse, with only 34 percent passing.

Those studies involved programs for 3- and 4-year-olds, but experts say preschool education should begin after birth and last until age 5, when the brain is growing most quickly.

"In many ways, it's the first 36 months that make the difference," said Michael Gamel-McCormick, who led both UD studies.

Waiting in line

Rep. Melanie George Marshall, D-Bear, said her goal is for every child to have access to quality early education.

But Marshall, who chairs a legislative task force on early childhood education, says a focus on expanding full-day kindergarten has consumed much of the state's attention and left preschool waiting in line.

"I was really bright-eyed and optimistic that we would be able to accomplish so much," when the task force was established in 2003, she said. "There's only so much money to go around. It's going to take longer than I had initially hoped.

"This isn't about looking after someone else's kids," Marshall added. "It's about getting their brains ready for school. It can't be any old program. The real issue is quality -- making quality affordable."

When picking a program, parents usually consider location, cost and hours, said Keating, from the referral agency. Judging quality is more complex.

A high price tag doesn't guarantee a top-notch program or highly educated teachers -- but it's more likely, experts say. And parents who can't afford premium rates could sacrifice quality.

"People who are just 18 years old and breathing and aren't experienced and educated ... that's what we have in some of our family child care centers," Keating said.

For Faulk, it was the educational programs that ultimately helped her pick St. Michael's for her son Seth.

"With his teachers now, one is Hispanic and they are learning Spanish -- who better to learn it from?" said Faulk, noting Seth can count to 20 in Spanish. And he gets field trips, yoga, nutritious meals and is learning social skills like sharing.

The state Department of Education's guidelines say preschools should provide activities that help 3- and 4-year-olds develop skills such as recognizing numbers, following directions and expressing care for others. Most learning is accomplished through play.

"You can't teach them the way you would older children," said Jeff Benatti, executive director of New Castle County Head Start. "You can't sit them down in front of a chalkboard and go, 'Two plus two equals four.' We don't believe that's the way 3- and 4-year-olds learn best."

Parents need to visit the program, ask questions and watch the children. They also might drop by to see how the school is run when visitors aren't expected.

Hands-on

At Children First Preschool in Hockessin, which last year won the Governor's Award for Excellence, each month has a theme.

This month, it's transportation, so one classroom's play area is an airport where children act as pilots, passengers and flight attendants. The children "sign up" to play by marking the station with a personalized clothespin.

"The real learning takes place when the children put their hands on things," said co-director and teacher Anna Traudt.

Pre-kindergartner Alexandra Cresci, wearing a birthday crown, painted her nails blue with a glittery marker.

"Look, I'm making a telescope," said classmate Tess Foote, peering through a paper towel roll she had colored.

Meanwhile, J. D. Gaylor practiced fine motor skills by picking up cloth balls with a pair of chopsticks.

Even though Heather Willis is a stay-at-home mom, she sent both her children to Children First: Henry, 4, and Ellie, 6, now in kindergarten.

She felt Ellie, more of a risk-taker, needed extra stimulation, while Henry would benefit from time away from mom.

"It was worth that sacrifice of not having that extra money," Willis said. "Both of them are more confident and more inquisitive. They learned how to play with friends and do things without me being around."

Children First, which charges $510 a month for a five-day-a-week program, requires teachers to have a degree in early childhood education or complete 60 hours of coursework.

But most programs don't. Thirty-eight percent of early care and education teachers have only a high school diploma or less, UD researchers found in the 2003 study.

Teachers are paid an average of $8.90 an hour, which is comparable to national pay.
"Some of them actually qualify for public assistance themselves, and that's sad," Keating said.

Better training

Several programs are in the works to improve early education in Delaware.

Teachers can get scholarships to work toward an early childhood credential or degree through the TEACH (Teacher Education and Compensation Helps) program, administered by the Family and Workplace Connection. After getting credentialed, they would be eligible for higher pay.

Rep. Marshall plans to introduce legislation soon that would create a task force to study other ways preschool teachers can get better training.

Early childhood advocates also want to create a rating system that would give stars to participating programs -- like those used for restaurants and hotels -- and grants to help them improve.

While the task force doesn't focus on the squeeze facing middle class families, both of those initiatives could help them identify quality programs they could afford.

Similar systems exist in other states, but Delaware still is seeking funding from government and private sources, said Keating, who hopes the Family and Workplace Connection will administer the system.

Meanwhile, Estela Lemus would give good marks to the Head Start at Absalom Jones Community Center in New Castle. She says her 5-year-old daughter, Andrea Rodriguez, has matured since starting there.

Andrea will be ready for school, her mother thinks.

"Her shyness is going away," she said. "She likes to read books and make up what's happening in the pictures. She has a cousin in kindergarten and she says, 'Mom, I want pretend homework.'"
Contact Cecilia Le at 324-2794 or cle@delawareonline.com.

Sri Lanka News

Foundation Stone Laid for Muttaiyankattu Preschool
TamilNet
January 27, 2006

Project Co-ordinator at The Economic Consultancy House (TECH), Mr Pulendran, presided over the foundation stone laying ceremony for a new preschool for children of the war-affected community in Jeevanagar, Muttaiyankattu in Mullaitivu district Wednesday at 10 a.m., sources in Kilinochichi said. TECH is a Sri Lanka Government registered NGO working exclusively in the NorthEast on employment generation projects.

The new building will replace the preschool for nearly 40 children that is functioning out of a temporary shelter. The permanent building will be a good first step to provide progressive educational opportunities to the impoverished community, TECH officials said.

The financial assistance for the center is being provided by an Internet group of Tamil-Norwegians and the school will function under the administration of TECH.

Head of the Political Section in Mullaitiuv, Thamilarasan, laid the foundation stone. Village Development Council President, Mr Rasalingam, Preschool teacher, Ms Kalaichelvi and several Jeevanagar residents attended the foundation laying ceremony.


Children Nutrition Park Opens in Yogapuram

TamilNet
January 28, 2006

Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO) Wednesday declared open a Children Nutrition Park with a Day-Care Centre for children and a pre-school in Yogapuram in Mallavi area in Mullaitivu district. The project funded by TRO(USA) was implemented by the Mallavi Zonal Office of the TRO Mullaitivu district. The park is named Vaiharai Children Nutrition Park.

Dr.Ehambaramoorthy unveiling the name board of the park.

Dr.Ehambaramoorthy speaking at the event.

Children playing in the newly opened parkThe park would be developed in future to provide computer literacy and English language education to children, officials said.

Mr.Rasu Ravi, Planning Director of Children Welfare Unit of the TRO presided.

Dr.Ms.Ehambaramoorthy, Medical Officer of the Mallavi hospital unveiled the name board of the park.

Mr.S.Mullaiveeran, Mallavi Zonal Director of the TRO declared open the new of the pre-school in the park.

Mr.Arunthavam, Thunukkai area political head opened the learning room in the pre-school.
Mr.Ravichchandran, Deputy Executive Director of the TRO, and Mr.Semmanan, Mullaitivu district political head delivered keynote addresses.

They commended the development work of the TRO in providing assistance to affected children and mothers who are suffering with out proper food and health facilities.

About sixty children, parents and TRO officials participated in the event.

Live Claymore Mine Recovered in Pesalai School

TamilNet, January 27, 2006

Talaimannar police recovered and disarmed a live claymore mine concealed in a discarded water tank kept in the premises of the Pesalai St.Fatima Madhya Maha Vidiyalayam at 9.30 p.m. Thursday, sources in Mannar said. ol. The police rushed to the site and took steps to remove the explosive when notified of the mine's presence by the school's principal.

The discarded water tank was kept on a corner of the premises of the school, which was out of bound for students and teachers, sources said.

Diabetes News

Washington Post
FDA Approves Inhalable Insulin
By Justin Gillis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 28, 2006

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday approved an inhaled form of insulin, the first new way to get that hormone into the body since it was discovered in 1921 -- and a new treatment option for many of the 21 million Americans with diabetes.

The approval fulfills an arduous scientific quest that spanned most of the 20th century and spilled over to the 21st. And it marks the biggest change in diabetes treatment in decades, one that doctors hope will lure a fair slice of the American population into their offices to talk about controlling blood sugar. The product poses long-term safety questions, though, and it's not clear yet whether it will be more expensive than standard insulin.

Paul Matelis, at top, holds a packet of insulin, which is loaded into an inhaler that is used by a patient. Matelis, a comptroller for a real estate title firm in Miami, was among the first to enroll in human tests of inhaled insulin.

Administration this afternoon approved an inhaled form of insulin, the first new way to get that hormone into the body since it was discovered in 1921 -- and a potential boon to many of the 21 million Americans with diabetes.

Millions of Americans need treatment with insulin but don't get it because it involves frequent, painful needle sticks and injections. About 5 million take the hormone, but a high proportion inject themselves too few times during the day because it's so inconvenient. Doctors hope inhaled insulin will overcome some of that resistance, helping diabetics ward off a slew of medical problems that afflict those who don't control their disease.

Studies show that the new product, to be sold by Pfizer Inc. under the brand name Exubera, works and appears to be safe with short-term use. Patients who have used inhalers told researchers they prefer them to needles by a wide margin, according to studies sponsored by Pfizer. "I'm just flabbergasted at the number of people who really do seem to want this, and want it substantially," said Jay Skyler, a University of Miami doctor and one of the nation's leading diabetes experts.

However, inhaled insulin causes minor declines in how much air the lungs can hold. Scientists consider that a signal that long-term use could pose risks, though that could take years to sort out. The FDA recommended yesterday that smokers and people with some types of lung disease, including asthma, avoid using the product. Exubera is approved only for people 18 or older, though studies in children are underway.

Pfizer said the product wouldn't be available in most pharmacies until June or July. Exact prices haven't been set, but Vanessa Aristide, a Pfizer spokeswoman, said the product would be "priced competitively" with injected insulin. Pfizer is first to market with such a product, but others are under development.

Yesterday's decision confronts millions of Americans -- diabetics make up 7 percent of the population -- with a complicated new strategic problem, requiring them to figure out how much long-range risk they're willing to incur for the convenience, and possibly greater disease control, of using inhaled insulin.

"The issue comes down to: How do we all deal with uncertainty?" said Robert A. Rizza, a diabetes specialist at the Mayo Clinic and president of the American Diabetes Association. "We just don't know what the long-run safety record will be. Each person will now need to think very carefully about the potential benefits and the risks for them."

Paul Matelis, 56, a comptroller for a real estate title company in Miami, wasn't getting adequate control of his blood sugar seven years ago when he heard about inhaled insulin.
"I really didn't think it was going to work," he recalled. "I said, 'How can this stuff come through my lungs?' "

But he took the plunge, becoming one of the first people to enroll in human tests. The first morning, he ate a huge breakfast -- "steak, eggs, jelly, waffles" -- and showed up at the doctor's office with sky-high blood sugar. He took a puff of insulin powder into his lungs, then watched in amazement as his blood sugar fell. He has been on the product continuously for seven years without a problem, he said.

"The flexibility that I have is incredible," he said. "It's just so easy to pull it out and take a puff. I've done it at the University of Miami games, sitting in a seat at the Orange Bowl."

The human body burns a simple sugar, glucose, in much the way a car burns gasoline. But the level of this essential fuel in the blood must be tightly controlled, because too much can wreck tiny blood vessels and cause other problems. The pancreas monitors glucose levels and releases a hormone, insulin, that signals cells to absorb the sugar.

Diabetes is a pervasive group of diseases in which this fundamental life process has gone awry. Some people's bodies don't make insulin at all, and they must take it as a medicine or die. But the vast majority of diabetics have a milder form of the disease in which their bodies make too little insulin, resist its effects or both.

Paul Matelis, at top, holds a packet of insulin, which is loaded into an inhaler that is used by a patient. Matelis, a comptroller for a real estate title firm in Miami, was among the first to enroll in human tests of inhaled insulin.

Diabetes can be controlled in both groups, but it isn't easy. Diet and exercise are important. Pills help some people, but many others need supplemental insulin, which cannot be given as a pill. They have to prick their fingers to test blood-sugar levels and inject themselves repeatedly throughout the day with insulin, or wear pager-size insulin pumps that deliver the hormone through tiny needles.

The sheer tedium of the task gets diabetics down, and overall, they do poorly at it. A third of Americans with diabetes don't even know they have the disease, the government estimates, and many others fail to achieve adequate control of their blood sugar. The long-term result is a litany of severe medical problems: blindness, impotence, limb amputation, kidney failure, heart attack. The government pegs costs at more than $100 billion a year.

Almost as soon as insulin was discovered in 1921, doctors began hunting better ways to get it into the body, with German researchers testing inhalation in 1924. Decades of failure followed, with the required insulin doses always too high and the resultant blood levels of insulin too low.
But in the 1980s, scientists realized they might be able to solve the problems using new technology to turn insulin into a concentrated powder with particles ideally sized for inhalation.

Nektar Therapeutics of San Carlos, Calif., developed most of the technology in the Pfizer product, and Alkermes Inc. of Cambridge, Mass., developed an inhaler that it licensed to Eli Lilly and Co. Human tests began in the late 1990s.

Mohamed Shakir, head of endocrinology at Howard University Hospital, said the new product could be particularly important in a city like Washington. There's a big racial disparity in diabetes, with blacks, Hispanics and native Americans more likely to contract the disease and less likely to receive adequate care. And Shakir said people lower on the income scale aren't as willing to read up on the disease and take control of their illness.

He said he hopes Pfizer will price Exubera fairly, and he looks forward to offering it to newly diagnosed diabetics.

"The fear of the needles -- we are going to eliminate it," Shakir said. "That will be a big plus."

Bahrain

Gulf Daily News
Bahrain
Pioneering Child Care Centre Ready
By KANWAL TARIQ HAMEED

A PIONEERING anti-child abuse and neglect centre providing facilities for children and care-givers will open in Bahrain on Saturday.

The Be Free Centre, Zinj is the first of its kind in the Middle East and will provide Arabic and English language training and support to children as well as parents, teachers and people dealing with children, say founders.

The centre is being opened by the Bahrain Women's Society (BWS), in partnership with the United Nations International Children's Fund (Unicef), with the support of the Esterad Investment Company.

It is the materialisation of a 10-year dream and a four-year campaign, thanks to the sponsorship of Esterad, said BWS member and Be Free project president Dr Soroor Qarooni told the GDN.

The opening ceremony will include short speeches by BWS members as well as presentations on the activities of the centre and the development of the Be Free campaign.

Representatives from Unicef based in Jordan and Muscat are expected to attend, as well as officials from the Interior, Education, Social Development, Health and Information ministries.
Jordanian government officials working in the area of parenting will also be present to see how the programme works, said Ms Qarooni.

The centre will be staffed by four full-time workers and supported by volunteer staff from the BWS.

It will allow programme organisers to focus more on healing and support work, as well and long-term programmes for children, she said.

Most services will be free, apart from specialised training for professionals, she added.
"This was a dream for us for more than 10 years. When we started the Be Free programme, we really felt the need for the centre," said Ms Qarooni.

"We approached an NGO (non-governmental organisation) called the Palm Association and these ladies wanted to do something for the children of Bahrain. They helped us go to the Esterad company."

Ms Qarooni praised the company for working with the BWS "on a human basis".

"I would like to tell other organisations to act as they do."

Learning ABCs

Learning ABCs are not the most important part of preschool - socialization is. This is true and it's not. Most good parents know that social skills improve the learning environment. Families unconcerned about a child's social behavior are generally not interested in a child's ability to learn, and they don't.

The problem begins in "day care" with a directive from on high that says, "Never say no to a child." That's a poison to a classroom. Therefore, we don't have "classrooms" we have free for alls with the bully bearing arms against the whole school. Teachers are too afraid to say "Stop!"

Social behavior begins with knowing one's limits. A limit is the boundary between being a dignified intelligent person and a wild boar. Children have to learn about boundaries and limits and rules and living as a loving person. It's never been a choice before, but suddenly, we've made it a choice - a bad one.

Before a teacher can teach something of value, the students have to be able to listen. One preschool trait is the inability to let someone else talk. Another is the inability to let another child have a special toy. Another is letting someone take the spot light. These are things we learn through instruction. Letting someone give the right answer even if we know too is problematic for some children. Waiting for someone to spit out the answer is a trial for some children. Add that all together and you need a teacher who will be able to get everyone to be quiet for at least a little while. That means saying no and no often. "It's not your turn; it's Faith's turn." One of the humorous things we say is "Muzzle!" That means remember it's not your turn to talk.

Kids are funny. They want to do it right. They want to understand, and achieving a love for one another helps so much. When I see one child whisper to another, it always makes me smile. I'm not concerned that the whisperee doesn't know; I'm just pleased someone does and is discretely helping out.

Anyway, here's an article from Education News about learning which is more important.


Education News
Character Important for Preschoolers

Jan 15, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, United States (UPI) -- Learning numbers and ABCs are not the most important lessons young children should master before heading off to preschool, a report finds.

Parents who focus too much on academic and technical skills like number and letter recognition in preschool-aged children may inadvertently be overlooking the fundamental building blocks toddlers need to get along with others and do well in school, Horizon Research Corporation found in a national survey of 350 preschool teachers.

Eighty percent of the preschool teachers surveyed said parents need support and guidance when it comes to learning how their children develop, and many are overemphasizing scholastic skills vs. social development.

The teachers indicated that parents who support their children`s verbal communications, ability to follow directions and participate in group activities will help their children get the most out of preschool and will help cut down on behavioral problems inside the classroom and out.

Scotland

This is one of Edith's pictures from Australia. Looks a lot like some places in Evansville.

Combining work and home life is a difficult balancing act. I admire women who do it well. One of the things that can make this possible is childcare that cares. Good places for children should be places where parents know providers well enough for everyone to work together. Teachers should be willing to listen and willing to help if possible.

Yes, yes, everyone has their own problems, but for the sake and care of a child, making a special effort means so much to a little person. It builds trust.

Lately, one of our little boys has been reluctant to come to school. We discovered that his great aunt is very ill with cancer and is undergoing chemo. He knows that something is not right at home, and often a child frets miserably when he is away from the trouble zone. They want to know and understand, so being away is tough. He is afraid he is missing something important.

We have stated many times that a good place takes care of families. That means doing as much as possible for a child when the child's home is in chaos. But like anyone, providers have to know.

News.scotsman.com
Child-care Concerns 'Holding Women Back' From Top Jobs
SHAN ROSS

SCOTLAND is losing out on valuable talent because many women are working in jobs below their capability level, according to a new report.

Researchers for the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) found that while women make up nearly half of Scotland's workforce, many lose out on promotion because child-care made combining full-time work and family life difficult.

The report, "Who Runs Scotland 2006?", also said that even 30 years after the Sex Discrimination Act, only 10 per cent of senior police officers in Scotland are female, while women make up only 22 per cent of councillors and only 12 per cent in top management in the civil service.

Rowena Arshad, the EOC Scotland Commissioner, said: "Making it to the top is far too often the result of exceptional drive and strength; having to overcome significant barriers."

The EOC wants political parties to improve women's representation in Holyrood, which is currently at 39.5 per cent. It also wants more high-paid, flexible and part-time work at all levels, for both working mothers and fathers.

Lisa Stephenson, the only female among four executive directors on the board of Lloyds TSB Scotland, said: "It's a real challenge to get quality child-care and corporates such as Lloyds are in a strong position to do something about it, such as offering child-care vouchers and flexible working."

Lesley Hinds, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, said: "It's all about the individual and what they want, rather than just statistics about who is reaching the top of the professions. Some women, and men, will want to stay at home; others will want to work. But as employers, the mechanisms must be put in place to make this happen.

Indiana

If day care taught, all day kindergarten would not be the issue. Because there is control in the school system, we begin there, but learning for a child does not begin there. It begins at birth, and the social and reading readiness begins at three. One of our smartest children who just turned five read a whole novel today. It was a children's novel, but he read with speed and interest. For him the window of opportunity is now - not a year or two from now.

Dems Push for Indiana Full-Day Kindergarten
By DEANNA MARTIN
Associated Press Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —

Senate Democrats are pushing an education agenda that would require all Indiana schools to offer full-day kindergarten, but their plan does not outline a way to pay for the proposal.

The program calls for full-day kindergarten to be phased in over several years, beginning with about 46,000 students in Title I schools, which receive federal money and are located mainly in high-poverty areas.

All Indiana schools would have to offer full-day kindergarten programs by the 2009-2010 school year.

It would cost the state $138.9 million a year to allow every Indiana child to attend kindergarten all day, said Sen. Vi Simpson, D-Bloomington.

Senate Democrats said they hoped the General Assembly would pass their plan this year, then work out funding details during next year’s session, which will include debate on the state’s budget.

‘‘We have been talking about full-day kindergarten, and every time it comes up, everybody says they’re for it, but nobody wants to bite the bullet and do it and it never gets done,’’ Simpson said. ‘‘In my opinion, the only way full-day kindergarten will ever be implemented in the state of Indiana is if we commit the next legislature to do it.’’

During the next session, however, lawmakers could decide not to fund the proposal.

Supporters say attending kindergarten all day helps students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, get a head start on learning. The Department of Education has for years supported efforts to implement the program. Some schools do have all-day kindergarten.
Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels supports the idea, but says the state should wait until it can afford it.

‘‘We agree on the concept, and I think we ought to have a good, constructive conversation about the financially responsible timing,’’ he said. ‘‘But they are raising a good idea, one that I’ve been for openly now for two or three years.’’

Sen. Earline Rogers, D-Gary, said investing in early childhood education will pay off in the future.

‘‘We realize that this is a big cost, but we argue that there is even a greater cost if we don’t do it,’’ Rogers said. ‘‘Indiana can’t afford to wait any longer.’’

The Senate Democrats’ education plan, dubbed ‘‘Start Smart,’’ includes several other initiatives, which would:

— Give children one free book every month from the date of their birth until their fifth birthday.

— Create a trust fund to award matching grants to school corporations that want to provide early education programs, including for preschool, parental education and early reading.

— Expand education ‘‘purchasing pools’’ that allow school corporations to buy goods and services in bulk to save money.

Meanwhile, a Democrat in the House says he will introduce a similar full-day kindergarten bill.

Rep. John Day, D-Indianapolis, is proposing a $200 million early childhood education program that includes full-day, a preschool pilot program and grants to help teachers earn graduate degrees.

Day’s bill would pay for the program with an income tax increase. Taxes for those making between $75,000 and $99,999 would rise from 3.4 percent to 3.6 percent, and those making more than $100,000 would pay 4.4 percent.

Day acknowledges it would be difficult for lawmakers to vote for an income tax increase during an election year, but said it’s important that the plan has funding behind it.

‘‘I think this is a fair way to do that,’’ Day said.

Memories and Development

Yesterday in class I took out a paper dollar, a fifty cent piece, a quarter, a dime and a nickle. I told the kids that it was money. They all knew that. I asked what the pieces were of my group of four and fives. Some knew; some didn't. I told them it was time to know, and they all agreed that would be nice to be able to understand about money.

I tried to explain that a penny was not the same thing as a dollar. That there were 100 of these little copper spots in every dollar bill. "Where are they?" asked Daymon looking carefully at the bill. "Inside or outside? asked another.

"Well, if you went to the store, and you wanted to buy a candy bar that cost $1.00, and you handed the man the penny instead, he would laugh at you and tell you to go get some more pennies."

"That's not nice," chirped someone under their breath.

"Let's look at it from another point of view. If I handed you a chocolate chip, and I handed you a candy bar, who has more?"

"I don't like chocolate," said Abby.

"Not the point. If you got just that much and someone got a big candy bar, it's not the same thing, is it?"

"No."

"OK," I had them; I was sure. " So if I gave Dawson a penny and I gave Taylor a dollar, Taylor would have more, right?"

They were blank as unplugged TV. "Let's just listen and figure this out. Just like the abacus with ten beads on every line, there is a value or an amount, or a total or a whole count of beads on the abacus. How many beads are there all together?"

"A hundred."

The dollar is just like the abacus. There are a hundred pennies in the dollar.

"Where, Miss Judy?"

"Let's look at a nickle."

When we finish with money, we'll start on time.

When my husband picked me up from school in our car that's worth about a dollar, I thought about that class. I told my husband about it, and he said there is where the world has really changed. Kids don't walk down the street to buy penny candy anymore, so they learn a lot later the value of money. "A soda was about ten cents," he remarked, "Candy was about a nickle, and if you had a quarter, you could get a really nice fountain drink."

Ten years later, I remember climbing under the boardwalk to find dropped nickles and dimes. We used this money to buy candy. Candy money was not something we generally had. Candy was something that was a pretty big treat. You got candy on holidays like Halloween, Easter and Christmas.

This week in school, we've worked hard on building words with sounds we've learned. We are currently working with the air sound "a" and adding the mouth or consonant sounds to each side of the "a" and sounding the word out. For every word made, a child receives a penny in a box. When he gets to $1.00, he can take the pennies home. The whole idea is to encourage children to make words and read them. I wonder if it would have gone faster years ago.

Memories

I remember almost all of them but I am in my late 50's. I wish I could go back to those days for just one summer day and be 10 yrs old. My grandson is growing up in a completely different world today.

It is a completely different world. It was a great place to grow up and that doesn't have to end. With some engineering, it can be both worlds, because some of today's world is really nice to have - like dentistry for kids. Remember how terrible it was to have seven cavities and knowing you'd spend the whole summer in and out of the chair of horror? I suppose I should be grateful they couldn't do root canals in those days.

I remember flat tires and missing events because no one came along to give you a ride. Of course rides from strangers were safe in those days, there were no cell phones, so you either waited or walked. But when you walked, you could stop by the gas station and get an inner tube that was free and the guy would blow it up. If your parents drove you, which was nearly unheard of, they wouldn't stop at the gas station. So you walked a lot. You had to wear bathing caps in the pool even when the boy's hair was longer than the girls'.

Remember how roller skates would come off at the worst possible time and the bruise was terrific? If you fell, oops. Now there are analgesics for scrapes and cuts.

Remember when the elastic failed in your swimsuit, and the cotton suit was instantly three sizes too big? You got ONE swimsuit, and if you tore it, that was your tough luck. You got one pair of school shoes a year and if your feet grew - too bad. Shoes were expensive.

Do you remember your first stockings and how you had to endure that thing that kept them up? Much less the monthly nightmare. I'm sure the combination sent souls from purgatory in droves. I remember sewing the runs in my stockings, nail polishing them to stop a run, and borrowing some from my mother who wore a size smaller - that was a trip. When panty hose came it, it was like wearing ballet tights - it was great.

You had to wear a skirt every day to school or some hideous school uniform designed by some nun who hadn't worn street clothes for fifty years, and when you rolled it up to look like the world, the ring around the middle looked like a spare tire. I remember I got this neat outfit that had this pair of shorts covered by two panels - one in the front and one in the back. I thought I was in heaven. The school principal thought I was devious.

I remember the nuns in traditional garb that I respected with all my heart, and when they arrived in those awful new habits, sans rosary, it was a complete shock - mostly because the old flowing rigging was magnificent, and the new one just bad taste. They stopped getting the seats on the bus, and parents eyed them with a whole other look.

I went to school with a girl who was mentally retarded because she had hit the dashboard on her first car ride from the hospital as a newborn - no car seats in those days. Do you remember that your parents ever drove over sixty miles and hour? Our speed limit at home on the island was 5 or 10 mph. We had a Taunus in those days.

It was always safe to go out and play, and we never locked a thing. If there had been keys, we would have lost them. We had 18 doors in our home on the island.

Does anyone remember that "hot" meant open a window and "cold" meant put on a sweater? We were lucky because we lived on an island for a long time that had a steady climate of about 65 degrees - nobody ever got hot or cold. When we moved to Pittsburgh, I couldn't believe the summer heat.

TV out west was a couple of hours a day. We got the TV in about 1957. It took six weeks to repair it. Today, when the TV breaks, you just buy a new one. Computers have replaced the car engine. It's a lot cleaner and it's indoors and families don't have to endure a myriad of cars jacked up on cinder blocks in the front yard. Now you can have computers jacked up the dining room table for months instead.

What are our favorite things about the 21st century? Relaxed clothes, computers, email, nearly free phone service, the availability of new and interesting food, and the fact that cancer doesn't mean instant death? Anybody relate?

What would be a good meshing of old and new? Times. The old work week of 9-5 would be a help. Kids went to school at 9:00, and Dad left for the office about 8:30. He always walked, took the ferry at the bottom of the island. I don't ever remember my father taking the car.

That morning with the family was a good way to start the day. It was not race and dash out of the house at 6:15. I think children were healthier then because they were able to wake up on their own and they had time to think before going off to school.

Evening dinners, something you can count on with the family would be a nice touch stone. And whole Sundays without stores would be a good start as well. If offices shut down at 5:00 and people actually went home, it would help families be families.

The old and the new - it's probably been a thought provoker for 40 thousand years.

Biology's Revenge

I absolutely LOVE, this article. For a school that has twice the number of boys to girls, it's obviously a problem we are well suited to accept.

Boys are louder, more reckless, harder to get to cooperate, harder headed, and definitely more interested in "nasty stuff" like the study of insects up close and personal, than most of the girls - some exceptions. They are more likely to hit first and ask questions later, throw a toy across the room, laugh when it's not acceptable - like prayer time - get dirty and resist washing, and they have absolutely no bathroom shame. When you tell a boy there's probably worm poop under his fingernails, he thinks it's neat. The girl next to him will shiver with disdain. When one boy jumps from the tallest platform in a daredevil leap, every boy wants to try it. The girls stay with the steady thrill of mastering another skill, like jungle gym.

Teaching twice the boys than the girls means paying attention to a curriculum that's go, go, go - with plenty of outside play. It also means limiting boys to certain play stations because otherwise the girls would get little or nothing. Boys have a way of taking over.

Here is an excellent article called Biology's Revenge:
by Rich Lowry

The surest way to get attention in American society is to become a crisis. Boys are now on their way to achieving this dubious but indispensable distinction with the new cover of Newsweek, "The Boy Crisis."

It is to be hoped that the crisis establishes a simple truth that is astonishing anyone ever forgot — boys and girls are different. Or as Newsweek puts it, "Boys are biologically, developmentally and psychologically different from girls — and teachers need to learn how to bring out the best in every one."

A crisis always needs its own politically correct argot. A neurologist quoted in Newsweek takes a step toward establishing one here with his statement, "Very well-meaning people have created a biologically disrespectful model of education." Thus, the boy-in-crisis has a rallying cry, "Don't disrespect my biology!"

That's what has been happening for years. Feminists have wanted to believe that, given the right socialization, boys would give up their stubborn fascination with earth-moving equipment. As someone once said, "You can have your own opinion, but you can't have your facts."

Similarly, you can have your opinion about what gender should be, but you can't have your own brain chemistry. Newsweek notes how in the womb, the brain of a male fetus is bathed with testosterone.

As any parent knows, that makes him different from a girl. If pedagogy systematically ignores those differences, it will be a disaster. Newsweek recounts the indices: Boys are twice as likely to be diagnosed with learning disabilities than girls in elementary school; the number of boys professing a dislike of school has risen 71 percent from 1980 to 2001; men constitute 44 percent of undergraduates on college campuses, down from 58 percent 30 years ago.

If school overemphasizes sitting quietly and language skills; if recess is eliminated; if discipline is eroded; if the books feature consciousness-raising instead of action-packed narrative — then boys will be bored, disaffected and disruptive. Classrooms have to be made more boy-friendly — with more discipline, more competition and more activity — so that boys are no longer treated, as one expert put it to Newsweek, "like defective girls."

A reason for this latest crisis is that just as girls had begun to pull even with boys in the 1990s, feminists hyped a crisis over girls doing poorly in school that caused an overreaction harmful to boys. One of the chief culprits was scholar Carol Gilligan, who is given space in Newsweek to address the boy crisis. She writes disapprovingly, "For some, the trouble boys are having with schools becomes grounds for reinstituting traditional codes of manhood, including a return to the patriarchal family." It is clear, however, that patriarchy is exactly what many boys need — lots of patriarchy, up close and personal.

"One of the most reliable predictors of whether a boy will succeed or fail in high school," Newsweek reports, "rests on a single question: Does he have a man in his life to look up to?" It continues: "An increasing number of boys — now a startling 40 percent — are being raised without biological dads. Psychologists say that grandfathers and uncles can help, but emphasize that an adolescent boy without a father figure is like an explorer without a map."

Other educational theorists argue that boys would be fine if they could be made more touchy-feely. But Christina Hoff Sommers, who wrote the prescient The War Against Boys five years ago, calls boys "the last of a vanishing breed of Americans who don't want to spend a lot of time talking about their feelings." Instead of trying to change that, we should accept boys for who they are.

What we have witnessed recently — with more evidence of the differences between men and women, and the importance of the old-fashioned two-parent family — is biology's revenge. If we deny what is deep-down in our nature, people get hurt — in this case, the rambunctious boys missing out on the great adventure that is learning.

Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review and author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years.

Memories

Edith's new friend and her son's mother in law from Australia sent this to her, and she (Edith) sent this to me. I love it. And yes I remember all these things. I had to remember the word exchange between the English- Australian version and ours like lolli is candy and petrol is gas and sand shoes are thongs ( for the feet!)

This kind of fun is a challenge to bring back to the modern age. When you hand a child a hula hoop he wants to know what it does. "A dance," you tell the child, "But you have to be in it." The child climbs over one side. "When does it start?" Asks the child. It's worth the smile and the laugh.

Today, gym uniforms look a lot like real clothes. I remember that and how easy it was to turn - and I mean turn the dial on the TV. Today, I can't turn on a TV set without help - too many buttons that all look the same. I remember 28 cent gasoline, do you? My favorite car has always been a 28 Ford. My favorite program was Wagon Train - any body remember? My favorite cartoon was Bugs Bunny - I can relate to Bugs - who do you relate to? And I thought that a million dollars could easily be spent on penny candy. Oh the thinks that we thunk!

I live a lot like that today, however, and I think a lot of people my age do if they can. I still have a flour grinder - dispenser in the kitchen that I use every day. I still bake most days even with my heavy schedule. It only takes ten minutes to peal enough apples for a pie or make cookies or pop a cake in the oven. I'd rather walk than take the car; a car always seems so big to drag down the street. I would rather ride a horse than get into an airplane. Restaurants are for lunch not dinner, and I still don't have heat in my bedroom unless you plug it in. These are the things that make older people smile.

Why do people with a few years on them like to remember the past? Because it was easier to live as a thoughtful person. There was time to be alone, to have long periods of quiet and time to think about things, to read, to learn about life, to discuss topics of importance. The rush rush of "going" was not as in your face backed by the constant drone of TV telling you every thought. TV didn't use have a monopoly on every idea and every subject. TV used to be entertainment; now it's philosophy and theology on a dull lifeless screen. Why does yesteryear seem better? Because the interior man matters and that is a difficult thing to manage in a crowd that is never quiet.

Last night Anne read Anne Sexton. Sexton laments being a homemaker. I sighed. Home is where the heart is; is that lamentable or is the truth that the home is the seat of creativity and self development?

Anyway, for those of you who remember these memories, have a ball. And post your memories.

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN...?

All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?

It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mum was at home when the kids got home from school?

Nobody owned a purebred dog?

You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

Your Mom wore stockings that came in two pieces?

All your male teachers wore ties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels?

You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and petrol pumped, without asking, all for free, every time?

Cereals had free toys hidden inside the box?

It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?

They threatened to keep kids back a year if they failed. . .and they did?

When a 57 Holden was everyone's dream car?

No one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked?

Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a ."

Playing footy with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game?

Stuff from the shop came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger?

And with all our progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savour the slower pace, and share it with the children of today?

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?

Basically we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc.

Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!

But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

Send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, Laurel and Hardy, The Famous Five Secret Seven, Biggles, the Lone Ranger, Phantom, Roy and Dale and Trigger.

As well as summers filled with bike rides, cricket games, Hula Hoops, monkey bars, jilgying, visits to the beach and "conversation" lollies.

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that"?

I am sharing this with you today because it ended with a double dare to pass it on. To remember what a double dare is, read on.

And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and too young to care. How many of these do you remember?

Lolly cigarettes, pogo sticks, marbles, Home milk delivery in glass bottles with aluminium tops Newsreels before the movie, Sandshoes, Telephone numbers with letter prefixes....(ABD 601).
45 RPM records, Hi-Fi's, Metal ice cubes trays with levers, Mimeograph paper, Cork pop guns Drive ins, Valiants, Washtub wringers, Reel-To-Reel tape recorders, houses made of cards, Mechano Sets, THAT awful pink slab of bubble gum, Penny lollies, 35 cent a gallon petro?

Do you remember a time when... Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"? "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?

It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "boy or girl bugs"?

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a ging?

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

Playing cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived!!!!!!!

A Gem

They need to add a car wash, a dry cleaners, and a dollar store. Is childcare really something that we use as a stop and drop? Anyway, I was mildly horrified by the thought; thought you would be too.

By Chris Sikich
January 18, 2006
NOBLESVILLE --

The plan commission told a developer Tuesday that it must work with the city's staff before receiving approval for a commercial project on 18 acres at the southeast corner of Hazel Dell Road and Indiana 32.

Joseph Scimia, attorney for Peacock Hazel Dell, said the project won't be a strip center.

Businesses that could include a drugstore, gas station, restaurant and child-care center would have separate buildings. Scimia expects there to be 53,000-55,000 square feet of businesses, in all.

He asked for a bigger sign and a reduction in the city's rules about development setbacks from the street. The developer wants the project to sit back 30 feet, instead of 50, to accommodate the L-shaped property.

Joyceann Yelton, city senior planner, said the staff had some problems with a few elements of the development.

No citizens spoke at the meeting against the project.

Plan commissioner Beverley Hasenbalg said the project should be delayed to give a nearby strip center that is nearly empty time to find tenants.

Commission president Karen Goldstein told Scimia she wanted to see the project in line with the staff's recommendations.

The commission voted 5-4 against sending an unfavorable recommendation to the council, and then voted 7-2 to send the developer back to work with the city's staff and to continue discussion on the project to the next meeting. Seven votes are needed to take action on resolutions.

Grenada

For the most part, early childhood teachers will work with many different kinds of children and families, but the topics of this training program offer a training most generally not used. It would be a sad day if this was the kind of training teachers needed most. I thought it was interesting, however.

Spotting developmental problems, problems in behavior stemming from neglect and ignorance, getting a child back on the right road, would make a better group of training programs.



Grenada Broadcasting Network, St. George Grenada


CHILD CARE TRAINING PROGRAMMES BEGIN HERE TODAY.

A series of training programmes for staff members at Child Care Homes in Grenada begins today.

The training which will be held throughout the week is organized by the Child Welfare Authority and the main facilitator will be Dr Pat Lager, a Volunteer from the Florida Association for Volunteer Action in the Caribbean and the Americas.

Topics to be discussed during the sessions include:

"Understanding Child Development and behaviour associated with Abuse”

“Dealing with Aggression”

and “Working with Children with disabilities.”

The highlight of Dr Lager’s visit is a guest lecture for the first class in the
“Introduction to Social Work Course,” at the TA Marryshow Community College.

It takes place on Thursday January 26th. Her subject for discussion will be “Choosing your path in Social Work.”

Garden School Tattler

We had such a lovely time ice skating yesterday. The children loved every second.

Only one Oops when David fell and split his lip. Otherwise, the falls amounted to very little.

It was cold, but the kids loved the freedom of the ice. Some turned out to be real pros taking to the ice with fearless energy.








I was surprised that not one of the children was frightened. There were few obstacles.

Six of our parents went along, and they seemed to have a good time as well.

The staff at the ice rink gave the children buckets so they would have something to hang onto, and the kids took delight in making those buckets go as fast as they could.

This was an essential part of the fear-free morning. This child had skated with her family the day before, and she didn't need a bucket. Children don't need a lot of time to learn. It shows how much kids learn at this early age.








The joy in the faces was unbelievable. It was as if they had been freed from all kinds of normal restraints and could really let their spirits fly.

Mr. Tom came along, and he showed the kids how to move even faster. He was a hockey player, and he flew over the ice in split second control.















Miss Grace, Justin's mother, was kind enough to get us organized, find skate sizes to match shoe sizes, and the rink people thought we were wonderful. Miss Grace was wonderful as well, and she gave some of the kids pointers.

















I think the real achievers were the youngest. They showed their stuff by taking off like little HB Andersons! The teachers spent most of the morning laughing with delight. It was a brilliant success and well worth doing again.

Here's yet another state program funneling money into teaching providers how to become better providers. None of these students are college educated from the beginning. Is it true that college educated women don't seek jobs working with very young children? Is it a matter of income? What's the education status in Europe? What are the requirements for working with very young children? It would be interesting to compare.

Sunday, January 22, 2006
Program aims to improve child care
By BETTY ADAMS, Blethen Maine News Service

By any measure, child care is big business.

A calculation by the state shows Maine parents whose children are in day care earn more than $850 million a year. In Kennebec, Sagadahoc and Franklin counties, those people spend an average of more than $100 per week for day care. That's the equivalent of two semesters of tuition at the University of Maine.

Because of the high stakes in high-quality day care, the state has made big investments in improving the child-care picture, putting money and resources into training and education for those who run day-care facilities.

"One of my beliefs is that child care should be seen as part of the infrastructure of any area," said Martha Naber, education program coordinator at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. "It has been likened to roads, bridges and sewers."

Naber says good child care is a benefit to the consumer.

"Without good child care people feel confident with, they can't work well. People are absent from work related to child-care issues."

Naber says highly trained child-care providers gain greater professionalism, learn new ideas, engage children in new activities and improve the environment.

That's where the state program Roads to Quality comes in. If providers have completed 180 hours of training in the program, they qualify for up to nine college credits in the early-education degree program at Maine's community colleges.

"We have had 65 students graduate in the last four years with an associate's degree in early childhood education," Naber said. "Some are right out of high school, some are nontraditional students, people who worked at Hathaway, and people from other industries, SCI and Dexter. They are wonderful students, highly motivated."

Naber says students get scholarship money from various sources, including the Finance Authority of Maine and a Department of Labor apprenticeship program.

Roads to Quality typically pays providers $300 per course, which covers tuition, fees and some books, Naber says.

Karen Corson, who runs Wee Care 2, a home-based day care center in Athens, completed the Roads to Quality program. After the educational portion, an observer visited Corson's home, checked daily lesson plans, read surveys by parents and rated the program.

But Corson is concerned about raising the bar too high on training for day-care providers, saying there is a limit to how much parents can pay. A proposed state program that would rate Maine day-care programs "would make providers' prices go up," Corson said. "And this area (Somerset and Kennebec) cannot stand for the prices to go up, in my opinion."

Another help in improving the skills of child-care providers came in 2003, with a $100,000 Early Learning Opportunity Grant for Kennebec and Somerset counties.

The state also funnels $640,000 in federal money every year into education, accreditation support and career development through the Roads to Quality program, according to Carolyn Drugge, state child-care administrator. An additional $2 million annually supports resource development centers that identify and respond to child-care needs in the state.

Here's yet another state program funneling money into teaching providers how to become better providers. None of these students are college educated from the beginning. Is it true that college educated women don't seek jobs working with very young children? Is it a matter of income? What's the education status in Europe? What are the requirements for working with very young children? It would be interesting to compare.

Sunday, January 22, 2006
Program aims to improve child care
By BETTY ADAMS, Blethen Maine News Service

By any measure, child care is big business.

A calculation by the state shows Maine parents whose children are in day care earn more than $850 million a year. In Kennebec, Sagadahoc and Franklin counties, those people spend an average of more than $100 per week for day care. That's the equivalent of two semesters of tuition at the University of Maine.

Because of the high stakes in high-quality day care, the state has made big investments in improving the child-care picture, putting money and resources into training and education for those who run day-care facilities.

"One of my beliefs is that child care should be seen as part of the infrastructure of any area," said Martha Naber, education program coordinator at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield. "It has been likened to roads, bridges and sewers."

Naber says good child care is a benefit to the consumer.

"Without good child care people feel confident with, they can't work well. People are absent from work related to child-care issues."

Naber says highly trained child-care providers gain greater professionalism, learn new ideas, engage children in new activities and improve the environment.

That's where the state program Roads to Quality comes in. If providers have completed 180 hours of training in the program, they qualify for up to nine college credits in the early-education degree program at Maine's community colleges.

"We have had 65 students graduate in the last four years with an associate's degree in early childhood education," Naber said. "Some are right out of high school, some are nontraditional students, people who worked at Hathaway, and people from other industries, SCI and Dexter. They are wonderful students, highly motivated."

Naber says students get scholarship money from various sources, including the Finance Authority of Maine and a Department of Labor apprenticeship program.

Roads to Quality typically pays providers $300 per course, which covers tuition, fees and some books, Naber says.

Karen Corson, who runs Wee Care 2, a home-based day care center in Athens, completed the Roads to Quality program. After the educational portion, an observer visited Corson's home, checked daily lesson plans, read surveys by parents and rated the program.

But Corson is concerned about raising the bar too high on training for day-care providers, saying there is a limit to how much parents can pay. A proposed state program that would rate Maine day-care programs "would make providers' prices go up," Corson said. "And this area (Somerset and Kennebec) cannot stand for the prices to go up, in my opinion."

Another help in improving the skills of child-care providers came in 2003, with a $100,000 Early Learning Opportunity Grant for Kennebec and Somerset counties.

The state also funnels $640,000 in federal money every year into education, accreditation support and career development through the Roads to Quality program, according to Carolyn Drugge, state child-care administrator. An additional $2 million annually supports resource development centers that identify and respond to child-care needs in the state.

Charities

I got this from Susie E:

Hey everyone I see there is a bone marrow drive set for next Saturday from 0800 to noon at Tri-State Athletic Club in Evansville, IN. If you cannot be a donor or don’t care to be a donor at least tell other family members and friends that may be interested in becoming donors. You never know, you may be able to save someone’s life in the future by donating stem cells.

Thank You
Mark J Schneider

Lots of us donate blood, platelets, time, $ and education knowledge to those who are suffering or those who have less than we do. We are having a blood drive at school March 24. Please think about giving. If you can't give blood, like me - it triggers migraine - think about going to the blood center and giving platelets. Giving platelets is a simple gift, but it means so much to someone who doesn't have any. When you donate, you can sign up for the bone marrow doner program. Age is not a factor. Iron might be for some women.

On this blog, there are two sites to visit when you visit - the breast site and the hunger site listed in the links under Charities. By just visiting and using your mouse to touch the donate button, you will help someone get a free mammogram or a free meal.

Judy

Concerns

judy; i am intrigued as to what your thoughts are on the photos you post?.....one of the big issues here in the UK is the one about anonymity (perhaps this is a bit too PC; here students, for example, are expected to "blur" childrens faces if they submit pictures in their assignments) but there are current big issues here about child protection/safeguarding...have a look at this

Not sure where you hail from - probably Nottingham. I'm not sure what the crime is there, but here where we are it's about as safe and comfortable as it gets. Our community is a conservative effort of good living. At the same time we have an outstanding police force, and they have NEVER not gotten their crim and the blockheads know it. The combined efforts of city, county and state have done such a good job, our community is nearly lock free, and that means our children can go out to play.

As I drove up to the airport to pick up my daughter a few years ago, and parked nearly on top of the terminal, left my car open, nearly left my purse in the car, I realized just how free I am in this town. I can go anywhere at anytime and not fear for my safety, my children's or my grand children's safety.

At the same time, there is nothing you can't get here - except there - that's a joke. Sometimes you have to go to another airport if you want a direct flight someplace.

This picture is looking out our back door. We built here because we are on the cusp of "down town" but still in horse country, and that's good for the kids. A few minutes south, and you're in the Ohio River, a few north and you're at a mall. What you are looking at are mulch pits - the truck tires. We put in a garden every year for the kids. The field behind us is a horse boarding field.

As far as the pictures go, I never mention a name. They're just pictures, and they are primarily anonymous. I can't imagine how dull it would be not to enjoy a real picture - to have all the faces blurred. That really doesn't make sense to me. Are local magazines expected to do the same? Can you imagine buying a magazine and having all the faces blurred? The last picture posted here was the partnership that built the school. That's me in the apron.

Safety shouldn't be a prison sentence. We often show the kids pictures posted, and they are always delighted. It kind of makes their day. But if parents asked me not to post pictures of their children, I wouldn't, of course.

Besides that, we have a watchcat. He doesn't like strangers. His name is Maestro, and he weighs about 18 pounds.

Freedom is a real part of our life here at the school. We go a lot of places and do a lot of things with the kids including lake swimming, rock climbing, and taking off to another city like Louisville or St. Louis to see interesting things. We have a close working relationship with our parents - we're a family place, and this blog is a part of that.

One of the things I encourage is that families share the blog pictures with their relatives who might live in a distant city and may not be able to follow the daily activities of their grandchildren. This is one source for them that I hope brings them closer. If the blog helps distant relatives keep in touch at work or at home, by seeing pictures of their grand kids, nieces, nephews and sometimes children and their friends it's an achieved goal. Seeing the smiling face of a child has got to mean a lot.

Sorry you are so restricted. That's a shame. Sounds a bit like Brave New World.

To parents:

Tomorrow is ice skating day. We're off for a winter trip to the ice - it should be a slippery event. Parents are welcome to join us at 9:30. Can't wait to see some of the efforts. I'll take pictures, of course, and post them. Have children wear long sleeves, and mittens that fit! Mittens that fit a child are about three inches long. You can get these at the Dollar Store and at children's shops. Children should wear their school sweatshirt if possible. We are still expecting the new sweatshirts to come in. There was a printing error. Children need two layers to avoid wearing a coat. Kids should wear a stocking hat.

A great thanks to all the parents who brought a dish to the International Event at school.

February is cultural exchange month.

Preschool or Day Care?

(This is a picture of just one of our paper mache puppet making days. )

I got this Harvard Letter as a press release. I think the article is very timely and very interesting. At a time when the nation seems up in arms and at the same time a loss about what to do with early childhood education, but the grant money is being passed around like free tickets to someplace wonderful, this opens some question doors that should be asked.

When center day care is considered preschool, the questions we must ask are about the curriculum. We need to separate day care from preschool because often they are not the same thing. In the most popular childcare center in my city, the one with all the grant money, there is no teaching at all. I know this because we just hired one of their teachers (with a license) who was not allowed to teach there. If this is happening here, it's happening all over the country.

When teachers get the credentials, and have their teaching skills suffocated, it makes grant money look like a game of wink and nod. At the same time, it's no wonder teachers don't stay in the early childhood field - what for?

Over the years, children who have come to our little place from their place at 4.5 routinely don't know how to hold a crayon, can't recognize their name, can't draw a picture of anything, even a face, and can't listen to a story mainly because they've never heard one. Yet every time there is a grant available, it goes to this place and the end product is new doors or windows that are kept shut. Their play ground is concrete with politely placed toys that you never see a child on. That's because the first consideration for care is getting these kids off to a 3 hour nap.

So a division should be established between day care and early childhood education. And that division must be made by the people who administrate these places. What is the mission of the center or school? Is it a school, or is it babysitting? Can you legitimately offer babysitting until a child is five and then shove him off to big school not knowing anything and still call yourself an early childhood learning center? It amounts to fraud.

If a center intends to teach, then hire teachers and pay them. If a center gravitates toward babysitting, be frank with parents. "We don't teach here because our staff is not equipped to teach. Your child will leave our center not knowing anything but what you teach him at home."

Degrees of Improvement
By Michael Sadowski

Harvard Education Letter
Published by the Harvard School of Education
January/February 2006

Better preparation for elementary reading, writing, and math. Lower rates of special education placement and grade retention. Higher incomes and lower incidence of arrest during adulthood. The short- and long-term benefits of quality preschool education are well documented by research dating back decades.

Yet at a time when recognition of preschool’s importance seems to be growing, the educational qualifications of preschool teachers are steadily declining. Around the country, advocates, policymakers, and teacher educators are struggling to find ways to improve the skills and credentials of those who teach our nation’s youngest students.

Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of Pennsylvania’s Keystone Research Center, is one voice in a growing chorus of researchers calling for higher standards for the nation’s
preK educators. An MIT-trained economist who has examined workforce trends in a wide variety of fields, Herzenberg says preK education stands out as a profession marked by abysmal pay and an exceptionally high percentage of workers without health care and other benefits.

In a recent report for the Economic Policy Institute titled “Losing Ground in Early Childhood Education,” Herzenberg and coauthors Mark Price and David Bradley note:

• Center-based preschool educators (teachers and administrators) have an average hourly salary rate of just $10.00 per hour, slightly more than half that of all female college graduates ($19.23).

• Only about one-third of center-based preK educators have health-care benefits through their jobs, less than half the percentage for all workers nationally.

• The proportion of early childhood educators without health insurance is three times as high as in the overall workforce (21 percent vs. 7 percent) Although educators in school-based preschool may fare somewhat better, the researchers note that school-based preschool makes up a relatively small percentage of the profession (less than 20 percent). As for home-based preschool educators, the researchers say their pay and benefits are even lower.

Declining Credentials

Herzenberg and his colleagues are particularly concerned about the declining professional credentials of preschool personnel. According to their report, in the last two decades the percentage of centerbased preschool teachers and administrators with a bachelor’s degree has declined from 43 percent (in 1983–85) to just 30 percent today, while the number of preschool
educators with only a high school degree or less has risen from 24 percent to 30 percent.

In particular, younger preschool teachers and administrators are significantly less likely to have a bachelor’s degree than their middle- and retirement-aged colleagues, suggesting that these downward trends are likely to continue. This decline in preschool educators’ level of educational attainment has occurred even as the average educational attainment of U.S. workers overall has increased.

A study currently under way at California’s Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, among others, will investigate the downward trend in preK educators’ educational attainment, but Herzenberg has some theories about the causes. First, he believes the field’s persistently low compensation has not kept up with other career options for college-educated women and has thus made maintaining high professional standards difficult. (Women make up the vast majority of the preK teaching force.) Second, Herzenberg says that due to population trends and increasing numbers of women entering the workforce, the number of young children who now attend preschool has grown dramatically in the last two decades.

“When it was a smaller field, ECE [early childhood education] had a highly qualified workforce,” Herzenberg says. “But as the field has tripled, it has been hard to hold on to
this workforce.”

New Jersey Raises the Bar

One state that has made a massive effort to upgrade the educational qualifications of preK teachers in certain districts is New Jersey. A 1998 state Supreme Court decision in a long-standing educational equity case (Abbott v. Burke) required the state to fund high-quality full-day preschool for all three- and four-year-olds in New Jersey’s 30 lowest-income districts. Among the provisions mandated by the court—including class size capped at 15, teaching
aides in every classroom, and developmentally appropriate curricula—was the requirement that all preschool teachers have at least a bachelor’s degree, specialized training in early childhood education, and state certification in the education of children from preschool through grade 3.

The court gave preK teachers working in the so-called Abbott districts four years—later extended to six years at the recommendation of early childhood education advocates— to obtain a bachelor’s degree and the appropriate preK–3 certification if they wanted to continue teaching
in the districts. This meant that many teachers who had not been on the other side of the desk for years—even decades—had to become college students again.

Ellen Frede, an associate professor at the College of New Jersey and former assistant to the commissioner in the state’s Office of Early Childhood Education, says that prior to the court ruling, only about 35 percent of the preschool teachers in the Abbott districts had a bachelor’s
degree. “And that was 35 percent of many fewer classrooms and many fewer teachers,” Frede notes, pointing out that the preschool student population in the districts has grown dramatically in the period since the court ruling.

Yet a decision that might have precipitated a workforce crisis instead resulted in a tansformation of the preK teaching profession. A large majority of preK teachers in the Abbott preschools took on the challenge to obtain a bachelor’s degree, in part because the reward for doing so was considerable: the same salary and benefits for preK teachers as for elementary school teachers in the same district.

The state also made the degree programs accessible, both financially and geographically. Through the state’s Commission for Higher Education, teacher education programs received funds to help expand their early childhood faculties and offerings, and prospective students received substantial scholarships to help them pay tuition and other expenses. In addition, about 60 percent of the colleges and universities brought classes directly to the Abbott
school districts so that teachers could meet their degree requirements without having to travel far from home.

“Some of the colleges became very creative about offering the courses within the school district,” says Kathleen Priestley, supervisor of early childhood education for the Orange (NJ) Public School District. According to Priestley, all but two of the preschool teachers in Orange have completed the requirements for their bachelor’s degrees, and she expects the other two to do so soon.

Frede estimates that about 80 percent of preschool teachers in the Abbott districts now have a bachelor’s degree and state certification in teaching preschool through grade 3. Researchers note, however, that these credentials go only so far in preparing teachers for preK and early
elementary education. Carrie Lobman, Sharon Ryan, and Jill McLaughlin, three researchers in early childhood education at Rutgers University, recently studied 12 of the 14 institutions credentialing early childhood educators in New Jersey. They found that while these programs’ outreach and recruitment efforts were highly effective, they were lacking in some areas in which preK teachers say they need the most help, such as special education and teaching English-language learners. More attention was also given to early literacy than to areas like math and
science.


Making a Difference

Overall, however, the Abbott initiative seems to be making an important difference in the quality of preK instruction in the state’s highest-poverty cities and towns. A recent report by Frede summarizing a set of evaluations in the Abbott preschools notes “a sustained and dramatic improvement” in the quality of preschool education in those districts. By one measure, the percentage of classrooms scoring in the “very low quality” range dropped from 12 percent in 2003 to just 2 percent in 2005. The evaluation also noted substantial positive effects on children’s development of key early literacy skills.

For Further Information E. Frede. “Assessment in a Continuous Improvement Cycle: New Jersey’s Abbott Preschool Program.”

New York: National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force of the Pew Charitable Trusts. “This article is part of an ongoing series on the education of children from preK through grade 3, made possible through the support of the Foundation for Child Development. For additional information, visit the Harvard Education Letter online resource, Focus on Early Childhood Education, at www.hel-earlyed.