ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 8, 1997 TAG: 9704080077
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
A Child Watch tour in the Roanoke Valley hopes to open the lives of children to the community's leaders - and leaders' eyes to the early-learning resources kids need.
AN EDUCATED workforce. More two-parent families. Less drug use, child abuse, truancy and crime. Less prison-building. A healthy economy that carries everyone forward, rather than widens the gap between rich and poor.
Underlying every one of these challenges facing communities these days is the need for good early-childhood education, readily available to every family.
A Child Watch tour planned for later this month in Roanoke hopes to show community leaders what children are experiencing in their lives, what day care can do to get them ready to learn when they enter kindergarten - and what the community needs to do to help.
The New Century Council Early Childhood Education Committee has invited more than 170 people to tour a representative sampling of the day-care programs in the Roanoke Valley, and plans future tours for other parts of the New Century region. The tour follows a model developed by the Children's Defense Fund and used successfully in communities around the country to focus attention on the needs of children.
The New Century group is hoping this Child Watch tour will inspire broad-based community action to make excellent day care a resource for every family that needs it. And what better foundation to lay for future generations? The starting point for meeting so many community goals is right here.
A Kids Count study from 1990 identified 32 percent of the children in Roanoke as "at risk." Mainly because they are poor, almost one-third of the children were more likely to be sick and underweight than their more affluent counterparts, less likely to be ready for kindergarten, more likely to fall behind in grade school, more likely to drop out in high school, more likely to become teen parents, far more likely to be either victims or perpetrators of crime, and less likely to be economically successful as adults.
Sound early-childhood education can counter many of the disadvantages, and break the cycle of poverty that traps some families. It can train moms and dads in parenting skills, offer good nutrition to their children, and help the kids develop the verbal and social skills to succeed in school.
No matter what their interests or expertise, community leaders should take this tour, look into these youngsters' lives and help to improve them - and the outlook for the Roanoke Valley.
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