THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030025
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A15 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Keith Monroe
LENGTH: 83 lines
It's a few days before Christmas, and I'm in a class at the Berkeley-Campostella Early Childhood Education Center. The 3-year-olds have bracelets of sleigh bells on their wrists and Santa in their hearts. Directed by their teachers, they sing ``Jingle Bell Rock'' lustily and jingle their bells in preparation for the big Christmas pageant.
I was there on a tour of what the Norfolk schools are doing right and the Berkeley-Campostella program was exhibit A. In all the moaning about underperforming schools, too little attention is paid to the overachievers.
Norfolk has got its share, including the top-performing Bowling Park Elementary School, the Chesterfield Math and Science Magnet that has got so many animals it's more like a zoo, and the impressive research labs of the Norstar program where high school students design robots and NASA space experiments.
The Early Childhood Center has been around since September 1991 and has now become a model for similar programs throughout the state. After visiting it, members of the Senate Finance Committee were so impressed they made funds available for other systems to create similar centers but made the money contingent on their following the center's plan.
Abutting Diggs Park, the school is dedicated to getting disadvantaged kids off on the right foot when it comes to school. So the Center enrolls 3- and 4-year-olds and gives them the kind of enriching language, math, art and life experiences they may not be getting at home.
In the class with the jingle-bell rockers was a flip chart that showed some of the everyday work for the kids. The (picture of a circle) is yellow. The (picture of a triangle) is pink.
In all the high-flown talk and angry debate about values, phonics, whole language, charter schools, it is easy to forget how basic the basics are and how far behind their peers some kids start. Colors. Sounds. Numbers. Shapes Letters.
That's where education starts at the center for 224 kids in 14 classrooms. The goal is literacy and the top priority is reading. The maximum student/teacher ratio is 16 to 1 and each class has a teacher and an aide. Many of the teachers have advanced degrees, and a lot grew up in the area or live there now.
But helping disadvantaged kids who are already behind at 3 is not enough. Disadvantaged often means a whole constellation of shortfalls. And the Early Childhood Center tries to deal with the range of needs. It uses whatever seems to work. Uniforms become mandatory this month. Some classes are male only. Breakfast and lunch are served on china and table etiquette is taught.
Principal Cheryl Burch also draws attention to additional programs that aim to integrate the center into the life of its community. The building opens at 7 and closes at 6 so that working parents or those in job training can get on with earning without worrying about the preschool and after-school care of their children.
The center hosts adult-education classes so parents and other neighborhood adults can complete their education and obtain GED certificates. To help facilitate that process, there's a nursery for parents with kids too young to enroll in preschool.
The center also makes home visits to parents to encourage their cooperation and sponsors literacy workshops. One goal is to create a learning environment that embraces the whole family.
In collaboration with outside agencies, the center offers a variety of outreach services. There's a Social Services office in the school dedicated to getting people jobs and off of AFDC. Fifty percent of the present caseload consists of people with jobs who are getting help with education, day-care or transportation needs. Drug referrals are also available.
A health-department clinic in the school is capable of giving complete physicals, pregnancy tests and immunizations to members of the local community. Parks and Recreation holds dance classes in the school. There are tutorial programs for neighborhood kids, evening GED classes and a summer school program. Partners in education who support the center are the Marriott and the crew of the Navy's Arleigh Burke.
The center is brimming with optimism and and vigorously alive, truly a model program. Unfortunately, there are a lot more kids in Hampton Roads who would benefit from such a program than are presently being served. There's a waiting list at the center.
In some of the gloomy talk about education, it is possible to get the impression that no one knows how to deal with disadvantaged kids or declining literacy. But the center knows what to do and is doing it. It's just that Hampton Roads, Virginia and the nation need a lot more centers doing a lot more of the same. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot.