The Head Start Advantage
Summary
TLDRThe script narrates the transformative impact of the Head Start program, established in 1965 in East Texas, on underprivileged children. It emphasizes the program's comprehensive approach to early childhood education, nurturing the whole child through language development, parent engagement, and health support. Highlighting the program's long-term benefits, including improved educational outcomes and reduced poverty, the script features personal stories of individuals whose lives were positively influenced by Head Start, showcasing its role in shaping America's future workforce and fostering a more competitive global economy.
Takeaways
- 🏡 In 1965, a young woman introduced the Head Start program to low-income African-American families in a small East Texas town, emphasizing its importance for early childhood education.
- 🌟 Head Start is a comprehensive educational program that benefits not only children but also parents, aiming to enhance the whole character of the child.
- 🧠 The program is grounded in scientific evidence, highlighting the critical role of early language environment and quality childcare in brain development during the first few years of life.
- 🌱 Head Start recognizes the importance of early learning, stating that education begins on the first day of life, with the first five years being crucial for a child's development.
- 🌐 The script points out that other countries are adopting and acting on the research behind early childhood development, emphasizing the need for the U.S. to do the same to maintain a competitive workforce.
- 📉 The changing demographics and increasing poverty in America mean that without access to programs like Head Start, children will be left behind, affecting their ability to catch up with their peers.
- 🌈 Personal stories shared in the script illustrate the transformative impact of Head Start on individuals' lives, from improving academic performance to fostering a love of learning.
- 🍎 The script underscores the importance of nutrition in early childhood development, noting that for many children in poverty, Head Start provides essential nutrients and a healthy start.
- 👨👩👧👦 Head Start is described as a community effort that involves parents and caregivers, recognizing their role in a child's development and providing support to enhance home and school collaboration.
- 💼 The script shares stories of individuals who have achieved professional success, attributing their accomplishments to the foundational education and opportunities provided by Head Start.
- 🌟 The long-term benefits of Head Start are highlighted, including higher income, lower incarceration rates, and improved life stability for participants, emphasizing the program's value as an investment in human capital.
Q & A
What is Head Start and when was it introduced?
-Head Start is a comprehensive educational program that addresses the whole child, including children and parents. It was introduced in the spring of 1965 as a government program aimed at providing early education to low-income families.
Why was Head Start created?
-Head Start was created to provide a rich early language environment, quality early childcare, and quality interaction to children, especially those from low-income backgrounds, to help them reach their full potential and prepare them for future educational success.
How does Head Start impact a child's development?
-Head Start impacts a child's development by providing early education, health, and nutrition services, which are crucial for brain development. It also offers social and emotional support, setting a foundation for all future learning and thinking.
What are the long-term benefits of participating in Head Start?
-Long-term benefits of Head Start include higher educational achievement, improved health, increased income, reduced likelihood of incarceration, and more stable family lives. It also contributes to the development of a skilled workforce for the country.
How does Head Start support families living in poverty?
-Head Start supports families living in poverty by offering comprehensive services such as health checks, nutrition, and early education. It also provides resources and activities that parents can use to engage with their children and support their learning at home.
What role does Head Start play in addressing the challenges faced by children from low-income backgrounds?
-Head Start plays a crucial role in leveling the playing field for children from low-income backgrounds by providing them with early education, health care, and social services that they might not otherwise receive, preparing them to compete academically and socially.
How does Head Start contribute to the United States' global competitiveness?
-Head Start contributes to the United States' global competitiveness by investing in early childhood education, which is essential for developing a skilled and knowledgeable workforce. This investment in human capital helps the country maintain a competitive edge in the global economy.
What is the significance of the statement 'a head start not only feeds the aspirations of young people, it also seeds the aspirations of their parents'?
-This statement emphasizes that Head Start not only benefits the children by providing them with a strong educational foundation but also instills hope and ambition in their parents. It highlights the program's role in engaging families and fostering a cycle of positive change and investment in children's futures.
Why is it important to start educational interventions like Head Start early in a child's life?
-Starting educational interventions early in a child's life is important because the first few years are critical for brain development, where the majority of the brain's physical structure is formed. Early interventions like Head Start can significantly impact a child's cognitive, social, and emotional development.
How does Head Start help in breaking the cycle of poverty?
-Head Start helps break the cycle of poverty by providing children from low-income families with the tools they need to succeed academically and socially. By offering early education, health care, and support services, it equips children with the skills necessary to improve their future prospects and economic status.
What is the economic return on investment for Head Start?
-The economic return on investment for Head Start is significant, with studies showing that for every dollar spent, there is a return of a little more than seven dollars in terms of long-term outcomes such as health, crime reduction, labor force participation, and income generation.
Outlines
🌱 The Impact of Head Start on Early Childhood Education
The first paragraph narrates the introduction of the Head Start program in a small East Texas town in 1965. It emphasizes the program's comprehensive approach to early childhood education, targeting low-income African-American families. The program's benefits are highlighted, including its positive long-term effects on children's educational and life outcomes. The importance of early language environment and quality childcare in brain development is underscored, with the brain's rapid formation during the first years of life. The narrative also touches on the global application of early childhood education research and the necessity of programs like Head Start to prepare children for academic success and to maintain a competitive workforce.
🚀 From Humble Beginnings to Lifelong Achievements
Paragraph two recounts personal stories of individuals who benefited from the Head Start program. It includes the narrative of a child who, thanks to Head Start, became a rocket scientist and an engineer, emphasizing the program's role in changing lives and communities. The paragraph also covers the program's holistic approach, providing not just academics but also health, nutrition, and social-emotional support. It discusses the challenges faced by children in poverty and how Head Start can level the playing field, preparing children for success and contributing to the nation's human capital.
🏡 Head Start: A Family and Community Investment
The third paragraph delves into the transformative impact of Head Start on families and communities. It discusses the program's comprehensive support, including health, resources, and social connections. Personal stories are shared, such as a military veteran who found support through Head Start after experiencing PTSD. The narrative highlights the program's effectiveness in early childhood development, preparing children for kindergarten, and fostering a love of learning. The economic benefits of Head Start are also discussed, with evidence showing a high return on investment for society.
🌟 Head Start: A Foundation for Lifelong Success
The final paragraph underscores the long-term benefits of Head Start, including increased stability, higher incomes, and reduced incarceration rates among its alumni. It emphasizes the program's role in leveling the educational playing field and its importance in developing human capital for the nation's economy. The narrative also touches on the value of early investment in children as a preventative measure rather than remediation later in life. Personal stories continue to be a theme, with accounts of Head Start alumni who have achieved success in various fields, highlighting the program's enduring legacy.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Head Start
💡Liberty County, Texas
💡Early Childhood Education
💡Neural Connections
💡Poverty
💡Socioeconomic Disadvantage
💡Global Economy
💡Health and Wellness Checks
💡Social-Emotional Support
💡Lifelong Learners
💡Community Engagement
Highlights
In 1965, a young woman introduced the Head Start program to a low-income African-American community in East Texas.
Head Start is a comprehensive educational program that benefits the whole child, including children and parents.
The program has a track record of maintaining advantages throughout a child's educational journey and life.
Early language environment and quality childcare are crucial for brain development in the first few years of life.
Head Start aims to provide a rich early environment to reach children's full potential.
Many countries are adopting research-based approaches to early childcare, recognizing its importance for future success.
Without access to programs like Head Start, children in poverty risk falling behind and never catching up to their peers.
Head Start is vital for America's present and future, ensuring a competitive workforce in the global economy.
Head Start provides essential nutrients to children in high-poverty areas who may not receive them at home.
The program helps reduce the impact of poverty by providing a stimulating environment for children and support for parents.
Head Start was conceived as a neighborhood effort to combat poverty and its perpetuation.
The program has been transformational for many, including a graduate who became a rocket scientist and an engineer.
Head Start not only educates children but also supports families, providing resources and assistance.
The program has a profound impact on children's development, as seen in a child's progress from not talking to saying 'I love you'.
Head Start offers comprehensive health, resources, and a supportive community for children and families.
The program helps level the playing field, providing all children with an opportunity to learn and succeed.
Head Start has a high return on investment, with each dollar of cost yielding over seven dollars of societal return.
The program contributes to long-term outcomes such as higher income, lower incarceration rates, and more stable lives.
Head Start engages families, recognizing parents as the architects of their children's brains and partners in their education.
Investing in Head Start is an investment in the nation's human capital and its future economy.
The program has produced successful individuals in various fields, including business, law, and education.
Head Start's impact is generational, with many of its graduates achieving significant accomplishments in their lives.
Transcripts
in the spring of 1965 in a little town
in East Texas called
Ames Liberty County population 1400 on a
dirt road
a young woman approached a number of
little shotgun houses these shotgun
houses were occupied by
african-americans who were low income
and who in many ways were excluded from
the mainstream of what was happening in
Liberty County Texas in 1965 she came to
the porch of the little shotgun house
that my mother and my sister and I lived
in and she talked to my mom about a new
government program called Head Start and
asked if my mother would enroll me of
course my mother took great advantage of
the idea of getting me out of the house
and getting me I had started my
education headstart is a comprehensive
educational program that speaks of the
whole character of the child and so
headstart reaches children and parents
and has a track record and the data that
makes clear that the advantages that you
gain in headstart are maintained well
into your educational journey
and if sustained and supported continue
with you for the rest of your life the
science is pretty clear without a rich
early language environment without
quality early childcare without quality
interaction you will never reach your
potential because the brain unlike any
other organ really comes out pretty
unformed during the first few years of
life some 80 to 85 percent of the
physical brain will be
the brain is incredibly active creating
some seven hundred to a thousand new
neural connections every second it's
really building the foundations for all
thinking and learning in what grows it
it's really the language and interaction
with parents and caregivers learning
doesn't start on the first day of school
it doesn't start on the first day of
kindergarten it starts on the first day
of life and these first five years of
life are critical what's very
interesting is that I see that there are
so many other countries out there who
are taking our research and putting it
into action
systematically developing complex
approaches to the early child care
setting because they know that if they
want their their population to be at the
top and math and reading and technology
the stem field they need to start day
one America has had rapidly changing
demographics not just in heritage but
also in an increase in poverty and if
kids don't have access to great programs
like Head Start they will forever be
behind and they'll never be able to
catch up to their peers and what that
also means to America is they won't have
the workforce that we need to compete in
the global economy
so Head Start is absolutely vital for
America now and in the future
[Music]
going to be a couple on the gas I'm
making a picture of something that I
remember seeing outside our window the
rainbows remember that that was so
pretty my gosh in a high-poverty at home
there's generally less either knowledge
or access to high nutrition food so a
lot of children we're going to receive
their most nutrients of the day in a
center-based program having the right
macronutrients micronutrients so key to
healthy brain development when people
are living in poverty they have a lot of
stresses in their lives so parents may
not have as much time to play with their
kids to engage them in conversations
about life and why things work the way
they do and that's where I think it's
really important that Head Start is
available to family so that the parents
have a place where their kids can go and
can learn and they can bring home
activities that can help the parents
engage with their kids so home and
school can work together in that way and
what dream is that there is this amazing
video of Lyndon Johnson when he talked
about the war on poverty and he talked
about his experience in Cotulla Texas
and he saw kids that needed a headstart
that needed to have you know good meals
at school they needed to learn the
alphabet when they were very young they
needed to have those health and wellness
checks they needed to have the social
emotional support and he promised
himself that when he ever got in a
position to do something about that he
would we called on program
project headstart the program was
conceived and not so much as a federal
effort but really as a neighborhood
effort and response we have received
from the neighborhoods and the
communities has been the most stirring
and the most enthusiastic of any
peacetime program that I can remember it
shows that we are recognizing that
poverty perpetuates itself five and six
year old children are inheritors of
poverty skirts and not its creators
unless we act these children will pass
it on to the next generation like a
family brother I believe that this is
one of the most constructive and when
the most sensible and also on the most
exciting program that this nation has
ever undertaken
he started headstart and I was one of
the beneficiaries of that and I'm
grateful because I know that it changed
my life it has changed the lives of
millions of people it's changed and
improved their communities and it's
prepared the workforce I became a rocket
scientist became an engineer graduate of
Stanford engineering and that road to
all that workforce and success started
with head start we lived in very humble
circumstances we lived you know on a
dirt street when I started my school
experience and so my mom enrolled me in
the program and like remember to this
day mrs. Davenport opening the door and
she just looked to me amazing and she
just beamed when she welcomed us into
the classroom I remember it all being
really fun and every week I got to do a
new book and I got to work on my
penmanship and I learned the alphabet
very carefully and so that when I
started my first grade my teacher she
was really impressed with me because
most of my classmates were my neighbors
and they had not been part of Head Start
so I got to go to the head of the class
right away and I was the star student
and I was a star student because of head
start I just came across the program
online I was looking for local preschool
programs
through the computer and has our program
came up so I applied for the twins and
it's what the twins got in when she
first started Head Start she you know
she was just a normal normal toddler but
we hadn't really started any academics
with her so she has actually came a long
long way with that she's she has learned
a lot I Charlotte every day we get with
her vocabulary she's got you know five
six syllable words in there and it
shocks me I don't know how the she kids
hitted present she picks it up from the
school then Dallas was diagnosed with
autism and 14 months so we were kind of
like we were stuck I didn't really know
what to do from that point when he
started with speech he didn't talk and
we started using sign language I would
get videos from the library and learn
how to sign so I could communicate with
Alice so I could understand what he was
trying to say to us and then then he
started you know once we got to speech
and he was around kids that were not on
the spectrum he came home one day and we
just you know we did our daily routine
and I laid him down for a bed that night
and I said I love you and he said I love
you too and he had never said that
before he had never even said three
words together and here he said I love
you and it made me high that was my big
moment with him he went from he wouldn't
even leave a house and now he's four and
he plays at the park he wants to do
soccer he rides his bike and he is
really he really has bloomed with
headstart
[Music]
Head Start to me offers comprehensive
health it offers resources it offers
been cool it offers a way that I can
meet more people I've had a great
experience with Head Start I joined the
military I served in Katrina served at
Iraq and I did other various stateside
position I was traumatized
psychologically I was diagnosed with
PTSD once I received the headstart
pamphlet I researched it I then call the
number made sure I qualified and I met
with someone so NAPA like I said I
transitioned from military so adjusting
was challenging to me head store came in
my home visitor she came into the home
she did her initial assessment
I loved her professionalism I loved her
persistence
I loved her drive and not only did she
provide resources and assistance to the
children she provided resources and
assistance for me my son he's in private
school now and he has been class
ambassador since pre-k for kindergarten
and now first grade he placed third in
the spelling bee and that's profound
because he was going against eighth
graders vertuous she's working on her
rhyming skills her yelling skills I'm
going to treat her reading skills yes
she does yes she's a little out there
with her lingo you know when you
transition from a war zone area back to
society you need a minute it takes time
to adjust and I have to realize I'm no
longer Valerie the soldier I am Valerie
the nurturer the mother and with that
retrospect the fact that she applied
patience with her professionalism it
meant a lot to me so not only were the
kids learning I was learning too you
know headstart is a wonderful program
it has over 50 years of experience but
not just that it is always maintained
its focus on the child and what is the
best food child kids today when they
enter kindergarten if they haven't been
to school before unless they're
receiving outstanding input at home
I think are at a disadvantage headstart
builds on the kinds of topics the kids
are interested in it uses a lot of play
based developmentally appropriate
activities to interest kids and topics
to support their development it sets
them up for success it gives them a
feeling that they can succeed when they
look around the room and they know
something it's going to give them the
confidence to learn the new skills that
come along to meet the challenges on
tasks that might be harder so that when
they start kindergarten they're ready to
hit the road running everything from you
know making sure you have dental health
wellness checks also you
social/emotional your psychological
needs of your child as well as preparing
them to learn helping them learn about
reading learning the alphabet print
awareness color shapes all those things
and doing it in a way that's fun that
they will have just like I had develop a
love of learning that comes from head
start and you really don't get that in
any other program so we take into
account all the cost so that when we add
and subtract all the costs and benefits
through health crime labor income income
of the parents program cost and so on we
find that for each dollar of cost
there's a little more than seven dollars
of return if you're talking about the
society like the US it's hard to think
of a social program with a higher return
in terms of the long-term outcomes that
Head Start supports there's evidence
that people have more stability in their
lives if they went to Head Start that
they are more likely to have higher
incomes to not be incarcerated to have
marriages that last so these are very
important things in terms of life
happiness to health all kinds of
important outcomes we don't get to
choose who our parents are what their
stresses are in life what their
education were like so that they might
know more or less about how to teach us
when we're young headstart offers the
opportunity to in some way levels of
playing field
so all kids have an opportunity to learn
and that supports our human capital as a
nation and as part of the global economy
of the world our most precious resources
are children if they're not prepared to
be lifelong learners and that begins at
the earliest ages then our whole economy
our country all its resources will be
for naught
so much is put on the school system to
try to remediate issues from earlier
times but I'm from the health care
system we all know that prevention is a
much better way to go than remediation
it's pretty clear that to give every
child a chance to give our country a
chance to be most cost effective we need
to start early rather than late a head
start not only feeds the aspirations of
young people
it also seeds the aspirations of their
parents in terms of their investments in
the children's lives and their
children's well-being it's about
engaging families into the school system
this provides a parent with an
opportunity to feel welcomed and
participatory in their child after
demmick career parents are the true
architects of their children's brains
and the beauty of the head start early
head start program is that they
understand you they know this and so
their teachers the early child care
providers understand that they truly
need to partner with parents so this is
not just about sending your child that
head start or Early Head Start its about
partnering with these organizations and
allowing your child to be ready for
school investing their child we don't
want to teach our children to get a job
we want to teach our children to create
a job by you creating a job it's not
just about individual self it's about
everyone it's about the community we as
a country understand the importance of
investing in infrastructure we
understand the importance of investing
in the military but we also have to come
to appreciate that Head Start is in fact
an investment and it is an investment
that has paid off and paid dividends
generationally speaking and
we have folks now who run companies were
lawyers were ministers who teachers and
police officers heads a major foundation
who are graduates of head start and in
my office upstairs here the headquarters
of the NAACP there for diplomas on my
wall one from Yale Law School one from
Jackson State University one from Boston
University School of Theology and a
commemorative diploma from head start
head start gave me my head start it was
the first time I'd had any real
structured engagement around learning
and it just was transformational I think
in so many ways head start put me on a
path to learning and made it possible
for me to think about a life outside of
that little town and I became an early
advocate for head start before I came to
philanthropy so it was an amazing thing
to learn that 50 years after I entered
head start at 55 I became president of
the 4th Foundation and that was very
lucky because the Ford Foundation funded
researchers for looking at early
childhood development and the different
interventions that might work both in
terms of poverty reduction and
educational achievement and to know that
the institution that I now lead was the
impetus for the most important program
in my lifetime is just a huge blessing
and I feel so fortunate
to be in this position but I'm very
aware that I probably would not be in
this position had I not been given a
head start - head start
you
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