Up into the cherry tree, who should climb but little me? I held the trunk with both my hands and looked abroad on foreign lands.
I saw the next door garden lie adorned with flowers before my eye, and many pleasant places more that I had never seen before.
I saw the dimpling river pass and be the sky's blue looking glass.
The dusty roads go up and down with people tramping into town.
If I can find a higher tree, farther and farther I should see, to where the grown up river slips into the sea among the ships, to where the roads on either hand lead onward into fairyland, where all the children dine at five and all the playthings come alive.
Operation Head Start.
It could be a military campaign or a political campaign, but this is a campaign for children.
In 1964, Chicago Public Schools conducted a preschool project for 1 ,150 children as part of the Special Summer School Program.
Through Operation Head Start, which was primarily financed by the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, it was possible to expand the pre -kindergarten program to provide for 20 ,733 Chicago school children in the summer of 1965.
That certain basic nourishment is essential for physical health is a generally accepted fact.
Head Start offers a particular kind of nourishment.
It brings to the pre -kindergarten child positive and broadening individual and group experiences, which he needs to grow up emotionally.
Experiences that condition the bedrock of personality and color all future encounters and relationships.
Experiences that pique natural curiosity and urge forth the riches of inner expression.
That excite the child through the use of his innate faculties, his mind, and his hands.
That provide opportunities for the small successes that enhance his self -image and forge confidence for the next attempt.
That guide the impulses and build a sense of relatedness.
That consider the child's individual needs and build from this a love for school and for learning.
That interrupts stagnating patterns of negative or limited experience and counter the erosion of neglect and defeat with opportunities for enriching awareness, sensibilities, and talents.
For many children, encouragement is the natural circumstance in which they are reared.
For others, it is a remote paradise.
For them, tomorrow is only another stage of apathy, dependency, and antisocial feelings.
To such as these especially, Head Start directs itself.
A start toward making a reality of equality of opportunity.
A boost from the periphery into the mainstream of life.
Who would question that this is the birthright of every child? A healthy society concerns itself with the welfare of its children, for they are its greatest resource, its hope, and its future.
For what will our tomorrow be without the children of today? Good morning, little girl, little girl, good morning, little girl, who are you? I am Angie.
All right, let's help Angie.
Come on, Angie.
Will you ask her to stand in Spanish? I love Spanish.
Good morning to you, little girl, little girl, little girl, good morning to you, little girl, who are you? Has everybody had a turn? I will do it to you.
Good morning to you, teacher dear, teacher dear, good morning to you, teacher dear, who are you? Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Henry, could you come up and show me today? See that note.
Good, and what number will I put up there? Number five.
Number five.
Number five.
Oh, I like that number.
What's this here? That is the very Godmother.
What is this here? Purple, purple witch.
That's a what? Purple witch.
Purple witch? Tell us a story about this again.
Okay.
This is the man of Godmother.
Cinderella's very Godmother? Uh -huh.
Is she a nice lady? Yeah.
What kind of a witch is that? You were telling me before.
Is that a nice witch? No, she a bad witch.
She eats people.
She eats people.
But this one is a pretty one.
She don't eat people.
She likes people.
Parents are beginning to realize too that art and music is not just a fun thing in school.
It's there for enjoyment, and it's a basic need of the children.
But while they're cutting and pasting, they're developing eye -hand coordination, which parents didn't realize before.
But I think through our context curriculum and parent coordinators with the parents, they have an understanding of school.
One of the principal things is that a positive attitude towards schools has been developed.
Many parents feel like, oh, they just played for too long.
So we tried to make a point to show them that this was played with a purpose.
Who does the dishes when you're off? My sister.
Before you come to school? And my brother.
Where's mama? She at home.
What is she doing when you're doing the dishes? At noon she goes to work and she helps the people.
What does she do for the people? I don't know.
Teacher.
Do you clean up the kitchen? She operates them.
She operates? Oh, where does she work? In the hospital.
Is she a nurse? Head start.
Well, I think this is why Head Start has really served a very good purpose, not only for the children, but for teachers.
Because when they had to recruit, they had to visit homes.
And this is where the teacher nurse really enjoys most of her work.
A home visit is the only way I feel that you really get to know the family.
Because a child will come to school dressed the way the mother wants to project the image of her family and of her way of life.
But when you go into the home, you actually see what that child has to contend with when he leaves you and when he has to go back to this particular environment.
And this is the thing that denotes whether that child is going to function in school as you want him to or as the way he looks.
You have to hear it.
You have to hear it.
What does it say? Walk.
Right.
Off you go to walk.
Good.
On the way now.
Come on, instrument.
Right with the piano.
All right, fine.
Now we turn, sweetie.
You know the piano.
One minute.
I know.
Back and on.
You see.
I know.
You know, I know.
I got a.
I got a.
I got a.
Put it down.
My turn.
My turn.
My turn.
My turn.
How's the baby today? Okay.
Did you wash clothes? How many batches of clothes did you wash? Two.
Two batches of clothes? I washed my own clothes.
And I had six or seven or eight or nine or ten batches.
So many people question, how will these Head Start children make the adjustment to a regular kindergarten in the fall? Now you do answer that.
I do.
Oh, you're putting it to.
I do.
Oh.
I think, I really think that it'll be easy for them to make the adjustment in this respect because even in Head Start, whether there is relaxed freedom or not, they're following directions, they're establishing good habits, they're establishing patterns of behavior.
All these teachers that receive them in the regular school year will do is develop these patterns of behavior.
You don't see any children throwing blocks.
And this is one of the things that you have.
They have gone through this stage of knocking down blocks.
Now they're at the stage of building.
What don't you think? They've built a certain independence too.
Yes, they have developed responsibilities.
So that they can play alone or they can go off in a group of four or five and work.
That was one of the things that one of the parents spoke to me about in the station.
And I explained to her why it was important for the children to play, particularly with the tricycle and when they rock because then the teacher could identify whether the child could move properly.
And then when they came to the station and the doctor picked up something, then we could tell the teacher whether this child had some possible difficulty with coordination.
Many of the children who were brain damaged were picked up this session.
Many of the children who had some emotional problems, the teachers picked up very easily in the classroom during Head Start.
So that I think that this particular problem that many of the kindergarten teachers have to contend with children whose muscle coordination is poor, whose eye coordination is poor and can't follow, this should be eliminated by the Head Start program.
What did you have for breakfast this morning, Cheryl? Nothing.
No wonder you're so hungry.
Who was up when you got up, Mommy? No? Who woke you up this morning and dressed you so pretty? Your aunt.
And after you woke up and you were all dressed, didn't you have breakfast? No? This is the first milk you've had today? Oh, you're mighty hungry.
Maybe we can get you two glasses of milk then.
Let's go to the zoo and see the shiny flags.
Get everyone up.
Let's go to the zoo and see the shiny flags.
See the seals, they're flying around like this.
This time the seals flap.
Flap, flap.
See the seals, they're flying around like this.
Flap, flap.
Let's go to the zoo.
You have blue.
Let's go to the zoo.
Now we'll sing about the elephant.
What color is the elephant? Elephant, he's gray.
Gray.
The fig.
You looking for an elephant? Right.
What's this on the elephant? Trunks.
All right, take the elephant and sit down and we'll sing about the elephant.
Let's go to the zoo and see the elephant.
Get everyone up.
Let's go to the zoo and see the elephant.
The elephant, he swings his trunk around.
The elephant, he swings his trunk around.
Like this.
Let's go to the zoo.
Let's go to the zoo.
I want to sing about the bears.
The bears? Did we see the big bears? I like the...
What bears did we see? The little...
What do we call them? The Alexander? Look at this baby bear.
What do we call the big building that we walked into when we first got to the farm? The chicken house.
The barn.
You forgot.
Show me the barn in this room.
Point to it.
All right, tell us about your book.
And here's the pig and here's the cow.
Here's the baby cow.
What do we call the baby cow? The calf.
Good.
A calf.
Everybody say calf.
Calf.
And what kind of a sound does the baby cow make? The calf.
Moo.
And how does the mother cow sound? Moo.
Good.
All right, do you want to tell us some more? And here's a rooster.
And what kind of a sound does he make? Cock -a -doodle -doo.
Who gets up first in the farm? We went on the crib.
I said, where did you go? You had to go someplace.
The trees came in.
We went to the zoo.
They went on to name all the animals.
He could name the animals and everything, but he just said, we went on the crib, I told you.
Have they been to the zoo before? We hadn't been before.
Must have been quite an experience for them.
It was.
They haven't even been, oh, when they were small, real small, they wouldn't remember what it was like.
You know, that and the beach looked like.
Somebody should cry.
My snapping horses.
My snapping horses.
My snapping horses.
Crumpling and crumbling.
And by day she stalked so round with the crunching, crunching, crunching.
And what little children so tender to eat, she lured them all with gingerbread sweets.
What was the name of the story? Hansel and Gretel.
Who were Hansel and Gretel? A girl and a boy.
And what happened to them? They got lost.
Why did they get lost? Because the stepmother made them.
What did the stepmother do? Made a plan to go with the father to cut some wood.
And she took Hansel and Gretel with her? Why? To get, because they didn't have any more food, enough food.
Then what happened when they woke up in the morning? They were so, so hungry.
And what happened? There was no food.
They had no food.
So did they stay there? Yeah.
Oh, I don't think so.
What did they start doing, Rosemary? They went to the witch's house.
And who can tell us what the witch's house looked like? It looked like a gingerbread house.
Yes, and what was it decorated with? With stuff, grits, and lollipops, and gingerbread.
And what did they start to do? They were hungry.
And what did they do? They were waiting.
What did she do? Abraham, when your mother wants somebody to come into the house, what does she say? She say, get out! Where did we get the cream? Out of the bottle.
We bought it at the store, but where did the storekeeper get it? Out of the cow.
You know what this is? A mixer.
What is this, this part? A wheel.
A wheel, good for you.
And what about this part, Kazmer? That's a wheel.
Yes, we have two wheels.
Are they going in the same direction? Yeah.
Have we finished our vegetables? What can you hear when you chew the celery? I hear crunch.
Take a piece and pass.
What do you notice about an orange that you didn't notice about your vegetables? Everybody close your eyes and smell.
Can you smell anything? I know somebody who likes oranges.
I do, I like them.
What's that over here, what is this? Lemon.
What color is this? Yellow.
Yellow, yes, and we talk about...
Now we're going to each keep our own toothbrush.
And I'm going to show you just how to use it.
You watch me carefully.
Now we're going to brush our teeth the way the teeth grow.
Open our mouths and take our toothbrush.
The upper teeth down, down, down.
And the lower teeth up, up, up.
I brush my teeth with every day.
Brush, brush, brush.
The cross -beam teeth do that again.
Brush, brush, brush.
Come from far away, from the other side of the ocean, from Ireland.
Have you ever heard of it? No.
Would you like to come up here and meet some of our boys and girls? Do our guests want to see what they're going to be tasting today? Come on in and look around the room.
Yes.
I'm getting out of here.
I want to stay in school all day.
Deal.
Now we did this with parents too.
We invited them in with the teacher nurse, and we showed them the different fruits.
And said how good it would be if their lunches included some of that, because it built strong bodies and better teeth.
We invite the mothers in.
They have taken trips to the city and know about the museums and the concerts, and those are free to everyone.
We're just helping the parents enjoy those things that the city offers and enjoy them with their children.
Teacher consultants, cooperating teachers, will go from room to room, offering assistance, holding meetings in which teachers exchange ideas.
I think it's wonderful to see all the space all around the room.
The space to display what the children are doing and what they've made.
I think it's wonderful.
This equipment, the money for it, the large trucks, the motor vehicles, the tricycles, this money was given to us by the federal government.
This is a funded project.
How does it differ from the system which now exists? Well, as it now exists, we perhaps have 30 youngsters to one teacher.
Here we have 15 to three adults.
Still one teacher, one aide to the teacher, and one children's assistant.
So you have that one -to -one relationship.
You have the intimacy of, and also a great number of mothers are coming in, other volunteers are serving.
So that you have, for the first time, youngsters getting the individual attention.
Many of them come from families where there are six or seven children, and they're kind of ignored.
Well, they're no longer ignored.
They're a person here.
What do you hope to achieve at the end, say, of a number of these with children? Well, these are youngsters who, many of them, have been deprived of the things we take for granted, like having a story read to them, or a little rosetti poem about what is pink.
A rose is pink.
They haven't heard it.
They haven't heard music.
They haven't seen the city.
They haven't visited places.
They haven't had the experiences that your children and mine would have.
They have had a rather deprived sort of cultural background.
Many of them have never been to a doctor or a dentist.
Their mothers and fathers love them, but perhaps don't know differently, too.
And this is an education for the parents and for the youngsters socially.
Do I do not school? We're not trying to teach them how to read.
We'll get them ready for that.
We're just getting them ready to become one of us and to want to come to school and want to have that feeling and love for it.
And I think you see that they do have it.
Do all these plants have leaves? Yes.
Do all these plants have roots? Yes.
Do all of them have seeds? Yes.
And yet do they look alike, though? No.
No.
They all have the same kinds of parts, but they all look different.
So when we go out for a walk, let's see if we can find what kind of leaves? Roots.
Bat leaves.
What kind of leaves? Bat leaves.
And big leaves.
Big leaves.
And skinny leaves.
I know what they are.
And tiny leaves.
And tiny leaves.
I know what they are.
I want to ask you one last question.
Will any of you be able to see these roots for this plant? Yes.
Uh -huh.
Will you? I know what they are.
No.
I can't see it.
Why won't you see the roots? They're on the ground.
That's right.
They're on the ground.
Oh, and I see the kind we saw in the room.
What did we call that? Bat leaves.
That's a bat leaf plant.
Where's Abraham? Oh, Abraham, you have the whole plant.
Isn't that lovely? Very.
Oh, isn't that nice? Very.
A root and a stem and a leaf and seed.
I think you can carry it.
That's a nice one.
Sure has a whole plant also.
We got a whole plant too.
I can pull different kinds.
Oh, two different kinds.
Let's see if we can find the tree that makes those pods that had the beans we looked at yesterday.
Let's look very...
I wonder who lives at the end of the field where shadows of summer quiver.
I wonder who lives at the end of the path on the bank of the Autumn River.
And I wonder, I wonder who lives in the sky on a star or a planet a million miles high.
And if I will ever get up there to see if they wonder much about people like me.
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