Head Start comes to KU
Advanced training programs conducted in Jolliffe Hall may help make jobs with the Head Start program more productive said Arthur Katz, dean of the School of Social Welfare.
Katz said KU was the first University to offer undergraduate credit to professional aides working with the government program.
Dean's office has extension
The Office of the Dean of Men, said Fred McElhenie, assistant to the dean of men, operates an extension office for students living in the Daisy Hill area of campus.
Located in McColllum Hall, it is operated on Tuesday afternoons by Assistant Dean Kenneth J. Ivers.
The main purpose for the extension, McElhenie said, is to "go where the action is." Because there are many students living in the Daisy Hill area, the extension office is located there.
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Volunteers come to the center, the only one in the Midwest, from an 11-state area.
"I think we may have found a way to prepare persons for new and meaningful jobs which are not really there." Katz said.
Classes and discussion groups have been organized for both professional Head Start workers and community service aides. Enrollees participate in training sessions relating to their function at the local center. Community service aides connect needy persons with the agency which best provides the necessary services.
Discussion Groups
Family life styles, as they affect children, constitutes the main area for class study. Discussion groups first concentrate on building trust and co-operation among the students which then will permit free discussion of problems and possible solutions.
Edward Scaggs, assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare and director of the project, explained, "the program is designed to be pragmatic rather than theoretical. We set up situations common to Head Start children and discuss how the aides may better relate to both the parents and the child."
The experimental project lasts 16 weeks. Aides spend seven weeks on the campus, then return home while their professional counterparts at the home center come for additional training. Members of the Lawrence staff then will visit the local center to help with further development.
Objectives
Objectives of the program include providing experience on a university campus, enhancing leadership abilities, supplying information about child development and social services and giving aides the opportunity to experience new behavior relating to increased responsibilities.
Virginia Ford, Kansas City volunteer said, "This has been a good chance to further my education. Living on campus makes me feel like a college student and has given me an opportunity to learn by talking with persons in other fields.
A $245,000 grant provided by the Office of Economic Opportunity established the center July 1. Twenty-four women participating in the program now stay in McCollum Hall. Volunteers receive both a stipend and a dependent's allowance for their children.
The purpose of the Head Start centers is to provide a head start in education for disadvantaged children. The program is financed by the federal government and is free to participants.
Photo by Joe Bullard
Fun At School
Nursery School for KU student and faculty children, sponsored by the First Presbyterian Church, is open for children from three to six years. Classes will be offered from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays, and a small tuition is required to cover operating costs. Shown at school are from left: Lori Kingery, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lonnie Kingery, Mrs. Kingery, and Jennifer Burgstahler, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Burgstahler.