Child got 'head start'
By REA WILSON
Jimmy is five years old. This fall he will enroll in kindergarten. For the past two years he has joined 24 other pre-school children at the Head-Start community day care center at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Lawrence.
Before starting in the Head-Start program Jimmy, like many of his school friends, was not toilet-trained; his vocabulary was limited and his attitudes about school were poor.
Now, after two years, Jimmy is eager to learn. Through the experiences at Head-Start, Jimmy is better prepared for school.
The program in Lawrence is headed by Mrs. Barbara Murphy. She is assist d by an assistant teacher, two teacher-aids and volunteer workers, most of whom are KU students.
Mrs. Murphy works on $42,000 a year in federal funds, feeding, providing medical care for an educating pre-school disadvantaged children.
Budget if $42.000
"I really need $60,000 or $70,000 to do what I'd like to with this center," Mrs. Murphy said. There are no provisions in the budget for sick leave or any health or insurance benefits.
"Besides those problems there is no assurance from year to year that there will be a job for us. The government could withdraw the funds," she said.
During the first hours of the day the children have what appears to be free play time. Still as Mrs. Murphy explained, these children are learning as they play.
"These kids come from homes where there are no books and few toys. We're trying to broaden their experience," she said.
Children gather in groups around a reading table, a puzzle table, the play kitchen, the building block area or the guinea pig cage. Appearing like any nursery school children, these children play, however, with slightly hidden deficiencies.
Children are unskilled
There is hesitation with the puzzles, inability to use scissors properly, impatience with story books
without pictures, a short concentration span and physical force in anger. They play side by side, not together.
When the children first come to Head-Start they demonstrate little discipline. They grab when they want a toy, they hit when they are angry, they threaten teachers when they do not get their own way.
"We have to be very firm and very strict. We let them know the rules at first and remain consistent about them. It's hard for them to understand discipline. In their homes discipline is inconsistent and misbehavior is punished by swearing or beatings," Mrs. Murphy explained.
Lessons after play
After the morning play period the children have lessons. Usually they have a subject to discuss such as firemen's duties or snow. On Friday the entire class goes on a trip to a park, library, post office or zoo.
Even with extended studies on subjects Mrs. Murphy wonders how much the children are retaining.
"We spent three weeks on winter. We made snowmen, paper snow flakes. The children felt the snow and played in it. At the end of the unit, we asked them what color snow was. They answered, 'red, green, black,'—every color but white."
She said she felt there was, however, some carry-over of knowledge. The children are proud of what they have learned even if it is just learning to wash their hands before eating.
Students aren't aware
"We're not trying to re-educate them," Mrs. Murphy said. "We're just trying to change their attitudes and make them more aware of their environment. When they first come here they think, for instance, that only a teacher can push a swing. They don't identify with a mother playing. We try to teach them that even if their mommy can't play with them, there are other mommies who play with their children."
The children who attend Head-Start classes are chosen according to need by an admissions
committee. Seventy-five per cent of the parents, mostly mothers, have to be employed to qualify the center for federal funds. Some mothers start to work just to have their children enrolled in Head-Start.
Home life unstable
The home life of these children is unstable. Only five of the 24 enrolled have fathers. The number of children in each family ranges from one to thirteen, the average being six.
In the mornings many of the children arrive without having had breakfast. The center feeds them breakfast if they need it, a mid-morning snack of fruit, a hot lunch and an afternoon snack.
"For some of them this is the only food they get. For others potato chips and cookies fill in for dinner," Mrs. Murphy said.
Besides being undernourished, the children often are in need of medical attention. The largest part of the operating budget is devoted to medical and dental care. If the child is on welfare or has a medical card, Douglas County pays for this expense. A medical card signifies the parents can afford to pay part of the bill.
Pays for surgery
Besides providing for at least two dental check-ups a year and any dental work necessary, the Head-Start funds also pay for major surgery and psychiatric care.
Although just five years old, Head-Start is helping these children prepare for school. They are given a chance to succeed at a young age which may provide adequate motivation for later school work.
One criticism of Head-Start is it creates expectations for the children which are not met in school. The school system lacks adequate funds and personnel to continue the same individual attention the children receive in Head-Start.
Last year a new program called Follow Through was tried in 10 cities. This program was designed to continue the work of Head-Start when the child entered grade school, however, there were not enough funds to expand the program this year.
With more money and community interest, Head-Start and its subsequent programs may help break the poverty chain by making up for experiences missed by the older generations of the disadvantaged.
Newsmen discuss black movement
By DIANE SAMMS
"As a general rule, the press has neglected the black community—especially locally—except in crisis situations," said Don McKee, Associated Press staff reporter and a member of AP's racial taskforce.
The veteran civil rights reporter traced the response of the press through the history of the civil rights movement, beginning with the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott in 1955-56. At that time, McKee said, there were two attitudes of the press toward the black movement. He called one "enlightened" and one "more typically racist."
There was a "fairly good working relationship" between the press and the black movement at that time, McKee said. He said the movement, then dominated by Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), had several "friends" in reporters in the South who were "willing to be objective."
The newsman related how Carmichael gradually began refusing to talk to members of the white press, taking the position it was a waste of time to talk with the press, which he felt distorted the facts.
Black power causes reaction "With the advent of the black power slogan, there was considerable uneasiness in the reaction of many white people. And some of this carried over to the news media," McKee recalled.
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Mckee confessed to "many cases of seizing upon rhetoric" by the press and called it a problem of news judgment.
Of current relationships with persons in the black movements, McKee cited the good relationship he has experienced with the leaders of SCLC. He specifically mentioned a good working relationship with Dr. Ralph David Abernathy, SCLC president, and the Rev. Andrew Young, SCLC executive director.
The press needs to "routinely include the activities and newsworthy developments within the black community," McKee said. Working relationships should be established before "strained situations" occur, he said.
Middle-class black people are not hard to deal with, McKee said, but they seem a little suspicious of the press' motives.
"There is a need for getting, keeping and using black newsmen-exploiting them, in the best sense of the word," the wire service reporter said. He then confessed that there was currently no Negro on the AP Atlanta bureau staff. "Everybody's trying to get one (black reporter)," he sighed.
"Civil rights today is no longer any fun to report. Nobody wants to hear about it," said Andrew Jaffee of Newsweek magazine's Atlanta bureau.
Jaffe is a verteran civil rights reporter, having covered the violence in the Watts area of Los Angeles. He has been in Atlanta since 1966.
Newsweek has blacks
"Since Watts, journalism as an industry has involved black people in a more sophisticated way," Jaffe said, adding that Newsweek has "several" black reporters.
The magazine reporter lauded staff members of SCLC, calling them "tremendous people . . . I agonize with them . . . I admire them." He spoke of Hosea Williams, SCLC director of voter registration, in particular.
With few exceptions, Jaffe said, "SCLC (unlike the student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) has resisted blaming all its troubles on the press."
The reporter had some criticisms of the SCLC's Poor People's Campaign last spring. "It was strictly manufactured for publicity purposes and it never failed to reach its greatness as a publicity venture.
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"With the Poor People's Campaign," Jaffe said, "we saw how the movement saw the press as an arm of the movement."
He criticized the leaders of the Campaign for their lack of organization. The leaders didn't speak for the poor, he said, "they weren't eloquent enough."
Jaffe also criticized the SCLC staff for staying in seclusion during the Washington Campaign, even to the point of changing hotels frequently to avoid the press and government officials.
Liberal Southern paper
Alex Coffin, staff reporter for The Atlanta Constitution, characterizes his paper as "much more liberal than our readers would want."
"We really care," Coffin said in a pronounced Southern drawl. He said staff meetings are frequently called to "talk about how we can help black and poor people."
"We know we won't sell more papers," Coffin said, emphasizing the seriousness with which the newspaper deals with the question of its coverage.
But, Coffin related in spite of the push of the newspaper for more objective and comprehensive coverage, "We haven't been responsive enough and supportive enough."
With the admission of shortcomings of the paper, Coffin said the Constitution was much more liberal than most Southern newspapers.
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