European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse How should preschoolers be taught by Edward 8. Fiske new Yore times s Public schools across the uni cd slates move to open their doors 104-year Olds a National debate is developing Over How 4-Yeai-Olds should be Laughl the major Issue is Haw Public schoolteachers accustomed to using text books and lectures and emphasizing skills can and us their methods to the much broader needs of children at a time when they Are developing social skills and their sense at identity. Lilian Katz a professor of education in the University of Illinois at u Bana Champaign and editor of the Early childhood research quarterly Saio Iho most Elle Twe programs emphasized the development of a child s disposition to learn " you can t Lake a lesson in How to no she said other topics of Conli Overly include How and whether tests should be used to screen the social and academic development of a year Olds some Peru have called Tor changes m the education and certification o teaches who will be employed in the new programs i d1 like to see a special credential Foi working with All children irom 4 to 7 years old said Vivien Stewart an Early childhood specialist i h the Carnegie corporation of new York. Others argue that american primary schools As currently organized can readily make the Irani icon 10 lha leaching of younger children everyone agrees hat Kinde icarian should not be a mini first Grade and thai 4-year-Olds have needs different Isom needs of 5-Ycni-olas." said William Cieslukowski. Principal of Killme world elementary school in kill Woi a. Conn he to 3c1 to Imhee National association of elementary school principals All we need is a Little Lime to Tram our loaders " the depth of the new Dubale was indent when Aboul 100 of the country a loading child care and Early childhood education authorities gathered m mow Haven Conn. Lor a two Day conference schooling or 4 year Olds " the Qallen Ting was sponsored by Vale University teachers ate debating the Best Way to instruct the nation s 4-year-ow. In recent years a growing rum or of pm hic systems across the country Hje to gun Selling up programs Tor 4-year-Olds school officials Cile a variety of reasons ram the growing need of old cafe because of the Large number of working mothers to reseated showing that programs Lor 3 and m year Olds can Lead to significant Long it pm benefits in new Yoi k Cit a mayoral commission appointed to study the education needs of preschool children issued a Tjui Wiki of Ihorn Loii into acal gory thai he As 511 Down shut up and count 10 100 in these programs children As Young a j 2 i Jis q d Ivcic spending entire mornings seated at Labots or desks Ico Ting the alphabet. Counting i d 200 Ai it drawing Al cars or a pencils he Lold the Conle once Edward Zigler Yale Protessor of psychology who convened the conference warned that we Are Ait ring our Young children Loo hard pushing Ihram ton last and thereby depriving them of then most precious commodity their childhood " placing 4-year Olds in Sogn Lively oriented preschool education he said will Only compound this problem " when it comes 0 preschoolers i said Bali to basics is the enemy ii Erma Bombeck this week me Eliie world will locus on a151-foof statue of a woman who 00 year Sago. Became the symbolic Mother Ole Ile slue most symbols she is trapped in the silence of capper her eyes i Vilh Oul sight her Cass without sound and her lips without voice. She does whal she is supposed to do inspire and make Sui her lamp Slit. Bul How far can her lamp shed its Light could n extend to a mexican Border where a woman crawled through a barbed wire Fence during her final hours of labor so her child could be born american or did the woman he under a desert Shrub alone in the darkness and Pray could a porch Sigril have been subs Itulid the night a Girt was beg beaten and raped in a suburb Ario blinds were pulled and ears were deaf to he Zanre because they feared getting involved. And she Dij in the blackness of nigh la could the Torch have illuminated a child s Lile by the giving of extra time to help him alien he Feu behind in his studies or did he just flounder and drown n a sea of darkness through the cracks of the system never to surface again How Many people yearlong to be Iree Are Imp soned in darkened cells victims of procedure and politics when will a Lorch Lead them o our shores How Many lives of the elderly will be if own a Ray of tight with a visit a let let or a phone Call torn family and friends or will Lay live out their lives in the shadows of their solitary existence the Lalue of Liberty was never meant to physically be everywhere in this nation with her lamp. With each of us who came Here it was our duly to create our own Persona Torch that would Burn within Allol us and shed fight to every part of this land. And the lights Are there. I saw a Light on the Mountain near us the other night from a helicopter As a precariously Hov ered above a frightened child who had climbed too Lar and could t gel Down i saw a flashlight beam on me in the Early morning hours in the Hospital. Held by the Cool hand of a nurse who helped the fear and pain just by being there and if you have never seen a child s face sight up As Christmas. Then you have truly missed one of life s National treasures. The Slajus of Liberty also holds a Promise to Welcome the world to her shores comport the tired befriend the poor and offer help o the homeless she can t do thai she s Only a 151-foot statue create out of Copper. You. All 235 million of you Are the Only ones Warto can give her we and meaning. You knew thai every Hundred years or so we just have to be reminded. La Tea. Us Angui tin wednesday july 2. 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17
