HomeMy WebLinkAboutC.054.93009_0798 (2)She reported that 12 out of 12 of one of her classes of
kindergarten children are from single-family parent homes. Ten out
of 12 are children of unwed mothers. She told of some of the sad
experiences the children have had, dealing with the police coming
to their homes and their parents being in jail. Some of the
children live in the shelters. Some of the children don't know
where they are going after school. These children are five years
old.
She said they cannot be everything to everybody, but they have
to be as much as they can. They have read more than 200 books this
year. They test all the kindergarten children at the beginning of
the year. Some of the children are one year and nine months
delayed in their reading. She showed a graph which shows that the
children progress at a greater rate when they remain in this
specialized classroom.
Mrs. Pat Campbell said she is proud of this program and knows
that it works.
Evelyn Funderburke heads up a program called Parents as
Teachers. This program was funded by a grant from the state. The
grant is for three years and it will be funded for two more years
after this initial year.
Ms. Funderburke is the coordinator and the parent educator for
this program. The program is designed to provide young school age
parents with the information and support to give their children the
best start in life, she said. She said all her clients are teens
who are their students or should be their students. The concept of
the program is that experiences in the beginning years of their
lives are critical in laying the foundation for school and life
success.
There are several hundred teen-age parents, some of them with
two and three children. In 1993 there were 307 pregnant teenagers
in the county. Eight were between the ages of 10 and 14 years. A
large percentage of the mothers are dropping out of school. They
have difficult pregnancies, lack family support, no financial
resources, lack child care knowledge, and ultimately they
perpetuate a non -stimulating environment for their children. Child
abuse and neglect cases have risen sharply in our county, and the
major factor is identified as a lack of child development
knowledge.
Me. Funderburke works with the teen mothers in their homes.
She visits each of them once monthly and sometimes more often,
depending upon their needs. The pamphlets she distributes to the
parents are written on different levels of reading skills for the
teenage parents who are not skilled readers.
Ms. Funderburke holds monthly meetings for the parents and the
children and this gives the parents some social skills. They have
various topics they study. Many of the mothers live in isolation
with the children. Of the 26 mothers she is now seeing, 15 are
black, S are white, and 3 are Hispanic.
The first girl Ms. Funderburke worked with was 13 years old
and has a child one year old. She attends eighth grade at one of
the middle schools. She makes all A's. While the student is in
school, her mother is at home with the child. She has observed
more participation recently with the teenager parent and the child.
She gave other examples of the children. Almost half of the
girls are attending school. Ms. Funderburke tries to assist with
the academic career as well as helping with the infants.
The three basic goals of the program are: (1) To reduce child
abuse through parent education and to promote positive parent-child
interaction; (2) Prepare the young children for successful school
entry; (3) Return these teen parents to school to continue their
education for a better economic future for themselves and their
'IAN t ,,1996 779