The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love...

The toughest job you’ll ever love. That’s the phrase that comes to mind when I think about working in Head Start. For those of you who might not know Head Start is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human services that provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. The same initiative that created it, also created the children’s television show Sesame Street. I got my start in the field of early education working at a Head Start school. I was still finishing my non-related college degree, with no experience with children. I started as a teacher’s assistant and within a year worked my way up to being a teacher. That was quite a first year for various reasons.

I found out that Head Start is important. It’s important for children, it’s important for their families. The government had a good vision when they created this service for the people. Too bad the vision has not been shared by enough latter day politicians to keep it adequately funded. I don’t mean to sound preachy, but in my opinion one of the greatest challenges facing Head Start is that there is not enough money available to pay experienced teachers to stay working for Head Start. Head Start has a great system for training and promoting teachers from within. Unfortunately most of the good teachers end up getting lured away once their resumes are good enough to get a better paying teaching position somewhere else.  

Good thing money is not the only reward for working with children. Early childhood is a magical time of life filled with wonder and excitement. Watching young children grow and helping them learn about the world can be a privilege if properly appreciated. I enjoy observing their intellects slowly become more formed towards the future individuals that they will become.

Yes, it also at times can be very difficult. The majority of children who qualify for Head Start services come from low-income families. This fact creates the reality that a far higher percentage of the children in Head Start classrooms have more behavioral, cognitive, and developmental issues than the percentage of children in private “pay” preschools. Having so many children with a spectrum of special needs can create difficult classrooms situations for Head Start educators. What makes it difficult is also what makes it so important. When I left Head Start to work at a Reggio Emilia inspired private pre-school, I definitely felt that my impact on the children’s lives was less than it had been when I was working with the children in Head Start. And everyone there

Before I left Head Start at a training for teaching children non-violent conflict resolution techniques, the instructor asked us to think of a song we liked that reminded us of our experience working with children. Then we were asked to say the title of the song and say the lyrics that made us think about our work. When it was my turn, I said, “The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. You gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run.” Everyone in the room laughed, and everyone knew what I meant.