Perry Preschool Project segment on NPR worth checking out

Posted on Tue, Jan 19, 2010 : 10:27 p.m.

Perry Preschool Project segment on NPR worth checking out

By April Scarlett

April Scarlett | Contributor

So, per usual, I was tuned in to NPR on Michigan Radio last night while driving my oldest son around in my car. This week they are broadcasting a Winter Documentary series, and Tuesday night's was called "Early Lessons", about how and why preschool or Pre-K education was started in this country. Did you know it originated in Ypsilanti? I didn't.

The Perry Preschool Project was started in the late 1950s by an Ypsilanti school administrator named David Weikert, trying to find out why so many poor, African-American children were faring so poorly in school. I really took a liking to this guy because instead of looking for problems with the children, like most of the administration, Weikert decided to look for problems in the system.

As a mom, I urge anyone with preschool age children, or any aged children, to look at this documentary written by Emily Hanford and distributed by American Radio Works. If you can't stream it on the Web, the entire story is in print here. Not only is it very interesting to hear the reasoning behind the entire program, it is completely and totally relevant to today's educational debate going on in Congress. Read this story and you'll be hard pressed to vote against funding early childhood education.

April Scarlett is a freelance writer. See her work at www.fromherdesk.com, www.successfulwomenweekly.com, www.aprilscarlettwrites.blogspot.com and www.aprilscarlettmotherboard.blogspot.com. Follow her on Facebook at ASW-April Scarlett Writes and ajscarlett on Twitter.

Comments

Kirsten Edgar

Mon, Nov 15, 2010 : 1:12 p.m.

I loved this article. It speaks to the necessity of developing educational curriculum that focuses on the process of learning versus simply test score outcomes. I work at the Little Blue Preschool www.littlebluepreschool.com on the west side of Ann Arbor and we use the High Scope educational curriculum developed by the Perry Preschool Project. The High Scope model is now used all around the world and focuses on experiential learning through play. We can see the immediate effects that learning in this way has on the children at Little Blue, specifically in the development of their problem solving skills, confidence and determination.