7 parents help their children supports such parents in their attempt to behave in a role-appropriate way and builds their sense of personal worth and self-esteem. If the public schools will coordinate their efforts with such early childhood programs, they will find that the new alliance has remarkable spin off in the school experience of the child. Unfortunately, as I have delineated elsewhere in far greater detail,1 we have allowed many persons to attain child bearing age convinced that this is a hostile world, and that many of its institutions, notably the schools, are oppressive and dehumanizing. Parents who themselves distrust and dislike schools cannot avoid embedding the seeds of such negative attitudes in their children. ་ We know from some of the community school programs however, that this can be dealt with. There are numerous examples where schools have become community centers enjoyed by citizens of all ages because they provide a wide variety of services and opportunities for personal growth and enrichment. When the school and the home become such allies good things can really begin to happen for children. Apart from the appeal to independence, however, why should in-home and in-school services and parent education and consultation lend itself so well to a rural community? I spoke earlier of developing a network of services or a delivery system that could reach out to isolated families and help them to help themselves. You have already heard about the Cooperative Extension Service and how it is practically tailor made for this undertaking. My experience with several segments of that agency leads me to believe that close cooperation between the prime sponsor in a state like Vermont and the Cooperative Extension Service has great potential. 1Armin Grams, "Helping Parents Understand Children Better" in James L. Hymes, Jr. (Ed.), Tape of the Month in Early Childhood, Arlington, VA: Childhood 8 But there is yet another provision in the bill that we can capitalize on in rural America. I cannot help but be struck by the coincidence of being asked to give testimony with regard to a bill that provides for mobile units just after submitting a proposal to another funding agency for support of a mobile educational and technical assistance laboratory. Such a facility was one of the highest priority items recommended by a regional advisory committee on child care. It was made because the committee recognized the isolated nature of much of the care provided to young children in this state and the consequent unavailability of such care givers for usual in-service training or regular supplimentary training programs. Literally, it appears that if we are to provide assistance to those who care for children in their own homes, we will have to take such assistance to their doorstep. The health professions Mobile service units, of course, are nothing new. have used them successfully for years. The state of Maine has a mobile program of training for persons who care for children in day care homes. Mobile classrooms devoted to a variety of topics have been employed over the years. Most recently we have "The Freedom Train" successfully bringing a bit of Americana to the people of this land, and it seems safe to suggest that the majority of individuals who will visit and enjoy that train might never have travelled to see the exhibits in their permanent locations. We believe that a properly equipped mobile unit could provide a variety of stimulating educational experiences for parents and other care givers who hardly ever get out from under the heavy demands that child rearing in isolated rural settings makes upon their time and energy. Such a unit could serve to relieve the parents for some adult experiences that many of them crave and in the long run would make them more effective in their relationships with The variety of needs that could be met is almost unlimited, their children. but they come readily to wind when one focusses on conditions that frequently 9 limit a parent's mobility. Allow me just briefly to mention two such circumstances or conditions. Parents of handicapped young children are in particular need of companionship and assistance. The bill, of course, encourages services to such children, but again in many instances only certain kinds of handicapped children are reached through center-based programs, and little or no assistance has been available to other handicapped children and their parents. Still another factor that often sharply limits a parent's options is the presence of a very young child in the home. Again, the literature in child development clearly establishes the importance of the quality of the environment during this crucial period, and the bill before us wisely supports programs that include such services. A mobile unit for service in this area could bring a variety of professionals and paraprofessionals into direct contact with individuals who can benefit from them. Health, nutrition, as well as the broader area of infant and toddler rearing, and marital relationships are some of the immediate and pressing concerns of families with very young children to which mobile programs supported by the bill could respond. School based programs of parent and preparent education are also important aspects of the bill that have immediate applicability to a rural state like Vermont. Were schools, especially high schools, to incorporate child care programs into the curriculum, a number of interesting corollaries, might surface. In the first place, dealing directly with 3 and 4 year-olds and sharing even briefly some of the responsibility for their care is a sobering experience for many young people. Followed by discussions of the pros and cons of child-bearing and child rearing, such experiences might enable potential parents to make a reasonable choice rather than a "fadish" one. Because pregnant students are increasingly encouraged to remain in school, a meaningful and timely program of expectant parent education can be a part of 10 the curriculum. The benefits to their peers who are not pregnant is also clearly a factor to be considered. Finally, I would stress the importance for Vermont of the bill's provision of funds for research. We know pitifully little about the quality of both real-parent as well as supplemental child care in Vermont. I have in my file a proposal that I submitted two years ago for Hatch Act Experiment Station research funds entitled "A Study of Supplementary Child Care in Rural Communities." Due to the sharp limitation of all research support these days, the proposal could not be funded. Some years before that I designed a study of the developmental status of young rural children, and that proposal met a similar fate. We need desperately to reaffirm our belief in sound social science research, and I am pleased that The Child and Family Services Act of 1975 recognizes this need and makes substantial provision for meeting it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the invitation to submit this testimony. STATEMENT OF GLADYS B, JAMESON ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE SCHOOL OF HOME ECONOMICS, UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT Burlington, Vermont Before the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Youth Pavilion Office Building, Montpelier, Vermont April 25, 1975 1:00 P.M. Child and Family Services Act of 1975, S.626 Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: I am Gladys Jameson. I am an Assistant Professor in the Early Childhood and Human Development Program in the School of Home Economics at the University of Vermont. In my role at the University, I am involved in the training of students who wish to enter the helping professions, working with young children and their families. I am also involved in outreach as the University attempts to meet the needs of professionals and para-professionals who are at work in Vermont. Because you have asked that we address our testimony to the way that child and family services should be implemented in a state like Vermont, I think that it would be helpful for you to know that I have been a resident of Vermont for almost thirty years, and was graduated from The University of Vermont in 1949. Prior to my appointment to the faculty of UVM in the Fall of 1968, I served Vermont as a public school teacher, as administrator and Supervisor of Chittenden East Headstart in the first summer of the program's operation, as an instructor in the Adult Basic Education Program, as the founder and teacher-director of the Saxon Hill School in Jericho, as a staff member (Ripton) |