Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007
When people ask Angela McClain of Bowie where her 3-year-old son Jerimaha goes to school, she proudly tells them he attends class at Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. High School.
McClain is one of 11 parents who have enrolled their children in the Upper Marlboro high school’s child development program.
The program teaches high school students the basics of early childhood education, preparing them for possible teaching careers or parenthood later in life. During the three-day-a-week program, the students prepare and teach lessons in all subjects and observe the pre-schoolers for class credit.
‘‘My first lesson was math, and I had them identify their age and learn how to write it,” said 11th-grader Shonequa Plummer of Upper Marlboro.
Catching her breath after chasing a bunch of pre-schoolers around the small school playground, Plummer said she liked taking care of her younger brothers at home so she decided to sign up for the class.
With more than 200 high school students enrolled in the classes, Wise is able to offer care for the preschoolers through the entire day. Other high schools only offer morning or afternoon care.
For the first two months of class, child development teacher Felicia Bryant taught students about the psychology of development so they could understand how young children learn. Many of the high school students taking the classes had prior experience babysitting young children.
Still, nothing quite prepared them for the pre-schoolers’ first day Oct. 23.
‘‘Some of the high schoolers were scared and like, ‘I don’t know what to do with these kids,’” Bryant said.
Two weeks into the child care program, the high school students were bonding with the children, beginning to understand their personalities and learning how to handle them.
Lessons ranged from learning the alphabet to finger painting or very basic science experiments. Plummer said her next lesson will be to demonstrate magnetic attraction between objects.
In classes as large as 35 young students, there often are two students paired with each pre-schooler.
‘‘They are running all day long,” said 11th-grader Jamar Quattlebaum while lifting children on and off of a jungle gym.
In addition to the benefits of learning in a small class, parents were attracted to the Wise child development program because of the low cost compared to other child care programs. Enrollment in the three-days-a-week program costs $200 for October to May. Nationally, child care costs can easily exceed that price tag in one month. The Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, estimates that families nationwide can spend an average of $325 a month for child care for children younger than five years of age.
‘‘In other programs, you had to put them in all day long and it cost and arm and a leg,” said McClain, a stay-at-home mother.
Observing the classroom environment Thursday, McClain said she was highly impressed.
‘‘It was amazing to see the teenagers actually teaching them,” McClain said. ‘‘Each day when I pick him up, he’ll tell me about everything he did. I know he likes it.”
The high school students love the class as well.
‘‘I like being around little children and babysitting,” said 11th-grader Larryl Pitts. ‘‘This will give you a head start if you are planning on having kids in the future.”
For others like 11th-grader Shaniqua Thomas, the class couldn’t have come at a better time. One month pregnant, she admits, ‘‘[The class] is a challenge but it’s preparing me for right now.”
E-mail Andrea Noble at anoble@gazette.net.
