The best compliment Head Start receives is when a 60-year-old person remembers their Head Start experience. Why? They were four years old when they attended a Head Start class, and now, at 60 years of age, their fond memories bring warm smiles and chuckles of remembrance.
Telling our Head Start/Early Head Start stories is vital to our success. It is important that those who make the decisions and hold the money know that we are a 60-year federally funded program because our impact is lifelong.
Telling our stories shows that the path to success is available to all who take a chance and enroll in Head Start. It touches us deep down where empathy and compassion explode into acknowledgment that Head Start was the beginning, the beginning of believing in oneself and knowing that you can do impossible things because in Head Start nothing is impossible.
Read the following story from a fellow co-worker, and walk away swelled with the power in knowing that you too are having a similar impact on a family you are serving now and in the past, and remember to share your story with Sami at sallen@hsolc.org
We bumbled our way down the long path towards my son’s new classroom. Our minds were racing, and we could not help wondering if our son really did need to go to school at just 2 months old. He was so little, and our hearts ached. We did not want to leave him, but we had to work to ensure our basic needs were met. As we heedfully made our way up the stairs into the class with our bundled-up baby in tow, we could never have guessed what kind of doors would open to our family, or how profoundly our lives would be changed by our children attending Early Head Start and Head Start.
Saying goodbye on the first day was hard, but our son’s teacher was warm, understanding, and comforting. We waved at the window as she bounced him up and
down. As the weeks passed, we got to witness a beautiful relationship being formed between our son and his educator. He clearly adored and loved her. We were not insecure about their relationship as she always treated us as his first teachers, and the most important people in his life.
By the time he graduated and was ready to move on to Head Start we considered his teachers to be second mothers to him. We had been through a lot in that time, and his teachers had been our biggest advocates. They had been with us through thick and thin, even sitting with us and crying when we lost a child during that time. Something had changed inside. We wanted to be like them; to make a difference in children’s and families’ lives the way they had made a difference in ours.
Josh was quick to get a job and begin working for Head Start, while I became pregnant with my second child and began taking classes. Our older son attended Head Start and found that it was equally as amazing as Early Head Start. He made lasting friendships and bonds that still exist today though we have moved out of state. During a 4th grade award ceremony in which he was recognized several times, we noticed that at least 80% of the children recognized were his peers from Early Head Start and Head Start. This showed us that the education they had received was unfathomably effective. This motivated us even more.
Before we knew it, my husband and I were both educated lead teachers living our dream. It is not easy work, but it is work that we are passionate about. We fully-heartedly understand and recognize the impact that we have on children and families’ wellbeing. We have come full circle from experiencing the gargantuan impact Head Start had on us, to us trying to make an impact on others. We work hard to create the same beautiful relationships our children’s teachers had with us in hopes that we will make the world a better place, at least for the children who walk in our classroom doors.
Sarah Coon
Head Start Head Teacher Extended Day
