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Illinois School Board Journal
January/February 2004

Pre-K programs offer early PR advantage

by Jennifer Bialobok and Donna Piazza

Jennifer Bialobok is community relations coordinator for Lyons THSD 204 in LaGrange, Illinois; Donna Piazza is a pre-kindergarten teacher at Willow Elementary School, Homewood SD 153, and a 2003 Golden Apple Award Winner.

Parents and students build ties to a school from a very early age. While it may be difficult to definitively measure the public relations value, there are no doubt distinct advantages for a school district with a preschool program.

With preschool programs, learning deficiencies can be detected early and hopefully corrected sooner. And, districts are investing in students' academic, social and emotional education, and promoting school readiness - all of which generate positive outcomes for children as they grow, and for the district.

Last year, if you asked my 5-year-old daughter what she did at school every day, she would say she played with her teacher, Donna Piazza. Piazza teaches pre-kindergarteners at Willow Elementary in Homewood SD 153 and is a 2003 Golden Apple winner.

While my daughter did play every day in school, unbeknownst to her, she also learned a great deal. To fulfill Illinois Learning Standards, she was taught patterning, colors, numbers and a host of other academic elements. Today, she stands well prepared for kindergarten and is eager to learn more.

Her experience in pre-K also taught her several other skills - ones that cannot be found in any textbook or teacher's manual. She learned how to be a good friend, to share, to express herself and to listen. Piazza used her classroom for more than academic learning: she taught life's lessons.

According to Piazza, pre-kindergarten programs help develop children socially and emotionally, while preparing them for their next school experience. Pre-kindergarten years are ripe with opportunities to develop a child's self-worth and potential. "It's value teaching and the most significant thing we can do for their happiness," she says.

Piazza says pre-K programs should not only develop cognitive abilities, they should also be safe havens for children to develop emotionally. Early childhood programs provide a welcoming, non-competitive, non-threatening environment for students to excel.

With parents as the general contractors and teachers enlisted as the subcontractors, pre-K programs reinforce the idea that schools educate a total student by teaching kindness, sharing, respect and listening.

Preschool programs also are an investment in the future. A Chicago longitudinal study suggests that preschool programs have major economic implications. By helping those students who may need extra help or attention to adjust more smoothly to the "regular" school program, the dollars invested in preschool programs could save money for schools and society by reducing public spending on remedial and corrective programs.

Preschool programs also can capitalize on scientifically proven windows for learning. Piazza's projects, while fun for the students, always had an educational purpose. For example, students cut a pumpkin into pieces (introducing the concept of fractions), took turns placing the pieces into a jar (motor skills), predicted what might happen to the pumpkin over time (critical thinking) and studied the decomposition of the pumpkin (biology).

For many parents, a pre-kindergarten program is the first introduction to a school and is an opportunity to engage and involve parents early in a child's education.

I don't know of any parent's heartstrings that aren't tugged, almost to the point of breaking when they drop off their 3-year-old on that first day of preschool. Despite the angst and anguish their hearts feel, Piazza says, their heads should prevail, knowing they are doing what's best for their child.