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Head Start: The 20th Century Program
Applied research on cognitive psychology and the effectiveness upon youth

* Background information and more

Head Start has been a program since Lyndon B. Johnson established it after President J.F Kennedy was murdered. In 1965, Head Start was created to “strike at the basic cause of poverty,” which was notified to be the lack of education among the poor (Princeton). This program was primarily for children within the ages of three and four that lacked financial support. Most of the children were served in centers where they would attempt their very best to provide activities or assignments to enhance their cognitive skills, intellectual skills, and also their social development as the children progress in life at a very young age. When at that age, it is one of the most critical times of people’s lives because you are vulnerable to new knowledge such as language. This could be one of the main reasons why they decided to work with children at a very young age to see if it makes a significant difference later on within their life. Knowing that children must be healthy to learn, the program also ensures that they work with families and children to understand how to achieve and maintain optimum physical health. The program includes linking families to a medical home for treatment and check-ups. The children have examinations based on their state.

* The Issues The problem being depicted is poverty. Researchers explain how they feel the cause of poverty is due to the lack of education they are able to receive as stated above (Princeton). The population that is targeted within this program of course is every family that is below the poverty line. In 1994-95, 64% of the families that participated in this program had annual incomes below $9,000 (Impact Study). Findings within the program after a year of education show a significant difference in both cognitive and socioemotional domains of development (Impact Study). However, there is an issue with the program. The fact that in order to participate in the program, you would need to be lucky to participate in it because students were chosen at random as if it were a raffle. Therefore, not all children below the poverty line were able to participate in the program. For the students that did not participate in the program in comparison to the ones that did, research shows that by the 1st grade the ones that did not participate will catch up to the students that did. However, other issues involving the program would be the pattern with parents who are better educated in comparison to the parent’s that rely on welfare and/or just have a 9 to 5 to work. Research shows that parents who received a better education tend to have the children that learn the most within the program because they might have been exposed to more words while growing up (Rich). It is common that educated parents are more concerned with their children’s lives and help them even more when it comes to education. Perhaps they take them to museums more, participate in after-school programs, or even volunteer at the school more when it comes to events. Although the program benefits the children cognitively, it also depends heavily on the education the parents have received. The problem here is if the program is even worth it or not.

* Empirical evidence on the effectiveness

Head Start had programs in which helped the children in various ways. Programs to help them develop language, literacy skills, mathematics, creative arts expression, logic and reasoning, etc. (Quick Source). There programs have been conducted in order to improve their capability of learning at such a young age targeting several areas and their cognitive skills really. These children are young enough to be exposed to several different methods that will help them develop these skills easier because of their imagination. However, as I stated earlier, most of the children who did not even participate in the head start program have reached the progression of students who have participated by the time they reach 1st grade. This is an issue because millions of dollars are spent on this program because it is supposed to target the war on poverty with education, yet we see this pattern where the children who profit the most out of this program are the ones that had educated parents, and the ones that were bilingual.

* Ethical concerns raised by the application

Some ethical concerns that may relate to this would be the waste of money that is spent on this project to help poverty and educate the children that can’t afford extra help. The fact that we see almost little to no success with this project creates an issue because all of that money could be spent on renovating environmental factors that people in poverty live in. The money could be used to make it easier for parents who live under the poverty line to go to school and get formerly educated in order for them to feel more connected with their children. Much of the research shows that educated parents tend to show more appreciation and concern with their children and especially when enrolled in the head start program because they are well aware educational environments. Growing up my parents were not there for me as much as they think they were. They always supported me and told me I could do better in things but when it came to the point where I would ask them for help, they would be confused because they did not finish high school when they were young. Both of my parents are from Mexico and did not receive the same education I was receiving when I was in high school so the communication there was not there really. It became harder for me to stay on track at times because I wasn’t able to depend on my parents for any question or concern I had when it came to school besides waking up on time or my behavior at school.

* Social and historical context of this application At the time this program was launched, it was around the time of the civil rights act was signed into law as well. The Brown vs. Board of Education case was not too long ago and racism was pretty heavy at the time. Usually the minority population were the ones targeted to live within poverty and the head start program targeted those people. It was almost as if it was not going to work because of how the world was shaped at the time. There was total chaos because the president had just been shot and it was very shocking for the world to see. Lyndon wanted to create a better place in America because almost everything was falling apart. At the time, the United States needed something to target the community living in poverty because of the job scarcity. There was little to no effect being done to minorities at the time because of the civil rights movements still in place. People were still against it to the extreme and life was more crucial to the people living in poverty, minorities. If this program had been started at another time, say for instance in the late 20th century, then I feel like it wouldn’t have been such a great deal like it was when the civil rights movement was in place. My reason is because life then was do detrimental to people living in poverty, that head start was almost like a dream come true to their children’s opportunities. As time progressed however, we seen that head start only contributed greatly to a specific genre of people’s living standards. After the Great Depression in the 1920’s, it was very hard to find jobs and opportunities that head start was just another program that did not help the economy as much. Millions of dollars spent for a project that didn’t create a significant change because they do no follow up with these children as they progress. It was almost as if the whole education system should have been changed because after children finished with head start they began to level off with the rest of the children that did not participate in the program