The success of the war on poverty; if it's really a Head Start, why are we still dragging our feet?

• Author: Mundy, Liza

If it's really a Head Start,, why are we still dragging our feet?

They never would have filmed "Leave It to Beaver"-or even "Sesame Street"-near the intersection of Florida Avenue and Benning Road, in southeast Washington. Once-elegant townhouses are battered and boarded up. Groups of men hang out at a bus shelter waiting for something to come along. On the sidewalk nearby, a small girl, maybe four years old, stands by herself in a bright pink jacket, watching the traffic. Some tenants of a large housing project have hung plants in their windows and put patio furniture on their porches, but it's hard to imagine a barbecue in this neighborhood, where drug dealers are battling for turf vacated by the arrest of Rayful Edmond III, allegedly Washington's foremost drug entrepreneur. To an adult, the scene is hostile enough; to a child, it testifies grimly to what life holds in store. On a cold September morning in this neighborhood, 13 kids gather in a warm, spacious basement room-all of them from poor families, all of them about four years old, all of them here for a Head Start preschool program that offers a half-day of sanctuary from the life outside.

It's the beginning of the school year, so most of the children are just getting the hang of things. Their teacher, a young black woman named Joann Ramsuer, sits cross-legged on the carpet handing each child a "personal symbol," a construction-paper square, triangle, or half-moon that makes the child feel special while he learns about colors and shapes. On receiving his symbol, each child names the area he's chosen to play in for the next half-hour (one rule of Head Start is that children make their own decisions, however small). After some bewildered standing around, most of the kids head for waterplay," a large sink filled with green water and different sized household containers which, as the children pour water back and forth, help them grasp the notion of quantity. At Head Start, no activity is without a purpose.

As the morning passes, the kids warm to their environment-so much so that some begin to bicker and cry. Whenever things heat up Ramseur or the program director, Mattie Jackson, tells them to "use your words" instead. Head Start kids are not as used to articulating their feelings as other children, so teachers try to coax these skills along. The same goes for self-esteem. As she circulates around the room, Jackson makes a point of telling children, "I like the way you're waiting for your food," or "I like the way you stand in line."

Inside, the kids hone their fine motor skills"; outside, during a play period, they exercise their "gross motor skills" on a jungle gym. At lunchtime they work again at self-reliance, setting their own places, struggling to slice and butter a corn muffin, lining up afterward to scrape their plates. While the kids brush their teeth, a social worker comes in with a mother and child she has pulled off the street, to show them the center and put the child on a waiting list. The kids fetch blankets and bed down for a nap.

This is pretty much how Head Start works in all 1,287 centers, in churches and cast-off elementary schools, cities and rural communities. Its aim is to prepare disadvantaged children for school by teaching them basic concepts that most kids have absorbed by first grade. It gets them accustomed to a social environment and persuades them to look at learning as something fun-and in the process checks their teeth and eyes, inoculates and feeds them. Teachers come from the childrens' world, often from their own neighborhood, and understand

their needs in a way middle-class social workers can't.

While some parents undoubtedly use Head Start as an opportunity to watch more television, few get off scot-free. Head Start staff visit the children's homes several times a year to discuss each child's progress. They ask parents to work as aides in the classroom, serve on center planning boards, and assist with field trips and their children's "home- work"-making colored slips, say, to help them practice distinguishing red...