"Itsy Bitsy Spider” plays softly as parents step into the gleaming lobby at Educare, an early childhood education center that opened in 2013 in New Orleans. On this particular day, the spider might want to give up on the waterspout and find a leaf to huddle under. Rain from Hurricane Harvey’s outer reaches lashes at the floor-to-ceiling windows.
But in an infant-toddler room just down the hall, dispositions are sunny. Three teachers and eight children are on the rug, engaged in the all-consuming business of using words to build developing brains.
“What’s this?” the lead teacher asks, touching a boy on the belly. “Your tummy!”
To either side, her co-teachers are helping other toddlers find their tummies. In a few minutes, the kids will be busy making pictures of themselves. If Educare can hang onto these children, they will enroll in kindergarten as ready to learn as their wealthy peers, longitudinal research done by the center’s parent organization shows.
[For more on this story, go to https://www.the74million.org/a...rlyeducationatbirth/]
Photo: Educare's research shows its young students will enroll in kindergarten as ready to learn as their wealthy peers.(Photo courtesy Educare New Orleans)
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