My First Experience at a Head Start Program As an Assistant Teacher Substitute by Mike Prochaska

Today was my second time at the daycare center from the temp agency. It’s a head start daycare in a low-income neighborhood. Most of the children’s parents are between the ages of 16 and 24. I couldn't even image having a kiddo when I was 16. In the classroom, I was in there with seven children all between 2 and 3 years old. Once they become 3 1/2 years old they age out and have to go to another childcare center. Most of them I heard go to another classroom upstairs in the building.

The parents who work can drop their kids off at 8 a.m. and the center closes at 5:30 p.m. If the parents don't work or don't go to school they can't bring their children to daycare until 9 and have to pick them up at 3. This confused the hell out of me. What’s your kiddo doing at daycare if you not working or at school? The teacher told me the program tries to get the parents who are just kids themselves to go to work or school, but some refuse to go because if they make too much money they won't get free daycare. This all blows my mind. There’s no way I would send my kids to daycare while I’m at home doing nothing I would feel guilty. Also, I couldn't even image the stress and confusion of being a teen parent – they’re just kids themselves.

So, I get there at 10 a.m. as they are getting ready to take the kids to the park. There is no playground for them at the center, so we have to put the kids in a buggy and walk down the street to the park, which is fine. I think the kids enjoy the walk more than the park. I brought balls from my house to play with the kids at the park, too, which was fun. After a while we walked back to the school. The school is really just two classrooms in this old school that also has a YMCA and a bunch of other programs for the community. After the kids eat lunch, they brush their teeth. I’ve never worked somewhere where they make the kids brush their teeth. This the first time ever seen it, but the kids love it. Then they take naps.

I went home at 2. It’s such a different world from anywhere I been before. The young parents who pick up their kids and the "grandparents" who are my age. But I love it there. The kids are so excited to play and explore and most haven’t had a male teacher – and some don't even have a male role model in their lives.