Learning From the Littlest Ones

By Caroline Preston

Photograph by Harry Sircely/Bucks County Courier Times

When people become parents, they often learn to listen and communicate better, and to be patient and nurturing.

Those skills, however, can be helpful long before they decide to have children, say the officials of Educating Children for Parenting, a nonprofit group in Philadelphia. Once a month, the group brings mothers, fathers, and their infants into kindergarten through eighth-grade classrooms, to serve as the “spark” for an entire curriculum, says Anita Kulick, the organization’s president.

In math classes, for instance, students calculate the costs of raising a baby, while in science, they learn the stages of child development.

The organization, first developed in three Quaker schools in 1978 out of concern that child abuse was on the rise, now has programs in eight states. And as its operations have expanded, so has its mission.

Today, many schools use the program as a preemptive strike against adolescent pregnancy. Students often have many misconceptions about child rearing — and how hard it is. “Once you see how much work goes into parenting, you’re not going to do it” before being prepared, says Ms. Kulick.

The group has also begun using the curriculum to help youths who have been in trouble with the law. After the Columbine school shooting, the organization set up a program in Durango, Colo., geared toward violence prevention. The theory is that students who participate in the curriculum are more likely to resolve problems through nonviolent means and to be understanding of differences.

Ms. Kulick has many other ideas for expanding the program, such as adding an e-mail discussion group for teachers, allowing them to share their experiences. But she says getting money from school districts has been hard, because many school boards are focusing their attention on efforts to raise test scores.

Today, about half the organization’s $500,000 annual operating budget comes from government financing, the other half from private sources.

Here, nine-month-old Zaccary Newsham-Quinn visits a second-grade class at Clara Barton Elementary School, in Bristol Township, Pa.