Comments on: Adjacent to Campus, Head Start Program Provides Vital Services to the Middletown Community http://wesleyanargus.com/2009/11/03/adjacent-to-campus-head-start-program-provides-vital-services-to-the-middletown-community/ Twice-weekly student newspaper of Wesleyan University in Middletown. Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:24:43 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: David Lott, '65 http://wesleyanargus.com/2009/11/03/adjacent-to-campus-head-start-program-provides-vital-services-to-the-middletown-community/comment-page-1/#comment-22138 David Lott, '65 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:19:49 +0000 http://wesleyanargus.com/?p=12289#comment-22138 I worked in Head Start in the 1960's and am glad to see that Wesleyan students are doing so now. But the sad fact is that in the 40 plus years Head Start has been in existence education for underprivileged students has not improved. Especially for African Americans, the outcomes are distressingly and consistently bad. This is because programs like Head Start rarely can overcome the destructive social environments and low aspiration educational institutions that many children must cope with. The continuing failure of education to work for the disadvantaged is one of the principal reasons I have turned away from liberal politicians as I have gotten older. Most liberals seem unwilling to face the failure of policies and programs that government has been trying in education for decades without success. We need a radical change in our approach to education. In this area of society at least, the only radicals around are the conservatives. Do I infer from the article that Ms. Dibona is the only Wesleyan student working regularly in Head Start in Middletown? If so, this confirms my fear that much of Wesleyan's vaunted activism is talk rather than action. Get out with Ms. Dibona and help some kids. I worked in Head Start in the 1960's and am glad to see that Wesleyan students are doing so now.

But the sad fact is that in the 40 plus years Head Start has been in existence education for underprivileged students has not improved. Especially for African Americans, the outcomes are distressingly and consistently bad.

This is because programs like Head Start rarely can overcome the destructive social environments and low aspiration educational institutions that many children must cope with.

The continuing failure of education to work for the disadvantaged is one of the principal reasons I have turned away from liberal politicians as I have gotten older. Most liberals seem unwilling to face the failure of policies and programs that government has been trying in education for decades without success.

We need a radical change in our approach to education. In this area of society at least, the only radicals around are the conservatives.

Do I infer from the article that Ms. Dibona is the only Wesleyan student working regularly in Head Start in Middletown? If so, this confirms my fear that much of Wesleyan's vaunted activism is talk rather than action. Get out with Ms. Dibona and help some kids.

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