First Day Of School Research Articles

The Universal Pre-K Bandwagon

A QUIET revolution in our thinking about 4-year-olds has occurred. Two generations ago, we thought that they should stay at home with their mothers. Then, as women joined the work force in record numbers, we decided that 4-year-olds could spend substantial time in a day-care center without turning into bed wetters, biters, or bullies. Today many parents think that 4-year-olds ought to enroll in a prekindergarten program that helps to prepare them for school. These parents think of preschool as a public good, not a luxury or a necessary evil. Preschool is not a new idea, at least not for disadvantaged children. The Head Start program, which originated in 1965, sought to give poor preschool-aged children the skills they would need to succeed in school. Head Start currently reaches half of eligible 4-year-olds and a smaller number of younger children. What is new is the emergence of state-funded pre-K programs for all children, irrespective of income. Six states have now committed themselves to UPK (universal prekindergarten), and more are on the way. Ten years ago no state had a universal pre-K program. Then in 1995, Georgia established one, followed by New York in 1997 and Oklahoma in 1998. After a brief hiatus that coincided roughly with the states' acute fiscal problems, the march toward UPK resumed. In 2002, West Virginia agreed to phase in UPK over a 10-year period. Later that year, Florida voters approved an initiative that mandated the establishment of a UPK program in the fall of 2005. In 2004, Massachusetts agreed to phase in UPK over a 10-year period. The UPK bandwagon is moving forward. How did our thinking change? Like most education reforms, UPK owes a lot to public dissatisfaction with our public schools. our public schools were doing a better job, UPK would be far less popular than it is today. UPK is on the agenda because huge numbers of children are not performing at grade level, huge numbers of disadvantaged children lack basic skills, and huge numbers of advantaged children lack motivation. Yet UPK is an optimistic kind of reform. Unlike charter schools and vouchers, UPK does not give up on our public schools. Rather, it assumes that public schools can succeed, if only they are given a fair chance. The key is that children need to arrive at the schoolhouse door ready to learn. they do, then public school teachers can shape today's youths into the citizens and workers of tomorrow. NERVOUS ABOUT NEURONS In the 1990s, the popularization of research into early brain development helped to build public support for the notion that the seeds for a child's success or failure have already been sown well before the first day of school. A Carnegie Corporation report, Starting Points, highlighted the critical importance of brain development during the earliest years of life. (1) A Newsweek cover story, Your Child's Brain, explained that different regions of the brain mature at different points in time, suggesting that there are windows of opportunity for early learning. If you miss the window, Newsweek warned, you're playing with a handicap. (2) Beyond brain research, scholarly studies showed that pre-K programs actually work. Often attention focused on truly superior early-intervention programs, such as the Perry Preschool Project and the Abecedarian Project, which yielded dramatic long-term gains but which were not directly comparable to garden-variety pre-K programs. Later, scholars examined state-funded pre-K programs and found that they produced less dramatic but nevertheless substantial cognitive improvements. (3) Armed with some evidence and motivated by similar ideas, UPK advocates pursued different strategies in different states. Public officials were pivotal in some states, advocacy groups and voters in others. The issues were highly visible in some states, largely invisible in others. The funding stream was specified early in some states, left for future debate in others. …

Assessing and Meeting the Needs of Preservice Teachers: A Programmatic Perspective

This investigation offers a programmatic perspective into how a certain group of elementary preservice teachers experienced and evaluated their teacher education program by periodically assessing progress with regard to needs being met. A Likert-scale survey including open-ended responses was administered to 123 elementary preservice teachers at three different points in their program, and in-depth interviews with 10 focus group members were conducted. Survey results indicate that all identified needs were met by the end of the program. Qualitative analyses provide insights into how several aspects of the teacher education program might be further enhanced, leading to four recommendations for teacher education programs in general: (1) require observation in a variety of grade levels, (2) offer a mainstreaming course earlier in the program, (3) provide specific instruction on parent conferences and preparing for the first day of school, and (4) create additional opportunities to have preservice teachers discuss their needs.

I want to read about… SCHOOL

Helen Bromley takes a look at a selection of books dealing with the often emotive subject of the first day of school.

Prenatal stress and children's cortisol reaction to the first day of school

Maternal prenatal stress has been found to be related to over-activity and/or dysregulation of the HPA-system in the offspring. These effects are more readily apparent in response to novel situations. The aim of the present report was to examine whether pregnancy stress predicted HPA-axis reactions of children to the first day of school after the summer break. Children of mothers with more prenatal stress were compared to those of mothers with less stress. Habituation was studied by comparisons between the first school day and a second school day a week later. Finally, cortisol levels at school were compared to those of a weekend day. The participants were 29 mother-child pairs (20 girls and nine boys, mean age 5.31 years, SD = 0.50). The children's cortisol levels were determined in saliva. Multilevel analysis (hierarchical linear modelling) was used to analyze the data. Both prenatal cortisol and pregnancy anxiety were related to the children's cortisol levels as a reaction to the first school day. Children whose mothers had higher levels of morning cortisol during pregnancy, and more fear of bearing a handicapped child showed higher levels of cortisol on school days. In addition, the circadian rhythm of cortisol on school days appeared to have a steeper slope as compared to that of the circadian curve on a weekend day.

On the H-Bomb, the Queen of Hearts, and a Tormented Self

I WAS ALREADY sitting up in bed when the ear-piercing scream woke me. Someone was in trouble, and that someone was near. At first, I didn't know where I was. The room was pitch dark. I opened my eyes wider, hoping to find enough light to recognize my surroundings. Through the blackness, I saw something blinking in the distance. I squinted my eyes, and green flashing numbers came into focus. . . . appeared over and over again. That brought me some measure of comfort. I was pretty sure I knew where I was. Unless I was mistaken, I was looking at my VCR clock. It had been flashing 12:00 since the day I brought it home from the store -- five years ago. The scream was still ringing in my ears. Something in the scream was familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It was not a scream of physical pain, I realized, but rather the cry of a woman on the edge, a woman struggling to hold on as she felt self-control slipping from her grasp. I shivered. A tormented soul, I thought. Without considering my own safety, I knew I had to do something to help. I threw aside my toasty electric blanket and swung my legs over the side of the bed. As I stretched my toes in search of my warm, fuzzy slippers, the scream stopped. I was now fully awake. This is really getting old, I growled as I tucked myself back under the covers. Of course the scream had been familiar. It is the traditional end of a recurring nightmare that I've had probably a hundred times over the past 15 years. I was born to teach. And I love it, I really do. I love the smell of new shoes on the first day of school, the electricity of the first snowfall, the sugar high on the day after Trick or Treat, getting ready for open house and having parent conferences, seeing my kids in community parades, going on field trips, listening to custodians lecture when the sink gets clogged with plaster, having papier-mache stuck to the bottom of my shoe, and watching a 5-year-old wipe his nose on the pocket of my new red sweater. I love the day a child realizes he can read, and the day he tells his first very unfunny joke. I love the intimacy of little inside jokes, having my students tell me when I've been unjust, helping them make their own ideas happen, and seeing 20 or more individual I's grow into the beauty of our classroom we. Sure, sure, schools are tough, far-from-perfect, challenging places. Some things about them are even depressing, and much about them these days seems senseless. But I didn't say schools are perfect. I said I love to teach. I've always been an unconventional teacher. Never used textbooks or had a teacher's desk. No contests, no gold stars, no redbird reading groups, no rows, no school-supply decorations, and certainly no stereotyped jack-o'-lanterns, paper-bag Thanksgiving Indian vests, or ditto coloring sheets. The kids and I do just fine without them. And because parents can see their kids learning and because they too are included in our classroom we, they are supportive. But oh, how others worry. One year I attended a three-day conference. While I was gone, a law-and-order substitute decided to teach my kids some manners. When I returned, the desks had been placed in horrifyingly straight rows. As the children filed into the room from the playground, they walked robotically to their desks and stood behind their chairs waiting . . . just What are you guys doing? I asked. Alvin, a tall, big-hearted boy and the class' moral conscience, spoke up. Well, Miss Starnes, he said, Heath [the sub] said that if we respected you, we would stand behind our chairs until you sat down at your desk. So we're waiting. I'm sure my eyes immediately grew to the size of saucers. With visions of my hands wrapped tightly around Mr. Heath's scrawny little neck, I reminded the kids that they showed me respect in lots of ways and that this need not be one of them. …

Teaching: First Impressions First, or Choosing Atmosphere over Method and Management

As a writer who teaches and a teacher who writes, the author offers creative ways of producing a positive first impression on the first day of school.

The First Days of School in the Classrooms of Two More Effective and Four Less Effective Primary-Grades Teachers

We observed 6 primary-grades teachers in public and private schools in this study. Based on mid-year observations, 2 of these teachers were much more effective compared to the other 4 in producing greater student engagement and literacy progress, as determined by video and observation data of multiple content areas and as rated by the Classroom AIMS instrument. These 2 more effective teachers began the school year differently than the other teachers, again documented through observation of their teaching. Consistent with previous studies, the 2 more effective teachers did more to establish routines and procedures at the beginning of the year. In addition, compared to the less effective teachers, on the first days of school the more effective teachers offered more engaging activities, more enthusiastically introduced reading and writing, indicated higher expectations, praised specific accomplishments of students, pointed out when specific students were behaving in a praiseworthy fashion, and encouraged stu...

The Yellow School Bus Project: Helping Homeless Students Get Ready for School

In this time of widespread reductions in welfare and social service assistance, communities need to find creative ways to help their neediest members. Ms. Vissing describes a model collaborative effort in Durham, New Hampshire, that preserves the dignity of homeless students. AS THE END of summer approaches and the first days of school draw near, most young people look forward to going shopping for new clothes and supplies. They arrive at school in their new shoes and clothes, carting backpacks stuffed with new binders, pens, pencils, crayons, and shiny protractors. Unfortunately, this is rarely the experience of homeless students. Homeless parents struggling to make ends meet can't afford the pens, loose-leaf paper, and other supplies their children need for school, let alone new polar-fleece sweaters or capri pants. Most homeless students must make do with hand-me-downs, secondhand clothes, and last year's jeans and tops. And, while parents may believe that the schools provide the supplies that their children will need, the kids know better -- if you don't have your own supplies, you either have to borrow them or do without. Even though homeless students may look forward to the start of the school year as a time of new beginnings and an opportunity for a fresh start, just walking through the door on the first day can be intimidating. Homeless students may fear that, without nice new clothes or well-stocked backpacks, they will not be accepted by their peers or, worse, will be targets of ridicule. More important, homeless students are almost certain to be at a disadvantage when it comes to doing the required schoolwork. It's a challenge for many homeless children to do their homework without access to home libraries or Internet-accessible computers, but some have difficulty even doing in-class work because they don't have the necessary supplies. As a result of federal welfare reform, state budget woes, and the recent economic downturn, welfare and social service assistance has been reduced at the same time as the number of homeless and needy children has grown. There has also been a decrease in charitable contributions to the needy in many communities, as some donors have shifted their contributions to assist victims of terrorism, and others simply have less money to give. In addition, many people concentrate their giving at the holidays, contributing food at Thanksgiving or coats and toys at Christmas. And, while these gifts provide blessed relief to parents of children in need, people generally forget that one of the most important days of a child's year is that first day of school. THE YELLOW SCHOOL BUS PROJECT The Yellow School Bus Project (YSBP) was created to provide homeless children with the supplies and clothes they need to succeed in school and feel good about themselves. When given these gifts, the children receive the explicit message that they are smart and worthwhile. They also receive the implicit message that there are people in the community who are invested in their success and who will help them. Based on our experiences in developing the YSBP, we recommend that others seeking to replicate the program in their communities develop organizational support, identify the need in the community, and create giving opportunities that connect donors to the children as much as possible. 1. Develop organizational support. Undertaking a public service endeavor that may become an integral part of a community's service infrastructure -- with families, schools, and shelters counting on it - - requires ongoing organizational support. The Yellow School Bus Project works best when multiple organizations -- religious, civic, fraternal, business, and nonprofit -- share sponsorship. In Durham, New Hampshire, the decision to create the YSBP as a joint endeavor grew out of communication between the director of the nonprofit Baboosic Center for Child and Community Development and the mission boards of local religious organizations that were looking for a community service project. …

What Matters: A Classroom Odyssey

There is much talk these days about what students need to know. But what do they actually remember a quarter of a century later? Mr. Mahoney shares the memories of and the lessons learned from a group of students he taught for three years more than 25 years ago. WHAT TEACHER ever forgets his first teaching assignment? His first class? His first students? The first days of any teacher's career leave indelible memories of trials and errors, successes and failures, and efforts to get to know one's students. No matter how many years we teach, those first students in those first classes stand apart in our minds. What if you could go back a quarter of a century and meet with your first class, talk with those first students, relive your time together, and discuss what all of you have learned about the experience? I was fortunate to be given that very opportunity. I began my teaching career in the fall of 1973, in a small K-8 school of approximately 200 students in one of the poorest regions of southeastern Ohio. My first class was an energetic group of 24 sixth- graders. Prior to that first day of school, I was given the requisite box of chalk, one red and one blue grading pencil, a standard blank lesson-plan book, and a record book for grades. I left my rented trailer and drove the 20 winding miles through the countryside to the school. I arrived at school the first day only to become very sick a few minutes before the students took their seats. To this day, I'm not sure whether it was carsickness from the crooked road or nervousness at the prospect of meeting my first group of students. I suspect it was both. The next year, the seventh-grade teacher took another job, and I followed the same group of students to the seventh grade. Then, fortunately or unfortunately, the students wanted to be with me for another year, so I moved with them to the eighth grade. It was looping before we called it looping. The year that the students were in eighth grade, the U.S. was celebrating its bicentennial. Since I loved teaching social studies, our class participated in numerous activities to celebrate our country's proud past. One of the things we did was to bury a time capsule representing the culture that existed in 1975-76. We had filled it with mementos from the Seventies, letters we had written ourselves, and artifacts from our many projects together. As we lowered that large fiberglass time capsule into the ground, we agreed that we would reopen it on 4 July 2000. How can a quarter century pass so quickly? I began to look forward to seeing my class again and tried to remember our buried treasures from so long ago. On 3 July 2000, the day before the opening of the capsule, we had a special dinner for the 21 of the 24 original class members who had made it to the reunion. It was truly one of those back-to-the-future experiences. A group of my professional colleagues agreed to join me and to collect information from those grown-ups today about what they had learned so many years before. They met with my former students individually and in groups. The students shared memories about our class, reflected on how their education prepared them for life, and spoke of their hopes for their own children's education. Certainly reunions aren't uncommon, but it is fairly unusual to bring back a group of students who had the same teacher for three years during their charge into adolescence. What did they remember? What stayed with them? What really counted? The truth that emerged from the reunion was that the person who benefited the most from our three years together was me -- the teacher. Why? Because I found my life's work in this wonderful rural school with a group of children who in a sense became my family. The lessons I had learned about teaching, children, students, and life became clear to me after the reunion. In this article, I want to share those lessons. While I will focus more on what worked, I remember many things that didn't work: mass punishment, throwing erasers, yelling at students, and not being prepared for class. …

Children With Cochlear Implants

It is the first day of school and excitement has filled Mrs. Kay's kindergarten classroom. Mrs. Kay is always happy for the new school year to begin. However, this year also brings some trepidation. She has a new student named Ashley who is deaf and who has a cochlear implant. This situation is very new to Mrs. Kay and she currently has more questions than answers.

How Teachers Establish Psychological Environments during the First Days of School: Associations with Avoidance in Mathematics

Observations of the first days of school in eight sixth-grade classrooms identified three different classroom environments. In supportive environments teachers expressed enthusiasm for learning, were respectful, used humor, and voiced expectations that all students would learn. In ambiguous environments teachers were inconsistent in their support and focus on learning and exercised contradictory forms of management. In nonsupportive environments teachers emphasized extrinsic reasons for learning, forewarned that learning would be difficult and that students might cheat or misbehave, and exercised authoritarian control. Teachers’ patterns of motivational and organizational discourse during math classes near the end of the year were consistent with the messages they expressed at the beginning of the year. When student reports of avoidance behaviors in math from fall and spring were compared with the qualitative analyses of these environments, students in supportive classrooms reported engaging in significantly less avoidance behavior than students in ambiguous or nonsupportive environments.

How Teachers Establish Psychological Environments during the First Days of School: Associations with Avoidance in Mathematics

Observations of the first days of school in eight sixth-grade classrooms identified three different classroom environments. In supportive environments teachers expressed enthusiasm for learning, were respectful, used humor, and voiced expectations that all students would learn. In ambiguous environments teachers were inconsistent in their support and focus on learning and exercised contradictory forms of management. In nonsupportive environments teachers emphasized extrinsic reasons for learning, forewarned that learning would be difficult and that students might cheat or misbehave, and exercised authoritarian control. Teachers’ patterns of motivational and organizational discourse during math classes near the end of the year were consistent with the messages they expressed at the beginning of the year. When student reports of avoidance behaviors in math from fall and spring were compared with the qualitative analyses of these environments, students in supportive classrooms reported engaging in significantly less avoidance behavior than students in ambiguous or nonsupportive environments.

Supervision in Georgia Public Schools

No AccessPerspectives on Administration and SupervisionArticle1 Jun 2003Supervision in Georgia Public Schools Kelly Van Wyck-Smith Kelly Van Wyck-Smith Bibb County Public School SystemMacon, GA Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/aas13.2.16 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In References ASHA. (1997). Trends and issues in school reform and their effects of speech-language pathologists, audiologists and students with communication disorders.ASHA Desk Reference, Vol. 4, 310–320. Google Scholar ASHA. (1999). Guidelines for the roles and responsibilities of the school-based speech-language pathologist. Rock-ville, MD: Author. Google Scholar ASHA. (2000). ASHA 2000 schools survey: Executive summary. Rockville, MD: Author. Google Scholar Bender, W. N. (2002, April). Brain compatible strategies for the inclusive classroom. Paper presented at the meeting of the Union School and the University of Georgia Collaboration Team, Macon, GA. Google Scholar Berryman, J. D., & Neal, W. R., Jr. (1983). SLP assessment project: 1982–83 final report. Atlanta: Georgia Department of Education. Google Scholar Berryman, J. D., Neal, W. R., Jr., & Callahan, R. (1986). Quality assurance through performance evaluation of school SLPs in Georgia. Atlanta: Georgia Department of Education. Google Scholar Berryman, J. D., Neal, W. R., Jr., & Solomon, L. (1985, November). Accountability in the school setting: Performance evaluation of school speech-language pathologists. Paper presented at the ASHA annual Convention, Seattle. Google Scholar Callahan, R. A., & Reeves, R. K. (1990, November). Annual assessment of school speech-language pathologists by principals/special education directors. Paper presented at the ASHA annual Convention, Seattle. Google Scholar Carroll, D. H. (1997, January). A comparison of clinical supervision and evaluation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Southwest Educational Research Association, Austin, TX. Google Scholar Georgia Department of Education. (1993). Georgia teacher evaluation program: Evaluation manual: Atlanta: Author. Google Scholar Montgomery, J., & Herer, G. (1994). Future watch: Our schools in the 21st century.Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 25, 130–135. LinkGoogle Scholar Pezzei, C. & Oratio, A. R. (1991). A multivariate analysis of the job satisfaction of public school speech-language pathologists.Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 22, 139–146. LinkGoogle Scholar Roseberry-McKibbin, C. & Hegde, M. N. (2000). An advanced review of speech-language pathology. Preparation for NESPA and comprehensive examination. Austin, TX: PRO-ED. Google Scholar Sergiovanni, T. J., & Starratt, R. J. (1971). Emerging patterns of supervision: Human perspectives. New York: McGraw-Hill. Google Scholar Shapiro, D. A., & Moses, N. (1989). Creative problem solving in public school supervision.Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 20, 320–332. LinkGoogle Scholar Wiles, J., & Bondi, J. (2000). Supervision: A guide to practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hal. Google Scholar Wong, H. K., & Wong, R. T. (1991). The first days of school. How to be an effective teacher. Sunnyvale, CA: Harry K. Wong Publications. Google Scholar Additional Resources FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 13Issue 2June 2003Pages: 16-22 Get Permissions Add to your Mendeley library History Published in issue: Jun 1, 2003 Metrics Topicsasha-topicsleader-topicsasha-article-typesasha-sigsCopyright & Permissions© 2003 American Speech-Language-Hearing AssociationPDF DownloadLoading ...

From Bad to Worse?: Troubling Development in Preschool Settings

At the end of Jake's first day of school his teacher called him the ‘worst kid in the class’. A year later, when he was not ‘progressed’ to Year 1, the pattern of Jake's school development seemed to be set. As I write, Jake is in Year 4, and many of the predictions his Prep teacher made on that first day seem accurate—he has not had a history of successful learning or social experience at school. As I discuss elsewhere (Hill et al., 2002), Jake has had periods of very successful learning and progress though, which indicate that the ‘developmental pathways’ that children tread are socially constructed, rather than reliant on innate ‘abilities’ or ‘natural’ traits. For Jenks, ‘development’, or ‘progress towards an adult state over time’, is ‘the primary metaphor through which childhood is made intelligible’ (1996, p. 36). Psychological notions of development, however, are far more complicated and troublesome than such a metaphor encourages us to believe.

Intellectual character: what it is, why it matters, and how to get it

List of Tables, Figures, and Exhibits. Foreword: Six Intellectual Characters in Search of an Author (David Perkins). Preface. Acknowledgments. The Author. Part One: The Case for Intellectual Character. 1 Failing at Smart: Or What's an Education For? Where Are We? A Look at the Current State of Teaching. What Are We Teaching For? What Should We Be Teaching For? Moving Forward 2 Rethinking Smart: The Idea of Intellectual Character. Missing the Mark with IQ. Beyond Ability: The Idea of Intellectual Character. Which Dispositions? 3 Acting Smart: How Thinking Dispositions Close the Ability Action Gap. A Disposition in Action. Some Additional Perspectives on Dispositions. A New Model of Dispositions Emerges. Creating Environments that Support the Development of Intellectual Character. From Models to Practice. Part Two: Fostering Intellectual Character in Our Schools. 4 First Days, First Steps: Initiating a Culture of Thinking. Conveying a Sense of the History of Thought and the Power of Ideas. Jumping into a Big Subject Matter Issue. Laying a Foundation for Ongoing Dialogue. Setting an Agenda of Understanding. The Importance of the First Days of School. 5 Thinking Routines: Creating the Spaces and Structures for Thinking. The Form and Function of Routines. Thinking Routines: A Special Type of Routine. Thinking Routines in Action. The Importance of Thinking Routines. 6 Language and Thinking: Prompting, Priming, and Patterning. Learning to Think by Talking. Ways of Talking, Ways of Thinking. The Language of Thinking. The Language of Mindfulness. The Power of Language. 7 Thought Full Environments: Sustaining a Culture of Thinking. Opportunities for Thinking. The Teacher as a Model of Thinking. Classroom Attitudes and Interactions. Making Thinking Visible in the Environment. Identifying the Thought Full Classroom. Part Three: Moving Toward the Ideal of Intellectual Character. 8 Beyond Technique: Where Teaching for Intellectual Character Begins. Exploring Foundations. Sketches of the Teachers. Where It Begins. 9 Three Lessons: What to Keep in Mind About Teaching for Intellectual Character. Lesson One: The Importance of Teachers' Dispositions. Lesson Two: Breaking the Rules of So Called Effective Teaching. Lesson Three: Thinking and Understanding Are a Powerful Mix. In Closing. 10 Some Practical Advice: How to Get Started Teaching for Intellectual Character. Start with Yourself. Enlist Others in the Process. Look at Your Teaching Practice. Take It to the Classroom. Give It Time. In Closing.Appendix. Methodological Notes. Teacher Selection. Classroom Observations. Teacher Interviews. The Repertory Grid Methodology. Reflections and Critique. Notes. References. Index.

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Individual differences in children's cortisol response to the beginning of a new school year

The relationship between salivary cortisol levels at the beginning of the school year and parent reports of temperament using the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ) were investigated in 35 first graders. Cortisol was sampled in the morning, afternoon, and evening on the first and fifth days of school and two weekend days later in the school year. On the first day of school compared to weekend days, children displayed a steeper cortisol slope across the day due to lower afternoon and evening levels. By the fifth day of school, cortisol levels, on average, were not different than on weekend days. However, using change scores to reflect the response to school days relative to weekend days, children who scored higher in Surgency (i.e., enjoyment of intense play, high activity level, impulsivity, lack of shyness) continued to display a steeper cortisol slope on the fifth day of school with higher morning and lower evening cortisol levels. In contrast, shyness, which negatively contributes to Surgency, was positively correlated with evening change scores on the fifth day of school.

A Musical Education: Lee Morgan and the Philadelphia Jazz Scene of the 1950s

When Michael LaVoe observed Lee Morgan, a fellow freshman at Philadelphia's Mastbaum Vocational Technical High School, playing trumpet with members of the school's dance band in the first days of school in September 1953, he could not believe his ears. Morgan, who had just turned fifteen years old the previous July, had remarkable facility on his instrument and displayed a sophisticated understanding of music for someone so young. Other members of the ensemble, some of whom al­ ready had three years of musical training and performing experience in the school's vocational music program, experienced similar feelings of dis­ belief when they heard the newcomer's precocious ability. Lee Morgan had successfully auditioned into Mastbaum's music program, the strongest of its kind in Philadelphia from the 1930s through the 1960s, and demon­ strated a rare ability that begged the title prodigy. Almost exactly three years later, in November of 1956, Lee Morgan, now a member of the Dizzy Gillespie orchestra, elicited a similar response at the professional level after the band's New York opening at Birdland. Word spread, and as the Gillespie band embarked on its national tour, au­ diences and critics nationwide took notice of the young soloist featured on what was often the leader's showcase number: A in Tunisia. Nat Hentoff caught the band on their return to New York from the Midwest in 1957. My back was to the bandstand as the band started Night in Tunisia. Suddenly, a trumpet soared out of the band into a break that was so vividly brilliant and electrifying that all conversation in the room stopped and those of us who were gesturing were frozen with hands outstretched. After the first thunderclap impact, I turned and saw that the trumpeter was the very young sideman from Philadelphia, Lee Morgan. (Hentoff 1965)

And now you are getting a teacher with such a long name…

The first school day is marked by strangeness: strange children and strange parents in a relatively strange institution and meet up with strange adults in the guise of teachers. What happens in this encounter between strangers? Is it reasonable to expect that strong and lasting relations are about to develop? Does the feeling of strangeness gradually disappear, or does this initial sense of strangeness frustrate the teacher's pedagogical understanding of the students? A critical pedagogical analysis and a phenomenological interpretation of a teacher's welcoming talk to children and parents on the first day of school are presented and compared.

Time to Talk of Early Childhood

EVEN THOSE given to betting on long shots would not accept the odds facing thousands of kindergarten and primary school teachers these days. Before they complete the first lessons - and certainly before they give the first tests - these teachers know that they have signed up to perform the difficult juggling act of bringing all their young charges up to the same level, while sticking to the standards local definitions of accountability demand of them. It is sad to admit that the inequality allowed to exist in the richest nation in the world means that children enter kindergarten with backgrounds that differ widely in the preparation they provide for learning. These gaps are present on the first day of school, and, so far, most schools have not figured out how to close them. The recent report on mathematics achievement from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), for example, did find higher performance since the early 1990s in the fourth and eighth grades. But NAEP also found that, because skills had improved in all racial and income groups, the academic gap between disadvantaged and more advantaged students hadn't closed. Indeed, in some cases, it had even grown wider. The realities of a serious learning gap at the beginning of formal schooling, coupled with our failure to deal with it, might sour the whole school year for some readers. But something significant is on the verge of happening in public policy and understanding that could change the picture. We may be headed for an acceptance of universal preschool. Certainly, some of the framework exists already. Even Start, Head Start, early education services for the developmentally delayed, programs such as Parents as Partners, and a variety of state-funded initiatives make opportunities available to some families in an effort to compensate for what more affluent families can do for their children. When we also take into account the array of private early childhood programs, we can see that the pattern of early childhood education in the U.S. seems to be a patchwork of programs. It has never really been a system. Certainly, the problem of unequal access has plagued U.S. early childhood education, but, more important, there has been no public commitment to quality. The U.S. is one of the few industrialized nations that does not offer public support for universal preschool programs. This failure to give priority to the preparation of our youngest citizens means that we have no clear standards for the environments that best stimulate their learning. Moreover, we do not expect those to whom we entrust the care and education of young children to be extraordinarily well prepared, and we pay them accordingly. The lack of universal standards and the inadequate levels of investment are now on a collision course with the findings of research about what high-quality early childhood education can accomplish. And standards need not here mean conformity. A good Head Start program can do as much for young children as the most exclusive suburban Montessori school and still be very different. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) represents all sorts of programs and providers, but for a long time it has supported certain standards for programs and for the preparation of caregivers and teachers. Federal policy is now moving cautiously toward changing this situation. President Bush has emphasized more attention to cognitive preparation in Head Start programs. Unfortunately, such moves fall far short of promoting quality throughout the early childhood experiences of those children who will fill the K-12 classrooms of the future. Without some means of improving teacher preparation and knowledge of child development, a move toward more academic instruction in the early years could restrict young children's capacities for deep learning, a skill they will need as they enter school. …