There are so many teachable moments for preschoolers that Teach For America is launching an early childhood pilot program.
Founded in 1990 by then-college student Wendy Kopp, the New York City-based TFA has prepared 17,000 teachers through a program that includes an intensive summer training course and four weeks of student teaching. Teach For America occasionally has had its recruits assigned to prekindergarten in the past, but last summer was the first time the organization specifically trained recruits to work in public pre-K classrooms.
That move reflects both a growing demand for early-childhood teachers and a demand from TFA corps members themselves, according to Catherine Brown, the director of Teach For America’s early-childhood initiative. Over the years, she said, participants assigned to higher grades have often said of their students, “‘If only I could have gotten to them younger.’”
The article on edweek.org describes the program and the enthusiasm of the involved participants. TFA now has 12 members in Washington D.C. working with early childhood classes and 15 more in other parts of the country. Their goal is to have 150 corps members working with preschoolers by the next school year.
Preschoolers are like sponges. Give them the opportunities, challenge their minds, and they will do the rest.