by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
A visit to the Happy Acres Ranch child care center last week showed Mayor John Peyton’s literacy initiative in action.
As the calender turns over on a new school year, Peyton will spend $10 million through his Jacksonville Children’s Commission to instill literacy as a “core value” in the city’s children. The City has already enrolled about 7,500 kids in the program and is looking for more. The program is available to every four-year-old in the City. Parents can enroll at the JCC website available at www.coj.net.
The program helps child care centers create what Lanier called, “a literacy rich environment.” Child care providers are coached on effective teaching skills, and the centers are rated, letting parents know which are most effective.
The Happy Acres director, Maryanne Adams said the program had been a leveler in her classroom, where she has noticed a gap in the literacy levels of affluent kids and her subsidized students that come from poorer homes.
“You see the difference,” said Adams. “Some of these kids show up at the door with their books in hand, ready to go. Others don’t. This gives the subsidized kids the same opportunities as the fee-paying kids.”
All the kids lug around a backpack filled with educational tools. Each bag is packed with a picture book, stickers, puppets and a “reading blanket.” By setting the blanket down, the kids essentially create their own reading labs. At a recent RALLY event at the zoo, JCC workers expected to find the backpacks and their contents strewn everywhere at the end of the day. Instead they were shocked at how closely the kids guarded their bags.
Lanier was similarly impressed with the Happy Acres. The program has just started there, but Lanier said it’s already an example of the kind of child care center the program envisions.
Asked to describe a “literacy rich environment,” Lanier waved her arm around the Happy Acres classroom. A paper mache tree sprouted from one of the walls. Just about every surface was plastered with letters and numbers.
“We let these kids be round pegs in square holes,” said Adams. “Because kids learn best when they’re standing on their heads and laughing.”