Head Start

I decided to go to a head start center that I used to intern at for one of my undergraduate classes. For those who are unaware of what a head start center is it is basically a pre-school for low-income families. They actually have to provide pay-stubs and additional information in order to qualify to use head start. I was actually at the center when the economy crashed and budget cuts were now a reality. I walked in and things looked very similar to when I was interning there, hand me down books, old toys, and scarce supplies. I remember when I interned there thinking about how sad it is that the center is not well funded since it is apparent that families greatly need this service. I interviewed three teachers who, to no surprise of mine, had close to the same views on the situation and the same hardships endured as a result of the economy.

All three teachers said since the budget cuts things have been far more stressful for them, one of their universal complaints was that now they only get three days off per year, the rest of the time they need to take out comes out of their pocket. Speaking of their pockets, all three teachers also said since the budget cuts they have seen a dramatic decline in money used for supplies therefore many of them go out on their own and spend out-of-pocket to provide supplies to their children. This did not come as a surprise to me since they were doing this before the economy crashed, however now they feel like they need to do it more often just so they can provide adequate services to their children.

As far as endogenous conflict goes this center took the cake. Before I go into details I would like to state that I see the center (lowest on the totem poll), administration (second lowest), and corporation (highest) as all the same system since it is all under Head Start. Teachers were hoarding materials in desks and even bringing them home so other teachers could not use them. If they brought in the material from home they made sure no one else used it, even if the center was the one who paid for it. One teacher went on to say that she remembers teachers stabbing each other in the back so that they could have their job secured. Unfortunately the conflict does not end there between centers supplies were actually being stolen. The supplies would be left at the front desk of the main office and another center would walk in and take the supplies knowing it was not meant for them. Another conflict is the fact that the corporation is located in Denver, Colorado so whenever the head start center brings up concerns they are only heard by administration, they never get escalated to the corporate office because it is not located in state. One of the teachers said that she is always talking to administration about the issues they are facing but even the administration feels like there is nothing they can do, they either feel like it is a waste of time to try to talk to corporate, or they do not know how to go about asking for change. The center, and apparently also administration feel like their cries for help are landing on deaf ears. In my short visit there it became apparent that this head start center is plagued by helplessness.

Lastly, while talking to the teachers it was obvious that they kept looking around to see who was listening when I finally asked why one of the teachers said that the granddaughter of one of the women in administration worked at the center so she wanted to make sure no one would hear her complaints. Another teacher began talking to me until I asked "Is there anything you want to tell administration?", she completely stopped the interview and asked me where I was going to write this and what it was for. Once I explained what it was for she seemed to ease up a bit however she kept asking me if I was going to write names in my blog because she did not want anyone to know who said what. I immediately felt so bad for these teachers, they are so afraid of what will happen to them by administration that they do not even feel comfortable verbalizing their concerns. I would have had to be blind to not see who holds all the power. In this case corporate AND the administration hold power over this head start center, they are using their power to oppress the workers of the head start center by threatening their jobs. While interviewing I kept trying to empower the workers to try to make a change however it seemed as though they had all completely lost hope and gave up on change. While it makes me sad to see this center struggle so much, without congruence among them and a joint effort I do not see how they could be successful in getting their needs met.

I enjoyed doing these interviews as I touched on throughout my blog it helped me realize how helpless these employees feel, how much competition there is for the limited resources they have, and who really holds the power in the system. It is amazing to me that I interned there for over a year and never noticed any of these things. Sure, I saw that they did not have very many supplies, but I never understand the severity of the situation and just how much it was effecting the teachers.

P.s. Sorry this is so long :)