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Head Start Success Story
December 5, 2014
It's not enough to know how to ride — you must also know how to fall.
-Mexican proverb
-Mexican proverb
I never imagined I would be citing a story from People magazine in ExchangeEveryDay, but here I go:
A story, "My American Dream: Great Success Against All Odds," in People (November 17, 2014) tells the story of Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, who was one of the very first Head Start graduates:
"As a child, Darren Walker was curious about everything. 'I had a thirst,' he says, 'for what was beyond the horizon.' But for a boy born into poverty in rural Louisiana and raised by a single mother in the 1960s in Texas, the odds of soaring beyond the horizon were slim. That all changed one afternoon in 1965 when a woman walked up the dirt road to his shotgun house and asked his mother... if she wanted to enroll him in a new education program for underprivileged kids called Head Start. 'I felt special,' says Walker of attending those classes, 'like I was being given a window into a world beyond my immediate circumstances.'"
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ExchangeEveryDay is the official electronic newsletter for Exchange Press. It is delivered five days a week containing news stories, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
Comments (4)
Displaying All 4 CommentsJacksonville, FL, United States
As early childhood professionals, we know about the importance of appropriate environments on growth and development, which Head Start programs provide for young children. I am sure there many success stories like this one, resulting from over 50 years of Head Start. If only the rest of the people in our communities value the early years....so many issues would be prevented (as proven by research).
United States
I remember our neighbor visiting my mother to ask about a new program a teacher had mentioned to her. Would it be okay to enroll her children in this new program, she wondered. My mother encouraged her to enroll her young children in the new Head Start program. Her children completed high school and graduated from 4-year colleges. Today they are successful businessmen and women and teachers.
United States
Thank you so much for sharing this story. Stories like these are so important to hear....real people that have found success and lived in poverty.
Good choice!
United States
I was a Head Start mother. In Western Mass in the early 70's. I think of the women who ran that program, and how they reached out to me and my son 'recruiting' us for the program. They seemed to focus on me, did a lot that I didn't understand at all at the time as a very young mother. But I realize now that they saw potential in me that others hadn't and that I had no idea of. They did all they could to help me to see it also.
They were part of many forces that awakened me to myself, and moved me forward toward a life of success on every front. Same for my son. I just wish I could see those women now, and thank them.
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