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PAGE 10 â€" WATERLOO CHRONICLE. WENDNFSDAY FEBRUARY 8, 1989 Chronicle Staff When it came time to publicly announce her position on jumior kindergarten, Waterloo Regâ€" lon separate school board trustee Jacquie Papke was thinking about her granddaughters and daughter Community She, and four other trustees, opposed a motion to place the program in the board‘s 1990 list of budget pmorities for implementation in six schools beginning September 1990, and expandâ€" ing yearly after that. The January motion passed, and will reâ€" emerge almost a year from now when trustees are developing the board‘s 1990 budget. Papke‘s daughter, Karen Staines, a Kitchener mother of two preschoolâ€"aged children, opposes the idea of junior kindergarten. "I just think this school system would be so much better off to concentrate its efforts on students in Grade one to Grade 12," said Staines. She‘s concerned about placing children in a structured school environment from the age of four to the time they graduate. As well, the idea that her tax dollars will be used to operate a program she equates to day care doesn‘t rest well. These are concerns Papke carries with her to about transportation, location of programs, the availability of space and teachers, and the onâ€" going costs, Papke is reluctant to have junior kindergarten included in the Catholic system. kindergarten curriculum, will be addresged this year as administrators and staff prepare for the program, explained Tony Truscello, superintenâ€" dent of education responsible for curriculum. Staff will make preparations for a September 1990 start, although the final decision depends on whether the board allots the financial Thuiimm.unfl-mamfic Established across the province, it raisesâ€"concerns locally Junior kindergarten resources, and whether teachers and the neces sary space are found. Junior kindergarten is not a new program to various themes of junior kindergarten for nearly 20 years. Though neither the Waterloo public nor separate board has implemented the proâ€" gram, primarily for financial reasons, it‘s not from a lack of discussion. Information and presentations were first made before the public board in 1973. The Catholic board has been attempting to implement the program since 1986 after it prepared a 163â€"page Junior Kindergarten Study released February that same year. The ministry of education estimates 77 per cent of Ontario school boards have them in jumor kindergarten provinceâ€"wide is closer to 50 per cent as many of the large urban boards have not implemented it. Traditionally separate boards have been quicker to implement junior kindergarten than public boards, he added. The separate system‘s reâ€"emphasis on junior kindergarten will not place pressure on the public system to follow suit, said public board chairman Elizabeth Witmer. In 1986 the public board decided it would not introduce junior need for adequate accommodation throughout the system, concern about transportation and the need for qualified staff. The program sits on a back burner but could be reconsidered if there were a grassroots demand or the government was financially committed to the idea, added Witmer. A costly program â€" estimated at $68,500 for six schools for the first four months of operation in 1990 â€"â€" it is something that Louise Ervin, a Waterioo separate board trustee and manageâ€" estimates the number of children affected by times," added Ervin, "you have to get away from the cost and look at the value of the program." Among the reasons for her support is that the program allows for earlier detection of developâ€" mental delays in a child, added Ervin. Both Truscello and McFadden acknowledged the implementation of junior kindergarten is, in part, a response to the needs of a changing society, where extended families are absent, ment committee chairman, supports. "T‘ll never deny the fact that it‘s a costly program but if you constantly said the programs are costly, you‘d never implement any. Someâ€" where both parents are working. These factors have placed upon the education system a responsibility to provide support services to "If the child was not in this kind of planned program then the child is more than likely sitting in some other kind of program, or centre, or being babysat. Or even where the child is at "So you‘ve got a large percentage of cases where the parents wouldn‘t be available anyâ€" way," said Truscello. "We‘ve got the reality whether we like it or don‘t like it, whatever our feelings, we‘ve got the reality that the changes home, it may not necessarily be in a stimulating that have been occuring lead us to say maybe something a little more planned, a little more stimulating, an environment in which not only would children be challenged but which reâ€" search seems to indicate has long term benefits â€" maybe that‘s a good alternative." For Staines and her neighbor Pat Abel â€" two mothers who opted out of the workforce to raise their children â€" the idea represents a paradox. Having decided to stay at home with their children, should they exercise their option to put them in the school system as junior kindergarâ€" ten students hoping they will be better stimuâ€" lated, better socialized and adapt more easily to school life? Right now they say no. But they hasten to add that societal pressures will be heavy, as well as the nagging doubt that keeping them at home might not be for the children‘s betterment. Surveys show that where junior kindergarten is available 90 per cent of the eligible children will attend the optional program. "I still think I wouldn‘t want to put Lauren in because L don‘t want her stuck in that structure. I think one or two afternoons a week is plenty." Staines and Abel want to see data indicating a they would be watching the board for further inf . While educators have yet t# agree whether early childhood education is beneficial some research points to improvements in language l;fility,cmnqflbnl_dlflpflflut ving. An American study, the Perry School Project, cited in the Waterloo separate board‘s study said "Children who had attend preâ€"school scored higher on reading, arithmetic and language achievement at all grade levels than did chilâ€" dren who had not attended preâ€"school. By age 15 the children who had attended preâ€"school tested the equivalent of one full grade better than the children who had not attended preâ€"school." Children seem to be growing up quickly and face so many pressures, said Abel and Staine that they wonder whether they are prepared to push their children from the mest so soon. As parents seek out special programs to give their children a competitive edge over others, Abel ten isn‘t another push in this direction. xÂ¥ L M