Campbell Armstrong, Reporter
@carmcourant
During the crazy school year, parents scurry around looking for a preschool that will allow their children to obtain a great education, while having a fun experience doing so. Here at NCHS, there is a unique Child Development Preschool Program that allows for an interaction between high schoolers and preschoolers.
This program is run by Donna Sapienza, with the help of the high school students enrolled in the class and has been around for numerous years. These students practice their creativity, management, and leadership skills on a day-to-day basis while planning their team taught lesson that they give to the preschoolers once a semester. Children ages two to three attend the preschool for two hours twice a week, and are provided with nonstop attention given the preschool to teacher ratio is 1:1.
With hands on experience, children are able to participate in many activities each teaching day. Junior Catherine Bopp feels that the preschool students take a lot away from this class. “The kids are able to benefit because they get our undivided attention. It’s definitely obvious that I’m influencing them and they are benefitting from my presence because I’m teaching them their colors, numbers and the alphabet,” she said.
Although many believe that this program excludes certain age groups, Donna Sapienza, the head of this program, explains that, “This preschool covers a great age group of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen and two and three year olds which provides a variety of development areas. While the high schoolers are just getting ready to nurture, the children want to look up to the high schoolers,” she said.
Given that each child is assigned their own high school buddy at the beginning of the semester, the two spend a lot of time together, ultimately building strong relationships. Sophomore Summer Sloane feels that having that much time to bond with the preschooler helps both students form a close relationship, “I think that the buddy system is a key part to the program because throughout the semester you get to watch them grow and you track their different skills so at the end you can see their progress.”
Because the high schoolers and pre school students learn from one another, the class is a unique experience for all who take it. “Aside from learning, students in the Child Development course are expected to know a lot about their buddy,” Catherine said. “We are required to know about their family, their favorite food, their favorite book, favorite movie and other important facts.”
While the preschool program has been a very successful addition for both high school students and the children of New Canaan, Catherine and Summer both agree it is not easy work. Although Catherine enjoys the program as a whole, she feels there are tougher aspects to the course. “I think that the hardest part about running this preschool is that you have to discipline the kids, and it’s sad to see them upset mostly because they aren’t your kids,” she said.
Summer feels that sometimes it is a challenge to deal with them because they are still learning a lot about the children and their stages of development. “When kids bite each other and throw toys it’s definitely a challenge getting them to stop, and when they fight it’s hard to break them up and explain to them what they are doing is wrong,” she said.
Even though the Child Development Preschool Program has been a huge success so far, there are a few things Mrs. Sapienza would change in the future. “I would love to make an outside space for the preschoolers to go during a nice day,” she said. “It would also be nice to have an observation window where we can see the preschool room but the people inside cannot see the observers. That way, the high school students could be there but not all have to be in the preschool at once. The observers will be able to see a lot more than what we see in the preschool because it’s easy to miss things.”
This program will continue to be a great addition to NCHS enhancing the education for the high school students while positively influencing preschool students on a weekly basis. Like Mrs. Sapienza always tells her students, “The high schoolers are the rock stars.”
