Madeleine Gertsen
Reporter
At 8 A.M. Amanda Stirgwolt, NCHS Child Development teacher, meets with her high school students, brings them to the preschool located within the high school, and they greet the preschoolers who come pouring in. The Child Development classes and AP Child Development classes pair up with their “buddy” and the learning begins.
Each preschooler is assigned to an older NCHS “buddy”. “Having a buddy is a really cute experience because it’s someone that you get to know on a really personal level,” junior Veronica Ma said. “It’s this friendship within this mentoring experience that can be really special with the buddy.”
In the preschool program, high school students learn the basic stages of development as well as the developmental characteristics of children. This class teaches high schoolers why children do certain things at a certain age, making it easier for them to identify specific behaviors. “I think the class has made it easier to interact with them and understand where they’re coming from because there’s not really much to say to them,” sophomore Alexandra Whitaker said. “So it’s kind of like speaking their language and acting like them.”
These studies expose the high school students to family relationships that can be observed during the class and also teach them how adults can help or inhibit the growth of their own children. “Because most people are going to go on and raise a family, you learn a lot of valuable skills,” Veronica said.
Each student in the High School can go through the course with the understanding of how their parents felt when raising them. “I think Child Development for a high school student allows them to experience kind of a different side of their own development,” Ms. Stirgwolt said. “They get to see what it was possibly like for their parents when they were that little.”
According to Ms. Stirgwolt, the idea that high schoolers can apply what they learn in class to their everyday lives is a unique aspect of the course. “Now that they’re in high school it kind of gives them a different perspective on where they’ve come from and where they’re going in the future,” she said.
AP Child Development student, junior Brigid Stanley, felt that taking these classes helped her notice more about children in her every day life. “Once I started learning about what their actions meant, everything made more sense to me when I was babysitting or just seeing kids in town and what they were doing,” she said.
In addition to knowing these skills, Child Development students are also providing a business for the town. “It’s a really convenient way for people around town to actually have a place to put their little kids,” Veronica said. “It’s really awesome for all of the students at New Canaan High School to learn about how children develop. It’s a really amazing and unique program that we have.”
Ms. Stirgwolt agrees that the preschool is beneficial for both parents and students. “They’re running a business for the town, so they can practice leadership skills,” she said. “They also have a chance to be a leader as they get buddied up with their preschool buddy.”
These mentoring skills familiarize high school students with all the details of a child’s growth in a thought-provoking way. “It gives you a whole new perspective on what a preschooler is like, the complexities of development and just in general how you can be a better mentor and supporter of child development,” Veronica said.
Ms. Stirgwolt believes that the program provides many benefits for its high school students. “They’re a mentor, they’re an encourager, they’re a learning coach,” she said. “They’re inspiring the little kids to learn new things.”
