Webster School on Peoria’s South Side offers Head Start for bilingual and Spanish-Speaking kids. Just a decade ago, there were only a handful of Hispanic students. Now there are two classrooms with teachers who are dedicated to helping them transition to English.
ESL Head Start teacher Maria Teresa Brown is talking to a group of parents in Spanish. The atmosphere is relaxed, but some parents new to the program look a bit anxious. Brown says that’s normal, especially since many of these families don't speak English or have never had access to Pre-K. Brown says this classroom will set the stage for the rest of their children’s lives.
“No hablan inglés, la mayoría de ellos, entonces este es un program excelente porque les ayuda a la transición del español, que es lo que hablan en casa.”
“The majority of them don’t speak English,” Brown said. “This is an excellent program because it helps them transition out of Spanish, which is what they speak at home.”
Brown says the first half of the year is primarily Spanish, but by the second half, kids are more, if not completely, immersed in English.
Carolina Mejia is a mother of four. Mejia is enrolling her youngest, who’s three, in head start this year.
“Como que no tiene mucho edad. Es algo muy bonito, ver que ellos van aprendiendo desde tanto temprano edad. Para saber que hay algo más para ellos.”
“It’s such a beautiful thing, to see your kids learning at such a young age. To know that there is something bigger for them,” Mejia said.
Meija says she can’t begin to describe the happiness she feels knowing they have opportunities that she did not.
Mejia is from Guanajuato, Mexico. Growing up, she didn’t have access to preschool, but even if she did, she says, her family couldn’t afford school supplies.
Living in the US, in another language, it's overwhelming for this mother to find services she can trust, which is why it was particularly scary to drop her kids off at pre-school for the first time.
“Para el principio es duro. Es muy duro. Porque cuando lo dejas no sabes que lo que va a pasar. Pero gracias a dios, yo en esta estoy muy contenta porque a mis niños nunca les paso nada.”
“At first, it’s hard. It’s very hard. Because when you drop them off for the first time, you don’t know what will happen to them," Mejia said. "But I thank God for this. I am so happy because nothing bad has ever happened to my children.”
Mejia has seen her other three kids move on from Head Start, into elementary school and high school. She says her oldest dreams of attending college and becoming a teacher.
Almost 700 children are enrolled in the federally-funded pre-K program Head Start in Trewyn, Manual, Sterling and Webster school this year. Nearly 60 of those children are registered for Spanish and bilingual classrooms. The majority of families enrolled in Peoria's Head Start program live in the 61605, 61604 and 61603 zip codes, Director Sandra Burke said.
Family Service Specialist Marta Ramos Ford says she’s seen a gradual increase in Hispanic enrollment since she started about a decade ago. Ford says teachers start out the year primarily teaching in Spanish, then gradually fade in more English.
“The children initially they have the comfort of having somebody that knows their language," Ford said. "At the beginning, you might be scared. It eases the transition into the English language."
Ford says she’s seen some of the kids she started working with ten years ago move on successfully into high school.