GERVAIS, Oregon--"Buenas noches! Good evening!" Carolyn Espinoza smiles at the 75 mostly Hispanic parents clustered around a dozen tables in the Gervais Elementary School cafeteria. Outside, a mid-December rain drenches the fields and farms surrounding the rural school, but inside the brightly lit room, laughter and chatter drown Espinoza's words. Standing in the middle of the assemblage, she repeats her greeting, first in Spanish, then in English. After weeks of wondering whether anyone will show up at the premiere Families First science fair, resource teacher Espinoza is clearly pleased at the turnout.
For Families First, a program of Oregon's Marion (County) Education Service District (ESD), the science fair is yet another successful effort to involve Hispanic parents in the culturally appropriate education of their children. Since 1977, the Marion ESD has offered a pre- school program primarily for Hispanic residents of the Willamette Valley. "Our philosophy," says Tina Garcia, program coordinator, "is to provide parents with the belief, support, and reinforcement that they are their children's most influential educator and to instill in parents and children a pride in their cultural heritage."
With $275,000 in federal migrant-education funds, Families First provides four bilingual instructional assistants, a resource teacher-parent trainer, a home-school liaison, and a part-time program coordinator. Together, the team serves 163 preschoolers from about 130 families.
"Our primary objectives," says Garcia, "are to instill in parents the belief that what they have to offer their children is monumental; to create bicultural parent classes where parents are comfortable asking questions; and to emphasize that home is the most natural place for a child to learn--from learning how to classify by helping sort laundry to adding language richness by talking about the reasons colors change on the leaves they see on a drive to town."
Families First has three basic elements:
In addition, Families First collaborates with medical agencies to offer extensive health screening to identify and correct health problems of children in the program.
TWICE A MONTH, DOZENS OF MOTHERS AND FATHERS GATHER at the Gervais Elementary School for parent meetings. Bilingual sessions are held in the early evening and repeated the following morning, allowing flexibility for parents who work days or nights. Meetings feature presentations on topics such as the importance of reading to children or the basics of positive discipline. Sometimes, guests from the community speak--police officers, firefighters, health officials, or local elementary school principals. When possible, community representatives are Hispanic and/or bilingual. An employment official may discuss how to conduct a job search; a housing representative may talk about how to access subsidized homes. The aim is to demystify the system and help parents access services or feel comfortable in the elementary school their preschooler will attend. Parents are surveyed to determine topics of interest.
Families First also has special nights for fathers and children, featuring such activities as constructing a simple bird feeder or taking a field trip to a local swimming pool. Talent sharing is another popular activity. Parents may bring samples of favorite recipes or demonstrate how to change a tire or cut hair.
"One mother who felt like she didn't have any talent to demonstrate had decorated her home with beautiful hand embroidery," recalls Elvira Arce, a Families First instructional assistant. "I admired it during a home visit, and she said she'd done it herself. She shared it during the talent show, and you should have seen her face. Everybody went æWow!' and her self-esteem went way up. Even though she had had no formal education, she had a talent that others admired. And it made her child feel good to see how much everyone admired Mom."
Besides attending the twice-monthly meetings, one member of each family is required, as a condition of participation in the program, to take an adult literacy or GED class or other continuing education that will support and further develop the strength of the family. Instructional assistants help adults enroll. Families First developers believe that such classes help the parents become involved in the community, sets them as role models for their children, and instills pride in parents as they complete program components.
THE YELLOW MINIBUS NAVIGATES CAREFULLY DOWN THE GRAVEL DRIVEWAY to a tidy home where four-year-old Horacio marches out, arms swinging. His mother, holding a diapered infant, follows and exchanges pleasantries with Elvira Arce, the instructional assistant who also serves as bus driver. (Bus service helps families that can't provide transportation and gives youngsters a chance to learn bus safety.) After picking up four more youngsters--and talking with parents at each stop--Arce parks in front of a well-kept apartment where two tiny faces appear at the window. The apartment door flies open, and Arce shepherds in the fledglings from the bus. With the help of adults in the home, the group will spend the next two hours singing, counting, identifying colors, and undertaking other developmentally appropriate activities--all in Spanish.
While some parents initially object to Spanish education, language experts point out several reasons for learning first in the native language. For one, if young children learn English, they tend not to maintain or develop the language spoken at home, even if it is the only one their parents know. The result may be to jeopardize the parent-child relationship.
Another concern is that a child may learn only functional English. Before the age of five, children have not learned the complexity of language and have not learned abstract thought and the interaction between thinking and language. If a second language supersedes the native language too early, the youngster may gain only a functional command of the second language and enter school behind in development of both languages. As language complexity increases in higher grades, forming the basis for more challenging reading and writing tasks, middle school and high school students may find themselves unable to keep up. By first learning all the contextual richness of the native language, the child increases her or his command of the second language.
The Families First in-home preschool gives parents some direct experience with activities they can do with children in the home and helps prepare youngsters for their public school experience. Class size is kept to 10 or fewer children, who attend class two days every other week for two-hour sessions in the morning or afternoon. Each instructional assistant works with a total of 40 youngsters. Classes are held in different homes each week, and a parent or the child's caregiver participates in the activities. On alternate weeks, children work on take-home packets. Activities are carefully gauged to the developmental level of preschool children.
Instructional assistants take classes in developmentally appropriate education and return each year for three hours of continuing education on the topic. That helps them explain to parents the reasons behind what looks like play--that learning fine motor skills by stacking or lacing can help with writing later.
"If parents don't know this," says Arce, "they don't always see the value of the preschool activities." Parents are carefully drawn into the activities. Early in the year or on a first visit to a home, parents may help with minor tasks like supervising small groups of youngsters practicing cutting or gluing. Later, instructional assistants may ask parents to lead two or three children around the room identifying colors or shapes. Parents learn to ask open-ended questions along with strategies for incorporating what is being taught with day-to-day activities such as asking a child to count out five plates at dinnertime or patting out practice tortillas with a bit of scrap dough.
Equally important is culturally appropriate education. When Arce leads her flock into the house, she introduces each child to the grandfather and aunt who will help that day. Each child solemnly shakes hands with the adults.
"In Latino cultures," Garcia explains, "respect for elders is very important."
The aim of culturally appropriate education, according to a publication of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, Anti-Bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children, is to enable every child to construct a knowledgeable and confident self-identity; to develop comfortable, empathetic, and just interaction with diversity; and to develop critical thinking and the skills to stand up for themselves in the face of injustice.
One of the strongest arguments for including culturally relevant education is to enhance a child's self-esteem. Learning is profoundly social and embedded in the home culture. While the dominant culture in most U.S. schools values logic and verbal skills, other cultures--while valuing language--may also emphasize reflection, with the result that speedy answers to questions are not considered socially acceptable.
"Everyone needs to feel psychologically safe and that their culture, their way of doing things, is valued and respected," says Dr. Rebecca Novick, who specializes in early childhood education at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. "A school's values and expectations can be so different from a child's culture that bridging that gap can be crucial to the child's success. Culturally relevant education does that by emphasizing shared experience."
But it's important to seamlessly incorporate culturally appropriate education rather than tacking it on as an afterthought--a practice dubbed "tourist multiculturism" by some for its emphasis on surface differences, such as holidays, between cultures. Ideas for genuinely incorporating multiculturism in the classroom include:
"One of the most important first steps for any of us," says Novick, "is to examine our own biases." Allowing and encouraging kids to talk about cultural differences and similarities--not minimizing the differences--is also important. If a child talks about the difference in skin color, talk about the differences in skin, hair color, eye color, height, weight, and other obvious physical differences. "The goal of culturally relevant teaching," Novick stresses, "is for a child to be fluent and comfortable in both cultures and to move back and forth easily between the two."
THE PRESCHOOL IS OFTEN THE SELLING POINT when parents are deciding whether to get involved with the Families First program. Once drawn in, however, many parents see the value of required parent meetings and literacy classes and enjoy participating. Families First found that even though the program provided refreshments for parent meetings, parents began bringing homemade goodies to show their appreciation for all they were learning.
"I like the parent meetings," says Letisia Reyes, mother of two youngsters in the program. "It's important to see what your kids are learning, and it's very important to get involved with our kids and hear what the teachers have to tell us. I learn a lot."
The offer of free preschool is a strong inducement for parents to get involved, but there are other ways to engage parents of any age child. The first step is to understand an important cultural difference. "We have to help (Hispanic) parents learn our educational system," says Espinoza, who taught for several years in Mexico. There, she says, parents considered the teacher and, by extension, the school to be the absolute authority. "I was a goddess," she says.
Espinoza believes that many Hispanic parents, even if they've lived for years in the United States, bring that assumption to the U.S. educational system, not realizing that their participation is expected and crucial to their child's success. Schools, too, she says, need educating about the differences in cultures. They need to understand that while Hispanic parents may not immediately become involved in their child's education, they still are concerned and interested. They may assume their participation would be seen as an attempt to usurp the school's role as sole educator. Helping them get involved shows them how important and valued their contributions are.
"All cultures value education," says Espinoza. "We have to help parents see that here they need to be involved in their child's education."
In addition to unfamiliarity with the U.S. school culture, Hispanic parents may feel shy about volunteering because of their own lack of education or limited English skills. The first step may be to reach out to those parents personally, ideally with a school staff member who is bilingual.
"If you want parents in the classroom," says Garcia, "you must meet them at the level they are on. Often families believe they have nothing to offer because they don't speak English. If they can't read English, ask them to share stories from their childhood. Or ask them to share a unique talent like ceramics or art or how to make tortillas. Start from the premise that parents have something valuable to offer, and approach them as equals. If you do that, you will attract parents."
Arce suggested that teachers may need to phone parents individually to invite them to an after-school or evening meeting. They also may need to meet in the student's home to discuss with parents the importance of being involved in their child's education and to talk about ways they might feel comfortable helping. Teachers might suggest helping after school or in the family home to prepare supplies for activities later in the week, supervising on the playground, or helping on field trips.
Arranging carpooling or offering rides helps overcome transportation problems, and offering free child care at the meeting site resolves child-care dilemmas. Parents can rotate child-care duties, or parents not involved in the meeting may serve as volunteers.
With nearly two decades in the community, the Marion ESD is widely known for its Hispanic education programs. Still, outreach efforts continue. Staff members are part of the Hispanic community and frequently hear about prospective participants in informal ways. The program also relies on referrals from schools, local agencies involved in the Hispanic community, the county health department, and other parents. "It's not a once- or twice-a-year thing," says Espinoza. "We are constantly looking for participants."
Innovation is a constant theme with Families First. This year the program added a piece to help families make the transition to public schools. Each instructional assistant is mentoring one-to-one with parents whose children will be old enough for kindergarten the following year. With the help of the assistant, the parent meets with people in the school such as the principal, school secretary, kindergarten teachers, and bilingual staff, and compiles the information in a directory for personal use. In addition, the parent and instructor meet twice each month to talk about issues or problems. And Families First works with the child's prospective school to discuss transition issues.
Flexible, personal, innovative, and culturally sensitive--Families First lives up to its name. "Kindergarten teachers say these kids are prepared, ready for school with the skills they need to fit in and move along," says Espinoza. "And for parents it gives them a lot of useful information, accustoms them to going to school meetings, and gives them the self-confidence they need to get involved in school. Families First is making a tremendous difference."
Families First is producing a program video scheduled for release in April. For information, contact Families First, Marion ESD, 3400 Portland Road N.E., Salem, Oregon 97303, or call (503) 588-5361. The publication Anti-bias Curriculum: Tools for Empowering Young Children is available from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1509 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-1426.
Melissa Steineger is a freelance writer who lives and works in Portland, Oregon.
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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