Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life

Educational Rescue

Jared loves his preschool which, on the one hand, is a wonderful program. We're very lucky to have gotten him in there. He's really doing well and the staff is incredible.

The other side of the coin, however, is considerably more significant. The Child Study Center is actually a research lab and training facility for San Francisco State University. Nearly a thousand early childhood development and education students take advantage of the program, observing the kids as they learn, play and develop. A few lucky ones get to be interns, working with the kids for an entire semester, twice a week in a teaching role. Others select children from the program to do research that leads to a better understanding of how children develop and learn and thus to better methods of teaching.

The Rand corporation announced last year the results of a study showing that California would reap benefits of double to quadruple its investment by making preschool available for all four-year-olds. San Francisco recently started on an ambitious program to do just that -- provide "Preschool for All". Given this, you would think that San Francisco State University, a school known for its education program, would never think of cutting such an amazing resource as the Child Study Center.

Unfortunately, sometimes administrators don't think. San Francisco State has cut the CSC from the budget.

If, however, outside funds can be raised to help pay for the program, the university has said they will continue it. So the parents, past and present, who understand the true value of the program are getting together to try and raise the money.

Of course, a program of this caliber and significance must be costing the university millions of dollars each year, right? Actually, other than the use of the classroom space, the total cost to the university for the program is only $140,000 -- the salaries of two teachers. So we actually do have a decent chance of raising a fair bit of the cost of the CSC.

There are several ways to help. The parents have organized a raffle with some excellent prizes -- check out the list at the web page put together by the parents. You can also donate items to the Community Thrift Store at 623 Valencia Street (near 17th). Make sure you tell them the donation is on behalf of the Child Study Center. You can also make a tax deductable donation to the San Francisco State University Foundation - Child Study Center. For more information on any of these options, contact the CSC at csc@sfsu.edu or (415) 338-2441.