RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
HIPPY can start developing workforce at the earliest level We used to think Hippy meant a long-haired guy from the '60s, wearing sandals with a peace symbol dangling from around his neck. But a group of local volunteers are touting the advantages of HIPPY and now we know it as a innovative program to help parents be the first educators for their primary children. The program is correctly "Home Instruction for Parents of Pre- School Youngsters" (now you see why they just call it HIPPY). Judy Graham, who is manager of the local Alabama Power office when she isn't working on a variety of community projects, and others have been preaching the program to anyone who will listen in an effort to get it started in Clarke County. The concept is simple- to teach parents how to work with their preschool children to give them a good start for when they do start formal classes. Simple maybe, but not inexpensive. The Alabama Legislature has appropriated $1.7 million to help eight local school systems- including Clarke County's- enact the program. About 2,500 children in the eight systems will be benefited by the program. Some may think the program unnecessary but this is workforce development at its earliest level. We must begin training people at the earliest ages possible for them to one day be able to compete for jobs that are growing increasingly more complex and technologically challenging. With our area growing and new, higher tech jobs coming in, we must better educate our people if they are to have a chance at getting these jobs. Judy Graham correctly observes, "The need for a program like HIPPY is driven by poverty." Nearly 40 percent of Clarke Countians do not have a high school diploma and nearly 20 percent are below the poverty level.
There is a direct correlation between education and poverty. If we work to fix the education problem the poverty problem will fix itself over time.
|
for larger version       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
