816-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, September 3, 1988 * / jm a. . son v immy are now fai g. .. They found the federally-funded Migrant Education Program of tremendous help to their children when they moved to several different locations. Agricultural Families On The Move Find Help For Their Children BY LOU ANN GOOD BERNVILLE (Berks) Sam Doak is a herdsman. When he and his family moved from Montgom ery to Tioga and later to Berks County, the children needed to adjust to new school districts. His wife Kathy recalls, “In Montgomery County Sammy was in first grade where he was just learning the alphabet, but Tioga County first graders were already sounding out words. Sammy was lost.” Many families who move can identify with the stress their child ren face as they adjust to different school programs. For those fami lies who move because their parent or guardian is employed in agricul ture work, a government program offers tutorial help. The federally funded Migrant Education Prog ram assists children with their home work and with areas of difficulty. Kathy said, “When a recruit first mentioned this to us, we were apalled. My husband said, “We’re not migrants.” The Doaks thought migrants referred to people who come from other countries and travel from state to state to pick fruit or vegetables. They found out that those peo ple are only a small percentage. The federal program defines migrants as any family who moves for agricultural-related purposes. Examples of agricultural employ ment include work in mushroom houses, greenhouses, nurseries, seed factories, dairy farms, viney ards, picking fruit or vegetables, planting or pruning, processing of poultry, beef or vegetables. There are also many transiet people among agriculture hired hands, lerdsmcn and tenant farmers. And when they move and take heir student-aged children with hem, it’s a whole different school o adjust to. The adjustments often eave children floundering in school work. To meet this deficit, the government legislated help. In Lancaster, Gary Johnson oversees the program. He said, “The need is not based on economics but on child need.” It does not matter how much income a family makes, if the fam ily has moved within the past six years for agriculture employment their children are eligible for the program. However, the program puts priority on those who moved within the last year. Instructors use non-traditional methods to spark students interest in education. For example an instructor may use a field trip to encourage using oral launguage skills, learned mathmatics, reading and writing. This year, for the first lime, computers will be placed in many of the homes of children who have moved because their parents took ag related jobs. Children from kin dergarten through ninth grade will have a library of software to choose from. Depending on the child’s needs, programs building certain skills will be emphasized. Administrators of the program hope computers will spark parents’ interest in helping their children. A new service is being provided in the Lancaster area by Millers vil le University students who will mann a homework hotline. Child ren involved in the program can call for help with their homework. Those who answer the phones will have access to the same books that the student has. Most instructors for the Lancas ter program are bilingual since many eligible children in the area are Spanish speaking and have a deficit in speaking English. After accessing a child’s needs, if the child needs more than what the local school program provides, teachers will meet with children one hour after school from one to five times weekly depending upon the need. Summertime tutorials are also available. Part of the purpose of the prog ram is designed to help students become more educated to attain so they can get higher paid jobs. Johnson reports that several of their students have continued their education after high school by entering Millersville University. College funds are not available through the migrant program but through programs such as Upward Bound. Johnson said, “We staff up to 75 people annually and help an aver age 350 pupils in the four county district.” Currently there are 1,100 identified as migrant students but not all need additional help in adjusting. Often hispanic homes do not spend as muc ’ time reading with their children since the p rents can not read English; yet, they want their children to learn English so they do not read to them in Span ish. Statistics estimate that 23 to 27 million adults are illiterate. Educators believe that children who see their parents reading will make a belter reader. To foster reading development the program experiments with doing unusual projects. Last year, they developed a big book with letters and pictur ing. That generated a lot of enthu siasm. Migrant parents are hard work ers like other farmers. But they run into many difficulties such as the crop not being ready for harvesting and weather difficulties and, in order to work, some must travel from harvest to harvest. Johnson said, “It’s a respectful industry and should be held in respect. The U.S. economy depends upon hardy manual labor workers to keep food costs down.” In the mid ’6os, studies showed that many families moved as many as ten times a year for agricultural work. Students of these families are enrolled into the Migrant Stu dent Record Transfer System, a computerized nationwide service that maintains and transmits cur rent educational and health infor mation on some 600,000 migrant children. Rapid access to educa tional and health data prevents costly duplication of services and when the child moves all the necessary information is available at the new school. The Doaks found the program extremely effective in helping their three children adjust. Kathy said, “In the beginning we were ashamed to say we were part of the migrant program, but we learned more about it and when we saw how much it helped our kids, we were very proud to be in the program.” Kalhy was so impressed with (he program that she later became a recruiter. Her ability to relate to agriculture migrants enabled her to be extremely effective. She said, “1 really enjoyed it, but after one and a half years, I found it took to much time away from my family to keep working fulltime.” But it’s a program that has proved beneficial and for that reason she encourages those who think that might be elig ible to apply. If you or someone you know qualifies for this program, call 717 872-3458 or write to the PA Migrant Education Program, 1315 Walnut Street, Suite 98; Philadel phia, PA 19107. y, r ' * ™ See your nearest (SEW HOLLAND Dealer for Dependable Equipment and Dependable Service: PENNSYLVANIA Annvllle, PA BHM Farm Equipment, Inc RD 1 717-867-2211 Bea vert own, PA B&R Farm Equipment, Inc RD 1, Box 217 A 717-658-7024 Belleville, PA Ivan J Zook Farm Equipment Belleville, Pa 717-935-2948 Canton, PA Hess Farm Equipment 717-673-5143 Carlisle, PA Paul Shovers, Inc 35 East Willow Street 717-243-2686 Chamfaersburg, PA Clugston Implement, Inc RD 1 717-263-4103 Oavldsburg, PA George N Gross, Inc R D 2, Dover, PA 717-292-1673 Elizabethtown, PA Messick Farm Equipment, Inc Rt 283 - Rheem's Exit 717-367-1319 Gettysburg, PA Yingting Implements, Inc 3291 Taney town Rd 717-359-4848 Greencastle, PA Meyers Implement’s Inc 400 N Antrim Way P O Box 97 717-597-2176 Halifax, PA Sweigard'Bros R D 3, Box 13 717-896-3414 Hamburg, PA Shartlesville Farm Service R D 1, Box 1392 215-488-1025 Hanover, PA Sheets Brothers, Inc 1061 Carlisle St Hanover, PA 17331 717-632-3660 Honey Brook, PA Dependable Motor Co East Mam Street 215 273-3131 215 273-3737 Honey Grove, PA Norman D Clark & Son, Inc Honey Grove, PA 717-734-3682 Hugheeville, PA Farnsworth Farm Supplies. Inc 103 Cemetery Street 717 584-2106 Lebanon, PA Keller Bros Tractor Co RD 7, Box 405 717 949 6501 Loysville, PA Paul Shovers, Inc Loysville, PA 717-789-3117 Lynnporl, PA Kermit K Kistler, Inc Lynnport, PA 215-298-2011 Mahaffey, PA Hutton Farm Equipment RD 2 814-277 5504 New Holland, PA ABC Groff, Inc 110 South Railroad 717-354-4191 New Park, PA M&R Equipment Inc PO Box 16 717-993-2511 Oley, PA C J Wonsidler Bros RD 2 215-987-6257 Pitman, PA Schreffler Equipment Randy L Schreffler Pitman, PA 717-648-1120 Quakertown, PA C J Wonsidler Bros RD 1 215-536 1935 Quarryville, PA C E Wiley 4 Son, Inc 101 South Lime Street 717-786-2895 Rlngtown, PA Rmgtown Farm Equipment Ringtown, PA 717-889-3184 Tamaqua, PA Charles S Snyder, Inc RD 3 717-386-5945 West Grove, PA S G Lewis 4 Son, Inc R 0 2, Box 66 215-869-2214 MARYLAND Churchville, MD Walter G Coale, Inc 2849-53 Churchville Rd 301-734 7722 Frederick, MO Ceresville Ford New Holland Inc Rt 26 East 301 662-4197 Outside MD, 800 331 9122 Hagerstown, MD Antietam Ford Tractor 301-791 1200 NEW JERSEY Washington, NJ Frank Rymon & Sons 201 689-1464 Woodstown, NJ Owen Supply Co Broad Street & East Avenue 609-769-0308
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