Head Start and Reggio Emilia are two programs that are based on the strong cooperation between families and schools. Head Start is aimed at working with low-income families, and the program is based on the schedule developed by educators with references to parents’ expectations. Thus, Head Start educators work to involve families in school activities because the focus is also on the provision of social support for such children and parents.
Moreover, parents are involved in learning activities at home because these tasks are usually assigned to address individual children’s needs and specific family goals. The high level of involvement is also expected because of the regular contacts between families and educators. On the contrary, the curriculum in Reggio Emilia is more creative, and it is based on children’s interests (Scully, Barbour, & Roberts-King, 2014). As a result, parents are mostly involved in entertainment events that can be infrequent. Participation in children’s learning activities at home is associated with the development of the children’s creative potential and the work on projects.
The benefits of Head Start are in possibilities to guarantee the constant collaboration between vulnerable families and educators to address children’s needs regularly. Reggio Emilia can be attractive to families that plan to address the developmental needs of children with a focus on the flexible curriculum and creative activities (Scully et al., 2014).
However, the challenge is in the fact that the involvement of parents is voluntary, and more attention can be paid to increase their interest in children’s activities. While discussing these programs as appropriate for the concrete community, it is possible to state that Head Start can be more successful in the community where the percentage of low-income families is high as it is developed to improve the family engagement and to guarantee the provision of all necessary educational and social services.
Reference
Scully, P. A., Barbour, C., & Roberts-King, H. (2014). Families, schools, and communities: Building partnerships for educating children. New York, NY: Pearson. Web.