Sociology

This section will discuss in general the long term and short term benefits of head start program. Lets begin with the short term

Short term benefits

Head start program accrues a lot in the short run including

Helping children with activities that help them grow mentally, emotionally, socially and physically.

Providing children with an environment to love, accept and understand others.

It also gives them opportunity to learn and to experience success.

By socializing, the children are molded to become self-confident as they improve their speaking and listening skills.

It provides high-quality early childhood education
It promotes good health through the treatment of health problems and by providing children with good health care

It enables active participation of parents in the programs in which their children participate
It also promotes the use of social services by families in the community they need them.

Long term benefits
All the benefits enjoyed in the short run accumulates with time to be the long term which includes Higher levels of verbal, mathematical, and intellectual achievement Greater success at school, including less grade retention and higher graduation rates Higher employment and earnings Better health outcomes Less welfare dependency Lower rates of crime and Greater government revenues and lower government expenditures.  

Policy Implication
Given the prospects of head start, the program has a place to stay in our society. Without it we would always have poor children and as we all know poor children grow up into adults who are more likely to engage in crime, use illegal drugs, abuse alcohol, neglect and abuse their children, and suffer from poor physical health and a variety of mental illnesses. They are also less likely to be gainfully employed and, thus, less likely to contribute to the growth of our economy. Poor children who fail to achieve their full academic potential are more likely to enter adulthood without the skills necessary to develop into highly productive members of society able to compete effectively in a global labor market. Less skilled, less productive, and earning less, when these children become adults they will be less able to help us sustain public retirement benefits systems such as Social Security, one of the most challenging problems we face in the future.

Up to today there has been almost universal agreement among experts that too many young childrenthe most vulnerable members of our communityhave inadequate access to food, clothing, shelter, health care, and clean, safe, crime-free living environments. In addition, too many of our children do not have access to high quality educational opportunities or fall far short of achieving their academic potential while in school. At the very same time, however, there is a consensus among experts of all political stripes that high-quality investments in the education and health of young children would have huge long-term economic payoffs, both to our children and to society as a whole.

First, criminal justice costs come down because participantsand their familieshave markedly lower crime and delinquency rates. Second, subsequent public education expenses are lower because participants spend less time in school (as they fail fewer grades) and require expensive special education less often. Third, both participants and their parents have higher incomes and pay more taxes than non-participants. Fourth, ECD investment reduces public welfare expenditures because participants and their families have lower rates of welfare usage. All these advocates for head start program.