Children's Project Merits Donation

The Harvard Project on Schooling and Children (HPSC), one of the five Interfaculty Initiatives instituted by President Neil L. Rudenstine, received a $1 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York last week in order to further its children's studies program. We applaud the Carnegie Corporation for its generous gift and we also congratulate Rudenstine and the HPSC for their efforts. We can only hope the HPSC will not be the only one of its kind.

The children's studies program aims to incorporate more courses on children into the Harvard curriculum as well as create a project of "research, ... mentor fellowships for students, and community projects to create attention and priority for children at the University." A Core course, Social Analysis 56: "Children and Their Social Worlds," will be taught in the spring, and will be the first class taught under the auspices of "children's studies." We encourage the expansion of the program and hope that more classes like Social Analysis 56 will be offered in the future.

But the children's studies program is just one of five prongs of the HPSC. The others concentrate more on substantive change. They are: Program Evaluation, which evaluates the strength and effectiveness of programs that affect children, such as HAND; Innovative Schools Initiative, which looks at how schools are structured, organized and managed; Children's Health, a two-part program with Cambridge Rindge and Latin and Maynard Elementary School, designed to both establish a curriculum based on issues such as drugs and sex and to evaluate kindergarten entry point; and finally, the non-operational Math and Science prong, which is designed to teach teachers more math and science with the participation of retired faculty from Harvard and elsewhere.

HPSC also received a $720,300 gift from the Spencer Foundation of Chicago for program evaluation. When asked why Harvard should care enough to donate valuable resources to the project, HPSC Director Katherine K. Merseth replied, "children represent 20 percent of our population and 100 percent of our future." We couldn't agree more, and we are very happy about the development of the HPSC. Right now, HPSC receives money from The Pew Charitable Trusts and has the support of the University. The HPSC is a welcome addition to the activities of Harvard University because it appears to be a social service project aimed at improving children's lives, than a strictly academic one. We find Harvard's expansion both noble and worthwhile and we hope that the HPSC is successful in achieving its goals.

Children should be the focus of more initiatives nation-wide and we hope that HPSC sets an example that will be followed by other institutions. But we would like to see the same care and concern that HPSC is devoting to children in places other than universities. If we do not devote resources to children in the form of tangible assistance, the future of America will become increasingly bleak.