By Jenna Lee
Staff Writer
As you walk around the halls of Westford Academy, you may have noticed many students carrying babies strapped in baby car seats. You might wonder which class they are taking. It is no other than Child Development.
In the Child Development I course, or CDI, many topics include Families & Parenting, Pregnancy, Labor & Delivery, and Birth Defects. While CDI focuses on infants, Child Development II involves a hand-on experience with preschoolers and discussion when they are not present.
Three teachers who teach Child Development are Melanie Jozokos, Merri Brown, and Rick McElhinney. Jozokos and McElhinney teach Child Development I while Brown teaches Child Development II.
One of the main activities in Child Development I is Baby Think It Over by Realityworks, a real-to-life infant simulator used to provide hands-on experience of parenting an infant. Although the babies are plastic, they are not any different from real babies; just like real babies, they sleep, wake up, and cry. Students are responsible for taking care of the infants by changing diapers, burping, rocking, feeding, and much more.
The students taking Child Development are not all girls. Jozokos says, “There are a few brave male students who take this class-it’s a good perspective on gender roles and I think it scares them!”
Brown has been teaching Child Development II for fifteen years. A typical day in the class is spent taking care of the preschoolers in the mornings. Brown says, “Westford Academy students work here hands-on so it’s not a typical class where students take notes and have tests. They work with kids and create their own preschool lessons.”
In afternoon classes, Brown comments, “When the little kids aren’t here, we talk about things relating problems we see in the preschool; we use the children as basis for the curriculum.”
According to Jozokos, who has been teaching Child Development I for five years, there have been rumors that the Child Development is a scary class. One activity in the class that may have stimulated the rumors is watching the childbirth video. “But it’s not as scary as some people make it out to be!” Jozokos claims.
Child Development is a good hands-on experience for those who are planning on a career path involving young children, or even parenting. Jozokos says, “It is a very valuable class…and really fun!”
