at county college of morris we believe that all citizens need to be informed about the importnat issues that effect their daily lives. that's why we're proud to support programming produced by the caucus educational corporation and their partners in public television creative beginnings in early educaiton next on caucus new jersey funding for this edition of caucus new jersey has been provided by the pnc foundation which supports early childhood education through grow up great a multi year initiative to help prepare children from birth to age five for success in school and life njit new jersey institute of technology the new jersey education association working for great public schools for every child the robert wood johnson foundation robert wood johnson university hospital the heart of academic medicine health republic insurance of new jersey and by

johnson and johnson promotional support provided by the star ledger powering nj.com and by njbiz all business all new jersey [music playing] [music playing] welcome to caucus new jersey i'm steve adubato you know the evidence is clear for the strong foundation in early education is critical for a success later in life and the first part of a two part series here to discuss creative approaches to early childhood education we have michelle marigliano is the special projects and assessment coordinator for young audiences arts for learning our good friend linda bowden well you're all our good friends but linda's been here before she is the new jersey regional president for pnc ty stephens is a teaching artist for the great sharon miller academy for performing arts

and finally ronnie ragen is the community partnership director at the trenton community music school i want to thank all of you for joining us throughout this program you're gonna see a variety of websites your collective websites of your non-profit organizations and how you can find out more about the grow up great initiative by the way before we start talking about creative beginnings in early childhood the history of grow up great and why it's been so important particularly for our world in pbs go ahead sure well thank you steve and i would like to say we partner with everyone here and in fact long standing support with ronnie and her group i would say probably ten eleven twelve years ago pnc had obviously a foundation and had really always worked hard to be a community partner but we decided to put a very specific stake in the ground around children five and younger the idea being that this is where we really wanted to concentrate our efforts this is where we felt we could really make a difference and i know we're going to talk about how that's done through the work of the folks here but really from that

point our employee volunteer hours forty paid hours a year are devoted to that five and under segment we have regular drives for those children and we really work hard to ensure that our foundation dollars are going to the right places here in new jersey and it's interesting because it's so interesting when you talk about early childhood education it comes in all different forms but this is talking about creative beginnings and ronnie i want to ask you set up this video piece we're about to see cause this is a great example of what we're talking about in terms of very creative beginnings we're about to see a piece of video that is called? it's the opening to a typical music for the very young class in trenton pre-k classroom for four year olds for four year olds? four year olds and... are they singing a particular song? they're singing their hello song and... the hello song the hello song and [laughter] [laughter] what's better than that? [laughter] and the name of your place again is? the trenton community

music school listen the hello song from the trenton community school let's go for it hello everybody so glad to see you hello everybody so glad to see you hello i'm lydia so glad to see you let's tap now hello i'm brineagia so glad to see you hello i'm jasper when my son jasper came home with the music together he came home with a book and a cd and when he came home he was really really excited it was like you know mom look you know we're doing this at school and i get to bring it home with me music does matter doesn't it? music does matter talk about it we talk about um dance we talk about the whole thing but talk about music well music matters i think in

a deeper way than maybe out culture even begins to understand for these children what we just observed was that was the end of the year they didn't start out knowing to tap [laughter] and knowing to sing and come in on time and to almost be right there on the pitch it was much more and more of this and here they are owning what it is that they've been doing all year and they're proud aren't they? and they're proud and they're and this is me hello i'm rianna hello i'm jasper and i think there's a great deal of development that happens through that but they're also going they're developing musically but they're also doing all kinds of things in the classroom they're learning to take turns sure we just watched them take turns where the class will move on to do small and large motor movements they will do all kinds of language

develoment another way to do the hello song is we went on a trip to the farm so now everybody instead of being themselves will sing you know i'm a cow i'm a... so they're imagining? so they're imagining and they're they're creating making it up as they go so they're getting musical skills they're learning to do improvisation but they're also doing all kinds of... and the other piece of this is and i always like to say full disclosure when i need to disclose and it isn't just that pnc is a big supporter of public broadcasting but the other thing is that our daughter olivia is and i said this right before we got on the air is with the sharon miller dance group not that she's performing anywhere publically [laughter] you could see her but she loves it and i remember when she first went in the first day she's turning four in the fall two days program she would... she didn't get out of the corner she just would not... exactly we went to the graduation mm hmm she... it was hard for her to wait for her turn she wanted to show us everything she could do

yeah and she was out there and she went home and she practiced mm hmm am i making too much of what it does for her more importantly no not just her self esteem everybody else? no i think as a matter of fact there could be more said about it i mean you could get more exaggerated more excited and more i think the word exaggerated it would work what does dance do for kids early on? oh it gives them a sense of themselves of their bodies of the control that they have over their lives even in a small way they're not conscious that that's what they're doing but they are taking ownership of their bodies. they're taking ownership of their lives in a small way in learning how to move a certain way learning how to move to music learning how to follow instructions learning how to do things that a lot of kids don't know how to do so that... and wait a minute you also talked about music and math? exactly what's up with that? well everything in music everything in dance is the same formula that we use for math and that's how i introduce most of my classes is to relate it to the arts and their math their sciences

because they don't get that immediately they don't understand that this is exactly the same thing but we're putting it in a physical form and we're putting music to it and we're dancing we're moving our bodies to do exactly the same thing that you do in math isn't there also a strong neorulogical component whether we're talking about music or dance or the arts mm hmm developing skill with spatial relationships absolutely as an example or the neurological aspect of how to think differently as you sing they say our brains are wired for music by the way before we go any further talk to folks about your background before you get into corporate life because [laughter] people are saying hey for a person as a bank executive she knows a lot tell folks about [laughter] your background before you came in well i was a teacher i was a teacher prior to going into banking and but actually i've been in banking for over 30 years but have always had a strong relationship interest and relationship with the topic jump in michelle the one common theme that i'm hearing is this idea of play when we watch the video the children were playing together with rhythm when we listened to ty's story we heard

about how children were playing with their sense of body positioning in space and moving through space linda brought to our attention and we know through early childhood research play is essential for the development of the brain and so whether that's dramatic play outside on the playground or playing with materials like instruments or playing with the body as a tool of creating we know that it's essential for learning well you know i'm curious about people grow up kids grow up in so many different environments and so linda what i'm thinking about is the children who grow up in certain socioeconomic situations from communities where it's harder to access i mean trenton is a challenging place camden newark where i grew up in newark i just think o myself it is harder in certain communities is it not for kids to have access to great programs this why program like you're is great do they need something different? than other kids need? or do all kids early childhood they all

need the same stuff? well you know i would point out something that is of great concern i think to everyone in this room a lot of the arts programs have been cut in the lower income school districts and so how will the kids get exposure to the kinds of things you've just been hearing about and one thing i neglected to say initially tghe grow up great foundation at pnc is bilingual and we do focus on low to moderate income areas specifically for exactly that reason i think not only is the are these programs terriffic in and of their own right but is really is supplementing and addressing a need that's developed in the past couple of decades and what would love to add to what linda's mentioned is how the arts are a universal language so regardless of what that child's first language is exactly when they sit in front of a drum or when they start to create that consistent rhythm on their body or they move their body in a dance class there's something being said and understood without verbal language

absolutely but there's also a language deficit in the children in the low income classes when they the deficit? arrive their language skills it's real documented are behind the level of skill that a more affluent community a child growing up... okay... wait back up back up back up i'm curious about this um are you saying that and again i don't want to make this about our daughter at all but i notice she asks a million questions she's... i sense that she's incredibly verbal and she said a certain word the other day that i asked my wife where did she get that word? did you say that? and so what... it's certain kids that have certain advantages because of where they grow up how they grow up what they grow up around they she's been exposed to very complex language and has been spoken to intentionally her whole three and a half years so let's talk about kids at risk which are not just urban kids not at all not at all they're other... describe it so what are they facing from a language deficit perspective go ahead well they enter school with

very much fewer words at their command and what we find in the music class and even some children entering at three may be nearly mute they just won't speak in the classroom and what we find in the music class is teachers not infrequently say it was through the music class that we heard him speak first or we heard him utter first he needed to sing he needed to say his name when the other children were saying their names or in the case where we're talking about english is not the first language and the children aren't able to communicate in the classroom everybody can sing la la la that's true so the song becomes the way the children bond with one another so this is a tremendous community building piece of making the children are learning to interact with one another they don't need verbal language they have the language we speak of a universal language i like to also speak of the language of

our feelings and emotions true so music in a way extends what we can do verbally and allows us to be expressed when we don't have a language mm hmm stay on the music thing because you said for some children they may be more likely to utter their first word through music as opposed to in conversation but i'm also thinking what about for those children who don't utter their first word through music but maybe express themselves for the first time through dance? yeah that by the way you were born and raised in philly? yeah and you're the... how many children? of seven i'm the middle of seven ot it i just want to get a sense of you grew up in a certain what did it say a challenging environment? yeah very very very economically more than anything okay i mean there was not a lot of danger other than that but economically we have some you know lower middle income lower upper lower income you know that strata and yeah got it got it and express themselves through dance even? cause let's go by stay on this deficit issue the language deficit mm hmm for kids who come in who do

not have a lot of word or they're not saying anything to what degree do you find dance to be a way for some of these children to actually express themselves even if they're not using their words? well we're expressing ourselves physically since the moment we enter this world so that's a common language and i don't wnat to say easier language but it's a more familiar language so when you bring it to a kid and you formalize it sometimes it can be resisted because it's formalized because now you're telling them how to move but if you give them some freedom to express themselves on thier level of where they are magic can happen can we talk relationships? mm hmm cause i often notice that when you walk into the preschool where our daughter is some kids are easily interacting with other children play easily with other children because growing up great also has to do with the ability to interact with other people in any environment right to what degree are we talking about creative beginnings and

the foundation being based on the need to teach interaction? cooperation? well i actually think we saw that right in the video every child had a specific turn they had to wait for his or her turn to ensure that the other person had a chance so i think that's an example of just how to conduct oneself in society but also enjoy the fun of being with another person that you could really enjoy the skills that that person has the freedom the uninhibited aproach and have fun together there's a lot of joy and i think the things that we're talking about what happens when the child doesn't have that though? what happens when the child don't want... not to be negative here but when a child does not... has what ever and again there are certain children that really would have a very hard time i imagine cause there are certain issues that children have and i'm not gonna open up a pandora's box but if a kid can't be in that situation or has a real tough time what do you do

in that situation? because that kid is facing a whole range of challenges that may be even harder than it is for some other kids at young audiences we like to meet children where they are right now by the way describe your place again for folks yeah so young audiences is a not for profit organization that brings the arts into schools and community centers creative beginnings early childhood programs specifically focuses on professional development for preschool teachers and so how do we listen to preschool teachers and the schools that they work in? and understand their needs better? and then work alongside of them so that they gain a deeper understanding about how we invent dance and music and storytelling and art and visual arts sure into the daily lives of children go back to the question of a child who's really struggling in a classroom i was watching the video and i'm thinking wow those kids are really getting along well everyone's taking their turn it's so rriffic but i also... but i have seen and we all have seen absolultely a child that's really struggling

i've seen those children who are really struggling and you're saying meet them where they are where they are so they're not required to be in the circle if they can't be if they're being disruptive but i also see that they're sitting outside the circle and then the instruments they play along come in and suddenly they are in the circle because they need to play the drums do they? they need... i'm sorry for interrupting do most children this early childhood education we're talking about do most of them want to be there's this great scene and if you ever see seen school of rock? yeah yeah [laughter] [laughter] there's a great scene where jack black who's no role model for leadership in this movie [laughter] he does this incredible scene where you know he's getting the kids all riled up because he's got them in this band nd he's got his singers and he's got a drummer he's got a guitar player and he says everybody else relax and enjoy the music of rock and this little kid just he looks at him and he says what do you mean? what do the rest of us do? he says sit back and watch and the kid says you mean we're not in the band? [laughter] exactly meaning does every kid want to be in the band?

yes does every kid want to be in it? research tells us that all children are musical. humans are wired to make music and you know i kind of laugh we accept that birds are musical we expect birds to be musical we know even whales sing but we don't always recognize that humans are just as we have a natural wiring to walk and talk it seems that we have it to make music even the kid off to the side who's not participating? even the kid off is listening yeah so that there's a receptive capacity and then there's the expressive capacith they're ing it in and it may not be till we leave the room that that kid's gonna go and try it out in the corner and next week he'll be in the circle we're wired linda? absolutely i'll tell you the simplest example in my mind is think of a song you learned in first grade you to this day could probably still sing that song even if we haven't heard it

all these years. think of the poem you might have learned without music we probably don't remember that and steve when you talk about the integration of children who tend to hang back a lot of this goes back to their self esteem their feeling good about themselves if you feel good about yourself you're more likely to jump in and feel good about other people and so i think there's a tremendous connection here stay on that. you want to make another point cause i want to ask about boys versus girls in a no go ahead second go ahead cause i had another point to make [laughter] no no make that point make that [laughter] point make that point [laughter] no what i was going to say is i know we've been focused on low to moderate income areas and the point i wanted to make is you know and i by the way full disclosure on the liberty science center board so stem education is a... science technology engineering and math s a... exactly... is a very very important thing especially in this country my worry is that it will be mutually exclusive to the arts and i think we've got to be... well hold on we're talking about creative beginnings here is somehow science technology engineering and math outside of that? no that's exactly the point i want to make sure that there's

an integration because music is science in a way dance is physiologically science and well ty was just saying but go ahead and dance is math go ahead yeah exactly and so what i would like to see us do more of is not have them as two separate discreet approaches to education i think we've got to find a way to integrate that i mean listen to what these are the experts here i'm not the expert here so they're not really logically and from an academic or teaching point of view they're not really separate? no they're not really but we do them... we treat them as separately yeah as seperate... but that doens't make sense? no it doesn't make sense because of everything we do in our lives is interconnected you know we wouldn't separate cooking from eating or gardening r gardening it's all... they all come together could you do the math... i'm sorry for interrupting our producers are begging me to get you to do the concrete really concrete example of the dance and math connection that we go oh that's what he's talking about

well we're going back to music you know we dance to music and we move to counts because we want to formalize what the movement is so in order to do that we have to count it out and we have to divide it we have to multiply it we have to you know all those things that we do in math and then we science of course and we add to the science part of moving through space velocity and relative movement relative space all those things you know it's all part of the same ball of wax so the liberty science center and the work going on there and the sharon miller dance studio it's not that much different no i'll you when you get right down to the basics it really isn't it really isn't steve the essense wow we really make these exactly hold on one second i want to do the male versus female thing mm hmm growing up great and doing what is necessary for children in terms of this early childhood phase do you think it's different for little boys versus little girls?

yeah i do how so? because boys are taught or it's implied by... in most environments that boys are meant to repress what they feel and movement oh my goodness if you start moving too broadly and too... oh yeah ...too big and too creatively something is you know go ahead you're labelled so boys tend to want to just do everything that's either that looks athletic or that feels like it's athletic but what do they really want to ause i know it's... i hate to be sports are fun they want to move bringing up more of our kids but our son chris is turning 10 as we do this show uh huh chris i'm sorry [laughter] when he start... [laughter] w... he started dancing at a party the other day and he forgot people were watching i have it on video [laughter] e likes to shake his behind in a that is... he just... he just... out of control... and loves it but when i show... he's like dad you're not gonna show anyone? and now of course i talked about it but the point is what's really... what does the kid really want to do versus what the kid thinks might

happen if the other ten year olds see what he's doing those are two totally different things right? yeah i agree they are two totally i'm sorry chris i really am different things and i think [laughter] they're grounded in this social construct of the western society that we live in is it our thing western...? well i'm an american so i can only speak for my [laughter] [laughter] perspective right now the point is that's more us than it is other parts of the world? think so i think so i think it's more american than it is you go to greece you go to italy you go to france and most of those places movement and the use of the body is a completely different thing just walk... even if you go to africa and you absolutely go to any latin american actions latin american you know absolutely movement but we have to experience... understand movement and music are the same coin right but we can't separate them as arts sure but my experience in trenton was to be surprised and delighted by how much the

boys are free to move at what age? at four and five and three really? absolutely they are just and actually the girls will watch them in a way that wouldn't happen in montclair mm hmm where the boys will be much more circumspect but... [laughter] except your son [laughter] [laughter] [laughter] nd he dances in a way... oh poor guy [laughter] but um but but we... why do you think that is? well i... i think... do you have to create the right environment? is that what it is? well in my experience in trenton there's a strong thread of latin american culture mm hmm but this was also the african american boys and we had this wonderful moment where not even just the you know the show off kind of stuff right where they do that happily they're jumping right it's so physical but we were doing scarves and i happened to walk by two of the boys who were scarving together and i heard one say

i really like the music [laughter] why don't you? and the other one says you know i do too yeah so there's some... there's... linda final word cause we're nna have a... by the way... make sure you catch part two of this great two part series this is good stuff no? oh it's terriffic stuff and you know the final comment i wanted to make is and many of us are parents we've all been around young children that's the age where they are uninhibited right that's the age where society hasn't imposed it's sort of constrictive view of how people should behave and before they themselves start feeling bad about a few seconds themselves so you know i just want to and by thanking each of you great job for the work that you're doing in the community thanks all of you great stuff it's valuable the preceding program has a production of the caucus educational corporation celebrating over 25 years of broadcast excellence and thirteen for wnet njtv and whyy funding for this edition of caucus new jersey has been provided by the pnc foundation njit the new jersey education association

the robert wood johnson foundation robert wood johnson university hospital health republic insurance of new jersey and by johnson and johnson transportation provided by air brook limousine serving the metropolitan new york new jersey area caucus new jersey has been produced in partnership with tristar studios this program has been made possible in part by the kessler foundation [music playing] [music playing]

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: election day 2014, the polls are still open with more races going down to the wire than any election in a decade. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill, control of the u.s. senate hangs in the balance. republicans need to pick up six seats to retake the majority. >> woodruff: 36 states will elect governors. a third of them considered toss- ups, more incumbent governors are at risk of losing this year than any time in half a century. >> ifill: stay with us all night on-air and online for analysis and the latest results. plus, a special report at 11:00