St. Patrick hopes to draw parents into preschool program

The State Journal-Register, August 05, 2012

An unconventional approach to early education begins Wednesday at St. Patrick Catholic School.

The first preschool program the elementary school has offered in more than a decade will open its classroom doors. As part of enrollment, however, the school also will ask students’ parents to receive some training.

“We have to be drawing parents in and making them a very strong part of the education process,” said Judi Willard, St. Patrick’s development director.

Willard brought the idea to school officials after learning about the Griffin Early Childhood Center, a preschool in Chicago Heights, a Chicago suburb. That preschool was the brainchild of John List, a University of Chicago economics professor.