Chapter 1

In 1965 the federal government as part of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society initiative first implemented the Head Start Program. Head Start is an early intervention program intended to provide compensatory training to disadvantaged children to overcome their educational deficits. The program targets children in the three to five year age range. In the rural south, many Head Start programs were set up under the auspices of rural churches and elementary schools. The program continues today. Despite little evidence of efficacy, the program, another giant boondoggle, continues to drain more than eight billion dollars annually from federal taxpayers not to mention state and local funds consumed by matching grants.

Early on the government felt it had to justify the expenditures. The Head Start funding included research grants intended to prove that the program had positive results. One approach was to fund research studies designed to show improvements in intelligence quotient (IQ) among the program participants. Since the participants were preschool children, the instrument of choice was the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) designed to assess the intelligence of children aged four to six and a half years. When the Educational Psychology department won a grant to assess progress in local Head Start programs, they immediately looked to their graduate students for those qualified to administer the WPPSI. I had completed three testing courses: IQ testing, personality testing and occupational aptitude testing. As with my other graduate courses, I had received 'A's and top marks in all of these classes. Naturally I was one of the graduate students invited to work in the program. My assignment was simple. I traveled to the rural sites of Head Start classes, administered the WPPSI to the students and turned in the test results to the grant researchers. I was paid a modest amount for the testing and mileage for travel costs. The grant did not provide very much money to pay the testers, but it did provide an opportunity to pad my resume. The opportunity turned out to offer other benefits.

I started working for the research project in late spring. It was already hot during the day and not much cooler at night. My car had air conditioning but most of the churches and schools that housed Head Start programs at best had electric fans. After a day of testing disadvantaged children in overheated classrooms all I wanted to do was go home to a cool shower and a cold beer.

The adventure began on a hot Friday afternoon. I was headed home late afternoon on a rural county road when I realized that my car was overheating. I pulled to the side of the road and popped the hood to find steam coming from underneath. Although I knew little about cars, it seemed apparent that I had some kind of leak in the cooling system. I grabbed a rag and twisted the radiator cap off. I couldn't see water where I expected it so I found an empty soft drink bottle in the back seat to collect some water from the ditch next to the road. I poured several bottles full into the radiator. I knew that wouldn't get me very far, but I had seen a dirt driveway about 100 yards ahead leading to a ramshackle house fairly far off the county road. Hoping for the best, I replaced the radiator cap and headed down the driveway.

I pulled up in front of a rural southern house typical of those occupied by lower class whites and blacks. It was a tin-roofed, clapboard house badly in need of paint. There was a front porch that extended the entire length of the front of the house. It was more of a cabin than a house. I could see a couple of faces peering through the rickety screen door on the front entrance. From the corner of my eye I saw a nine or ten year old boy coming around the house trailed by a couple of dogs that seemed to regard me suspiciously. Off to one side of the yard was an older beat-up Ford pickup truck. Despite the rust and dents, it looked like it was still functional. I got out of my car and headed for the house. As I approached the front door, the faces disappeared.

I knocked on the door and waited until a harried-looking woman came to the door. She might have been a good-looking woman if she hadn't been thin to the point of seeming undernourished. She was about 5' 6" tall and maybe weighed 115 lbs. She had thin, lusterless blond hair and blue eyes. She wore a threadbare dress that revealed her braless chest and granny panties. She wasn't very large up top but what she had was firm and perky.

"What do you want?" she asked with a suspicious voice.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Ma'am," I replied, "But my car has overheated. I think I have a radiator leak or a leaking hose. May I borrow your phone to call for help?"

"We ain't got no phone," she responded.

"Could you drive me to a mechanic's shop?" I queried. "I'd be happy to pay you for your time and trouble."

"I ain't got a driver's license," she responded. "Besides, there ain't nobody still open this late. The nearest shop's ten miles away."

"Could your husband give me a ride," I asked.

"Not likely," she snorted, "Bubba's been a guest of the county for 30 days now and he ain't getting' out for another 60. You're more or less stuck here unless you want to walk home."

Trying to suppress my concern, I asked, "Is there anyone nearby who has a phone? My brother will come to get me if I can call him."

"Ain't nobody out here got a phone far as I know," she said.

"What you doin' out here anyway?" she continued.

"I'm sorry," I said, "My name is Bill Hadley. I'm out here to test kids in the Head Start program."

"Pleased ta meet ya, Mr. Hadley," she replied, "I'm Mary Jo McAlister. These kids are mine, of course. I'll introduce you shortly. You might as well stay 'cause there ain't nothin' we kin do 'till tomorrow."

She looked back over her shoulder at the two young teenagers huddled together on the other side of the room.

"Them's Jolene and Ellie," she said. "My son, Bobby's around here somewhere. He'd better have done his chores if'n he knows what's good for him. Come on in and have a seat while we get supper together."

She held the screen door open for me to walk in. It wasn't a very large house. There was a kitchen area to the right and two bedrooms to the left. In between was a large room that was obviously used as a living room. Across from the front door was a rear door. There was another door that I later learned opened into a bathroom attached to the back of the house. The kitchen occupied one end of the house and there was a table with five chairs. The living room area had a sofa and a couple of chairs facing a small TV. There were a couple of bookcases but not many books. Mary Jo directed me to the kitchen table where I sat while she prepared a meal assisted by her two daughters.

The two girls were smaller copies of their mother. Jolene stood about 5' 4" and had her mother's blond hair and blue eyes. Her 32 B tits seemed larger on her skinny frame. She already had womanly hips and a narrow waist. Her sister, Ellie, was a little shorter and not quite as developed. Both wore shorts and t-shirts as threadbare as their mother's dress. I tried to engage them in conversation, but they acted as if they couldn't be distracted from helping their mother. That did not, however, keep them from staring at me as much as possible. When everything was on the table, Mary Jo had Jolene call Bobby to the table. We were introduced. When everyone was seated, Mary Jo said grace and began passing the food around the table. She had cooked some kind of chicken stew with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery. Fresh green beans and sliced tomatoes were the side dishes. It was pretty clear that all the vegetables came from their garden.

During the meal, I explained the testing and talked a little about my studies. I learned that Bubba worked at a sawmill and drove a pulp wood truck when he wasn't in trouble for one thing or another. I found out that Jolene was 15, Ellie, 14 and Bobby 10. Mary Jo admitted to being 30. The kids seemed bright enough despite their disadvantages. Mary Jo asked if I could test her kids. I explained that I didn't have the right kind of test materials with me. I told her that I might be able to do the testing the following weekend if I could get the test material.

After eating, Mary Jo accepted my offer to help with the clean up. It turned out that Jolene washed, I dried and Ellie put everything away. Shortly thereafter all three kids came back to the kitchen table with their schoolbooks. They sat at the table, spread out their books and began working on their homework.

Chapter 2 »