1. education
2. school

Early learning documentary
spotlights Highland Park
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Karie Angell Luc, Pioneer Press
Highland Park Community Nursery School and Day Care Center teachers Tracy Sohn and Rachel
Giannini peer through the doorway above student Aidan Buscher of Highland Park.
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Karie Angell Luc, Pioneer Press
Alice Rissman of Deerfield, right, works with her students at Highland Park Nursey School and Day Care
Center, including Ayonna Simmons of North Chicago. Teacher Rachel Giannino of Chicago is at center,
while from far left are students Jonathan Gonzalez of Highwood and Carson Kvasnicka of Glenview.
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Karie Angell Luc, Pioneer Press
Brianna Carr of Great Lakes listens with her peers at Highland Park Community Nursery School and Day
Care Center, which is being featured in a national documentary on early childhood education.
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Karie Angell Luc, Pioneer Press
Ines Sommer of Rogers Park records footage for a national documentary at Highland Park Community
Nursery School and Day Care Center May 6. On left is teacher Rachel Giannini of Chicago and on far
right is teacher Alice Rissman of Deerfield.
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Karie Angell Luc, Pioneer Press
Ines Sommer records footage May 6 at Highland Park Community Nursery School and Day Care Center,
for a documentary on early childhood education.
By Karie Angell LucPioneer Press
Highland Park early childhood program to be featured in major documentary on early
learning
By this time of the school year, the children in the Yellow Room at Highland
Park Community Nursery School and Day Care Center are accustomed to
seeing their teachers, Rachel Giannini, Alice Rissman and Tracy Sohn.
They've also grown used to seeing filmmaker Ines Sommer, who carried a
Canon camcorder May 6. As she trained her lens around the room, the
students seemed unfazed by her presence, neither mugging for the camera nor
staring at it while Giannini sang and strummed a guitar.
The Yellow Room, which is professionally wired for sound, has become the set
for a feature-length documentary focusing on early childhood education.
Co-produced by the Chicago's Kindling Group and Siskel/Jacobs Productions,
the documentary takes a look at the soaring costs of care for children and the
importance of early learning, with the intent of spurring a national
conversation on the issue. Tentatively called "No Small Matter," the
documentary is expected to launch in theaters next year.
Both production teams have impressive documentary records. Siskel/Jacobs
Productions is well known for its most recent film, "Louder Than a Bomb,"
which followed four poetry teams in Chicago as they prepared for the world's
biggest youth slam. It won 17 festival prizes, made Roger Ebert's list of "10
best documentaries of 2011" and was shown on OWN.
Kindling Group Executive Director Danny Alpert is also lauded for his
documentaries, which have aired on HBO and PBS and in countries around
the world. His films have covered such subjects as homelessness, public
education and teen pregnancy, and have been nominated for Academy and
Emmy awards.
Alpert, who was raised in Highland Park until age 15, said that his hometown
turned out to be just the right place to film a portion of the documentary. (Codirector Jon Siskel of Siskel/Jacobs is also a Highland Park resident.)
"One of the reasons we're here is it's a very diverse classroom, racially,
socioeconomically, with a gender perspective, every kind of kid you could
possibly have," Alpert said. "We really wanted to find a place that had both
quality and that diversity."
Alpert said he also wanted to find a place that valued safety, something that all
schools must address as a first step to creating a healthy learning
environment.
"Highland Park is a place where kids are safe," he observed. "That's the way it
was when I was growing up here until my early teens.
"It was a great place to grow up."
Pam Carlson, curriculum coordinator of the school, said she was very happy to
be participating in the documentary.
"Not only do we have this amazing classroom highlighted, but we get to be a
part of an early childhood learning advocacy effort," she said.
The documentary has already attracted $830,000 in support from
foundations that work in the early childhood space, according to Kindling
Group producer Laura Wilson. So far, it is entirely grant-funded, she added.
In the final cut, Highland Park Community Nursery School and Day Care
Center will serve as one example of early childhood education that works.
Filmmakers are also shooting around the country, at a two-generation parent
education program that primarily serves Hispanics in Waco, Tex; at a staterun infant and toddler program in Hugo, Okla.; and at a Head Start center run
by a for-profit company in Las Vegas, Nev.
"The heart and soul of the film — the thing that will really make it come to life
— will inevitably be the characters whose stories we choose to tell," Wilson
said.
To that end, filmmakers are also talking to families from a variety of
backgrounds, ages and income levels who are conducting their own search for
the right early childhood program.
As Alpert describes the documentary, it's "a pretty ambitious community
engagement.
"The purpose is to really get people to understand how kids work," Alpert said,
explaining that the goal is to identify what kids need at an early stage in order
to reach their potential.
"It's also the bigger picture, if they get what they need, we get what we need as
a society, and there are ramifications if they don't get it," he said.
So what do they need?
"They need positive relationships, and that's by both the teachers and their
peers," Alpert said.
"They need to be stimulated and talked to, that builds their vocabulary.
"They need to be played with and nurtured and loved and given safe places,"
he said.
Alpert said Highland Park Community Nursery School and Day Care, which
serves children aged 3 to 5, serves as a great example of a program that
succeeds at providing what kids need.
"It's a gem," he said. "As soon as I walked in, this is the place I wanted to
spend time."
Ines Sommer said she feels much the same way.
"I'm having lots of fun, because it's rare you get to spend so much time with
your subjects," Sommer said. "
The interaction between the teachers and the students is amazing.
"As they're playing," Sommer continued, "you see huge learning process."
Alpert observed quietly May 6 as Sommer filmed.
"I'm lucky," he said. "I get to be in this classroom, which is inspiring, where
they're getting everything they need.
Children from Glenview, Highwood and Naval Station Great Lakes are
included on the classroom roster.
"As we complete our 64th year of providing quality early childhood
programming, we are thrilled to be a part of this opportunity," said Lisa
Adelmund, executive director. "The documentary depicts how children learn,
their thoughts on it and how we as educators support the learning process."
Filming continues through the end of the school year.
Karie Angell Luc is a freelance journalist for Pioneer Press.