Students Get Lessons in Life at Day Care : Education: Youths at Santa Paula High tend to preschoolers in a class aimed at potential parents or those considering a career in teaching.

Seventeen-year-old Deion Medrano was gently showing 3-year-old Mark Lugo how to play Frisbee.

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“You hold it straight like this, then you throw it,” Deion instructed Mark, who held a bright red foam Frisbee. “You must watch where you throw it so you don’t hit anyone.”

Deion, a senior at Santa Paula High School, is one of 23 students caring for children at several local day-care centers for class credit.

The program, called Child Development and Care, is a yearlong course for juniors and seniors with topics ranging from conception to hands-on experience in which students go to day-care centers and tend to preschool children.

The elective class was designed to appeal to everyone from potential parents to students considering education as a career.

“It’s fun to work with the kids because it gives me some perspective about life,” said Christina Reyes, 17, who works with disabled children at the Santa Paula School District day-care center. “I had never realized how difficult life can be for kids with disabilities.”

The program began last fall, when students learned about the male and female reproductive systems, studied how a fetus develops and listened to physicians and nurses describe the difficulties and joys of pregnancy and birth, said Jill Anderson Gregory, teacher of the class.

During the first phase of the course, students also had to write up menus for fictitious babies as well as report on the price of a layette.

Students also learn about childhood diseases and vaccinations and how to choose toys.

“I think that it’s really good to know the facts because now I’ll think twice before having a child,” said Deion, adding that he and his friends often talk about having children. “I know now that it takes a lot of time and money to care for a baby.”

Gregory also gives students eggs so they can care for them as if they were babies.

Next year, she hopes to have at least 10 metal dolls monitored by computer. The dolls will be able to cry, signaling that it’s time to feed the baby, change its diaper or put it to bed, she said.

“I will be able to know how long it took for a student to respond to a cry at night or to give the baby medication,” Gregory said.

The most popular part of the class occurs in the second semester when students are placed in the day-care centers.

“I have really learned how to deal with kids. Yelling at them does not work,” Deion said. “But when I say I’ll draw a picture of something like the Power Rangers, they listen.”

Students also learned about HIV and venereal disease and are instructed on the various contraceptives on the market.

“I love teaching them about birth control because the more they know about it, the better-prepared they will be to make a decision,” Gregory said. “It’s when kids don’t know that they get into trouble.”

For those considering a career in education, the class also has proven valuable.

“It definitely helped me to decide,” said Tamara Vint, 17. “I’ve learned how hard it is to be a teacher, but I also learned that I love working with kids.”

The class helps others with everyday life. Robert Santa Rosa said he understands his 6-year-old sister a little better.

“I expected my little sister to talk to me like an adult,” he said, “but now I know that I can’t talk to her the same way I talk to adults. Kids are different.”