Climbing Ladders to Success

Watching the 4-year-olds climb up instead of slip down the plastic slide taught Grover Cleveland High School senior Juan Sanchez something about how preschoolers behave.

“Some don’t want to follow the rules,” he said. “They want to go their own way.”

The chutes and ladders of the new playground that opened Tuesday may be all fun and games for the preschoolers, but for Sanchez and nearly 180 fellow teachers-in-training, it’s a learning tool. By studying videotapes of the children as they play on the structure, the high school students hope to observe how muscles and hand-eye coordination develop in young bodies.

The modern playground, with its surveillance system and its base of recycled tires for cushioning children’s falls, is the first of its kind for a teacher-training program at a Los Angeles Unified School District high school, officials said.

Cleveland and three other district schools offer the career program, whose graduates have gone on to work in day care, psychology and teaching.

The playground serves Cleveland’s on-campus preschool. Cavorting on the rungs, platforms and slides of the playground can help build both the large and small muscles of the preschoolers, said Robert O’Connor, one of two instructors at the teacher-training program. Psychologists have shown that this kind of exercise helps children concentrate and gives them the motor skills needed to focus on letters and numbers, O’Connor said.

“If they feel confident and emotionally secure, they will start the maturation process for learning to read and write,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor began seeking a new playground last year. Video cameras and display screens inside the classroom, he decided, would allow the Cleveland juniors and seniors in his class to keep a watchful eye on the preschoolers and would let them zoom in on the playground action.

To pay for the new structure and two cameras mounted on the neighboring bungalow, O’Connor turned to local charities. He received nearly $17,000 from actor Kirk Douglas and his wife, Anne, who have helped fund renovations at 93 district playgrounds. UNITE-LA, a local schools-to-career program, gave an additional $9,000, O’Connor said.

The playground took nearly 10 days to build. Giving the structure a vigorous test Tuesday were 28 visiting preschoolers from Canoga Park Children’s Center, one of several Valley schools where O’Connor’s students gain practical teaching experience during the year.

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After a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the 83-year-old Douglas, star of the 1960 epic “Spartacus,” followed the preschoolers down one of the plastic slides.

Although the high school students have yet to study the tapes for their class, some are already becoming fond of the mustard yellow, catsup red and ice blue structure.

“It’s really emotional for us,” said Cleveland junior Shameka Hill, 16. “We really wanted the kids to have a variety of things to do. If they enjoy it, we enjoy it.”

Shameka and her classmates spend two days a week attending lectures on teaching, child development and creating lesson plans. For much of the rest of the week they work with preschool and elementary school classes, and even learn to cook for their pupils.