The Promethean Foundation

Education Excellence and Character Development Pre-School Scholarship Program, under the Direction of the Union City Rotary Club.

It's a new day, a day for exciting beginnings.
And a child born on or after October 1st, 2004 in our community may have the opportunity to be one of the first to benefit from the Promethean Project, a groundbreaking Union City Rotary Club program funded by the Robert E. and Jenny D. Kirkland Foundation.
In anticipation of this exciting effort to provide a curriculum of educational excellence and positive character development, working through existing day care centers, the Promethean board of directors has selected veteran early childhood educator and administrator Cathy Waggoner of Union City to head up the project.
Mrs. Waggoner, former Union City First Baptist Church Kare Bear Preschool teacher, will be working to recruit children who are in need of scholarships to local day care centers to participate in the program. These children must live in Union City and must have been born after September 30.She will also work with Union City day care centers that choose to participate and will be instrumental in developing the instructional and testing components that define the unique project. Mrs. Waggoner will be making a presentation of the concept to day care centers expressing an interest in the near future. This presentation will answer many questions for early childhood care givers, members of the board say.
Those members, who will serve three-year terms, include president Clay Woods, vice president Todd Stone, secretary Chuck Cloud, treasurer Clint Joiner and Marty Sisco. The president of Union City Rotary Club will also serve as an ex-officio member and will be charged with communicating progress and initiatives to the club's board of directors. That body will, in turn, appoint new board members as needed.
The project is also profiting from input coming from Union City Elementary School kindergarten teacher Kim Taylor, Lake Road Elementary School teacher Jane Paschall and University of Tennessee at Martin professor Dr. Martha Herndon.

Program Basics
The distinctive name for the project is derived from the mythological character Prometheus, a Titan who was chained and tortured by Zeus because he had stolen fire from the gods and given the knowledge associated with it to men, enabling them to enhance and improve their lives. The ancients pointed to Prometheus' actions as the beginning of intellectual awareness for mortals. Promethean has come to mean "daringly original" or "creative" and thus very accurately describes the program that has the potential not only to positively affect the Union City children involved but also to impact early local childhood education on a broad spectrum.
Preschool Promethean partners will be focusing on a program that:
provides the foundation of concepts and skills for building future learning; engages the learner in development experiences in all disciplines; integrates and connects learning in all disciplines; recognizes and values differences in learning styles; appreciates the diversity of individuals; promotes social responsibility through authentic experiences; nurtures the growth of good character; creates a community of learners.
Promethean Project will provide scholarships for qualifying children of all races, creeds and national origin who live within the city limits of Union City. The scholarships will pay fees at the participating day care facilities of the recipient's choice.
To participate, the preschool partners must agree to put the special Promethean Project curriculum in place, supporting a teaching program of educational excellence that includes books, educational toys and activities and an overall academically-charged environment. The preschools must also focus on character development, utilizing books that have a moral point and emphasing those lessons by the actions of the adults involved in the care of the infants and young children, who must always model good character and promote an ongoing and pervasive atmosphere of character development.
Virtues identified by the board as basic include respect, responsibility, compassion, integrity and courage. Promethean Project codes of conduct underscore respecting the dignity of each individual, treating others with kindness, being honest, sharing with those in need, encouraging intellectual curiosity and caring and respecting the environment and property.
Promethean board members envision children moving out of the five-year program and into kindergarten backed by excellent academic preparation and schooled in responsibility, strong moral character, integrity and respect for themselves and others.
They say children will have the opportunity to attain these goals because they will have many opportunities to participate in new, exciting and stimulating activities and will be encouraged along a path of positive interaction with others and self-esteem that will put them on an equal footing with their classmates.
"We want Promethean to enhance a lifelong love of learning and to help build self-esteem based on achievement. That is conducive to intellectual, social, physical and artistic development in a diverse community", said a board spokesman.
Basic to the program will be a Promethean curriculum that encompasses 10 disciplines board members and advisors say represent the standard for what young children should have learned and/or experienced to be adequately prepared for kindergarten.
These include: language, with emphasis on reading, writing, spelling and oral communication; math; social studies; social and emotional development; physical and health education; art; music; technology; foreign language.
Portfolio systems, progress reports and parent-teacher conferences will help the early childhood educators assess and document each child's development in each of the disciplines and determine if benchmarks are being achieved.

Administrator of the Project
Mrs. Waggoner, a native of Union City and the board's choice to head up the program, has been day care director in one of the city's most respected preschool programs for the past 14 years. She is a graduate of Union City High School and the University of Tennessee at Martin, where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in education. She was a Union City Rotary Club Scholarship recipient.
During her tenure at Kare Bear, she built the program from a half-day preschool to a five-day-a-week program that serves infants and toddlers as well as preschoolers and offers a summer day camp for school-aged children.
The Promethean director and her husband, Ronnie Waggoner, are the parents of three adult children who were also educated in the Union City School System.
She serves that system now as a member of the school board.
"I believe in the importance of having a school system that has very high standards", she said of her commitment to that board. "I joined the Promethean Project because I believe it is important for all children to have the opportunity to have the best preschool available to prepare them to be lifetime learners."

To Enroll a Child
Only those children born after September 30th, 2004, and living in Union City will be eligible for the program. Parents who are interested may contact Mrs. Waggoner at 731-884-0088 or e-mail her at pro_kids@bellsouth.net. Union City day care providers who wish to become part of the project are encouraged to contact us for further information.