The PLAN to stop high quality child care teachers from becoming extinct
- Nanci Bradley
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
It's not time for whining about the child care crisis in the US. It's time to make a PLAN. Luckily early childhood rocks! has one. It's clear, it's easy to follow and it makes perfect sense if you care about young children and realize the potential for experiences garnered during the first few years of life.
Here's a quote from the National Research Council that talks about how important those early childhood experiences are:
The supporting structures of virtually every system of the human organism, from the tiniest cell to the capacity for intimate relationships are constructed during this age period-National Research Council, Institute of Medicine
Both providers and parents are responsible for those experiences. However, only 10% of child care is considered high quality. Why?
The parents can't afford to pay and the teachers can't afford to stay! We need to unite and demand better experiences for the children. Separately, we'll continue to get more of what we've been getting and that isn't acceptable. There is power and the potential for change in numbers.
Here are a few of the issues that parents and providers are currently facing.
We need to help young children thrive during their first few years of life, not just survive. That includes supporting both parents and providers of care. Take a look at the illustration we created above that shows the type of support needed.
It includes funding from both government and employers. At the current time 100% of the funding is provided by the parents in most cases. It's creating a one-legged stool that doesn't support anybody. This broken stool illustrates our current condition. It's obvious what happens next.
Here are some examples of positive things happening around the states in early childhood education.
We need more of these positives. Our plan is to do everything we can to stop high quality early childhood educators from becoming extinct. Please share this post!
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