In the IRA/NAEYC article, the thing that resonated with me is that for some areas, only a high school diploma is needed to be in the childcare profession. That means someone that barely managed to pass algebra may be responsible for helping my (future) child acquire their beginning building blocks of public education. I one hundred percent completely agree that this is inadequate. Children begin to develop literacy so early. It is crucial that the adults in their school situations (even daycare) are able to teach them language and reading in it's most basic forms. If a childcare professional is using slang and not annunciating correctly, for instance, then the child will pick up on these habits. We should want children to get the richest, most stimulating environment everywhere they go, and this high school diploma requirement is not cutting it for me.
Questions to think about:
Maybe a high school diploma used to be good enough, but do you think that in recent years a diploma is becoming less and less significant?
Do you think a daycare provider should have a college background?
I beleive that daycare providers should definitely have a college degree. The most crucial years of a child's life are when they are in child care. Teachers need to be prepared for all the possible "teacher moments" that might occur during one day. If these day care providers do not have the knowledge or aren't even aware of what these might look like, then our children are not getting the attention and stimulation they need out of a day care.
ReplyDeleteI think that it depends on the care of the daycare provider. If the child is in daycare at a facility that keeps the children for 4 hours than a high-school diploma may be enough. but if the childcare is for 8 hour 5 days a week than i believe some kind of training is necessary. Maybe not to the extinct of a college degree but a course or two on caring for and teaching children would be good.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote about what I wanted to write about while reading that article. Teachers are needed in the very beginning of a child's life just as much as when they "enter adulthood." Right now, we have to HOPE that our kids are around childcare professionals that actually care about their futures, not just a paycheck.
ReplyDeleteI work for a daycare and I do believe that they should have some sort of training and at my daycare we do have training. I would have to say that most of the workers there do not have a college education. There is a a lot of training that goes into being a daycare worker and there is a curriculum that we do follow. I think that daycare should be very structured, but should also have many activities that keep it fresh and fun!
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