If you're a reader of this blog you certainly know how fervently I believe in play for young children, particularly in their early schooling. Still, I wish you could have seen my face -- and the way my jaw dropped -- when I read a post, dated yesterday, with the same title as this one.
The reason for my surprise? Here's the opening paragraph:
“Early childhood education” is a very popular major today. However, this concept is still unknown to many people. Early childhood education can be basically termed as “Learning through play”. This concept is adopted by many kindergartens.
Just a bit of a simplification! And, of course, these days, the reference to kindergartens is almost completely untrue.
If you're an early childhood professional, you might also want to know that, according to this post, compared to other careers available today, a career in early childhood education is "stress free."
It's not my intent to harangue the writer of the blog, but I did think a few of you might want to correct some of its misconceptions. You'll be glad to know there is a spot for comments!
Rae, you know I spoke right up on this one! I was so appalled that I didn't know where to begin! The blog has moderation turned on, so my comment might not even be published. Here it is just in case:
“This concept is adopted by many kindergartens.”
Play-based Kindergartens are not really commonplace in America, especially in many public school systems. Although there are staunch advocates that use developmentally appropriate practice to support learning in Kindergarten classrooms, many are pushing inappropriate academics and testing onto young children. It is not a very pleasing way to start formal education, and many children learn to dislike school early on because of it.
“The main advantage of this career is that, you will have a pleasant and stress free working environment.”
Burnout and high staff turnover rate of over 1/3 annually are a huge problem in the Early Childhood Education field for numerous reasons.
The main culprit tends to be low wages. Early Childhood professionals tend to be seen as mere babysitters or “day care” providers and not as professionals with knowledge of child development and learning, so they are generally quite underpaid. Even though the demand for Early Childhood professionals is great and continues to increase, there is a mush higher turnover rate for them than public school teachers.
I have worked with children from infancy to middle childhood, and I’m not sure I could ever say that my classroom was stress free. Problem behaviors, large ratios of children per staff member, and seemingly impossible standards are just a few stressors.
Posted by: WendyZ | August 31, 2010 at 09:04 PM
Beautifully said, Wendy!!
Posted by: Rae Pica | September 01, 2010 at 08:56 AM