Originally Posted by TomCopeland:
Is there a difference in credentials for those who educate children? Of course - BA, Masters, PhD, CDA, NAFCC accredited, QRS, and so on. Why is it so important to call some of them teachers and others not? Are we saying that the only way we can call someone a teacher of preschool children is if they have a post-secondary degree? Why this resistance to calling those who educate our children "teachers"?
The problem I have is that making this distinction between those who are "teachers" and those who are not is that by doing so we devalue the work that preschool teachers do. This is particularly disturbing when we know that children learn the most before they become schoolagers!
I'm not trying to devalue the work of school age teachers. I'm not disagreeing that some preschool teachers do a terrible job. I'm saying that what is important is that we recognize the importance of educating preschool children. This work is so important that the least we can do is call them teachers. If this raises the expectations of what preschool teachers should be doing, so be it.
This is a really good article:
http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_s...e=main_article
Terry Stoops is an education analyst for the John Locke Foundation, a Raleigh-based organization with conservative leanings. When he reads some of the same preschool studies that advocates are using to argue for these programs, he sees a phenomenon known as "fadeout." In other words, academic gains that preschoolers register seem to disappear by the time those children reach middle school, if not much sooner.
"What is happening here is that we're spending millions -- hundreds of millions -- of dollars on programs
that aren't helping students read any better, do math any better, basically enhance their education," Stoops said.
A federal study released in January backs his position.
"The benefits of access to Head Start are largely absent by first grade for the program population as a whole," the authors reported. For those entering Head Start as 3-year-olds, "there are few sustained benefits, although access to the program may lead to improved parent-child relationships."
The study found some lasting benefits for certain groups, such as children with disabilities or with extremely low cognitive skills. But there were also negative effects associated with attending Head Start.
Supporters of early childhood education say that the interventions they tout benefit youngsters in ways that don't show up on standardized tests.
"Really, the verdict is still out," Stoops said. "But from what we have available, all indications seem to be that most students aren't getting much of a benefit from these programs."
"We certainly support pre-kindergarten programs for desperately poor students who lack functioning parents," he said. But tax dollars helping any other children could have a much greater impact if they were instead funneled into vouchers or tax credits that parents could use to pay for child care, Stoops asserts
Before we get to the notion that preschool is so valuable why don't we get some research to prove it is?
I don't believe that preschool is the answer in early childhood. I think the parents are the TEACHERS for their children. I think there are a lot better things to invest billions of dollars into to give our kids the best chance of being good students.
Kids need an early childhood of close proximal supervision,
excellent nutrition, free play, outdoor exercise, GOOD DEEP SLEEP,
discipline, and affection. They need good CARE. If they have an early childhood of good care they will be great students. Good care CAN include "education" but it will not further them academically.
At the age of five/six the kids are ready for academics. For hundreds of years we have understood this is the age to begin their "education". Nothing has changed with this generation of students. They aren't more evolved at two/three/four then they were a hundred years ago. You can't cheat mother nature. We are humans and human babies and toddlers don't prosper from early "education". They prosper from good care in the areas I listed above.
We HAVE to get back to the basics. We aren't doing better after a couple of decades of "early education". We are failing our children because we aren't supporting what REALLY matters in raising quality kids.