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Treating Child Care Like Early Learning Means Funding Child Care Like Early Learning

  • 1.  Treating Child Care Like Early Learning Means Funding Child Care Like Early Learning

    Posted 07-27-2021 11:27 PM
    Excerpt: To many in our field, this is the moment to take all that we've learned from science and experience, build a cohesive birth-to-five ECE system, and do away with the distinction between "child care" and "pre-k." After all, kids – babies, toddlers, preschoolers – and their caregivers benefit from high-quality ECE programs, whether they're called "child care" or "early education" programs. As many tweeted in response to the President's proposal that evening, "Child care is education!"
    https://earlysuccess.org/child-care-and-pre-k

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    Jorge Saenz De Viteri
    http://jorgesaenzdeviteri.com
    Pomona NY
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  • 2.  RE: Treating Child Care Like Early Learning Means Funding Child Care Like Early Learning

    Posted 07-29-2021 07:09 AM
    I agree with you. I also think that if NAEYC is going to represent a field that includes the primary grades, we need to be all-inclusive of the ages of the children involved. We need to go further than blurring the line between infants, toddlers, and pre-k.

    We all need a new language to describe this age span and education. When people see the word "childcare", they think of babysitting, not learning, and certainly not education. This new language to describe the field and the age groups included in it must be consistent across disciplines. I have noticed that in psychology ECE is viewed as birth to 5, not 7 or 8 years of age.

    Also, teacher education and State Departments of Education need to rethink early childhood certification versus elementary certification. Right now, there is too much overlap between elementary and ECE certification. The only age that is clearly demarcated for early childhood prepared teachers is Prek. Let's advocate that the transition for who teaches what age child or what grade child moves to 3rd grade as a transition grade - both ECE and elementary prepared and certified teachers eligible to teach that grade. Thus, ECE certified teachers would be certified to teach from birth to grade 3, and elementary certified teachers would be certified to teach grade 3 through 6,

    Let's end the marginalization of early childhood prepared teachers and highlight the skills and knowledge early childhood prepared teachers bring to the classroom that particularly provides them with knowledge of how to manage and prepare the environment where our younger students learn.

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    Nora Krieger, PhD
    Associate Professor Emerita/Past Chair NJEEPRE
    Bloomfield College/NJ Educators Exploring the Practices of Reggio Emilia
    Highland Park, NJ
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