The History Of Early Childhood Education
Early Childhood Education is a field that has been extensively researched and backed by theory for a long time. It is hard to argue the obvious; early childhood education is beneficial to the overall development of children.
For many years the battle in the field has been to make society understand that it is important to invest in the early education of our children. This is difficult because history of the family is having the mother home raising her children. How do you convince someone that child care (even part time) can be better for children’s early learning than being home with their mother?
As more and more women entered the work force and needed care the opinion of child care became more understood and continued to expand. There were still alternative choices; you could choose to leave your child home with older siblings, a family member, a lady down the street, or at a child care center. The main decision making issue was usually cost and it still is.
In 2007, Dalton McGuinty hired Charles Pascal to advise him on how to implement full day kindergarten. In 2009 full day kindergarten was launched and a piece of child care died.
You see, early childhood education and full day kindergarten are not the same. How could they be when they follow direction from different legislation.
Understanding the difference
Child care centers follow the Day Nurseries Act which outlines a minimum standard that directors and educators must abide by. They are regulated by the Ministry of Child and Youth Services through a minimum of once a year inspections. And a licensing process.
Full day Kindergarten classrooms do not follow the Day Nurseries Act.
They do not follow the Day Nurseries Act. The minimum standard.
This should be an eyebrow raiser to parents, but unfortunately it still comes down to the power of money when swaying opinions. I have no money to offer to help you see my view, only the facts as I see them.
Because Full Day Kindergarten classrooms do not follow the Day Nurseries Act they have higher ratios (that will only get higher with the removal of Early Childhood Educators in the classroom. Current ratios are 1:13, but 1:26 could be the future. Child Care centers are 1:10 for J/K and 1:12 for S/K. Outdoor spaces do not have the same requirements either, leaving children with less opportunity to refine their physical skill development. The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is the results of years of research of what quality care looks like is not present in these classrooms.
Why Can't we have both?
The message I want to send loud and clear is that we can't have it all. We will not have full day kindergarten and available child care in Ontario at the same time.
This is because child care is a business like any other and with the Day Nurseries Act's strict ratio and classroom size guidelines, child care centers rely on the older age groups (with lower ratios) to offset the operating costs of the younger age groups.
Full day kindergarten is taking away this group of children because families tend to choose what appears more affordable. However, in the long term this initiative will result in more and more mothers having no choice but to stay home with their children until they are old enough to go to school as alternative care becomes even more scarce than it is today.
Don't believe me?
Even the Region of Peel's Learn Play Care centers are threatening closure of all 12 centers. They are very clear on the reason why: Full day kindergarten is taking their children away leaving the future operations too costly to stay open. So far the decision is on hold but the issue is far from over.
I believe that child care has major gaps and there are major flaws in the system that do need immediate attention and correction, but I do not believe that full day kindergarten (at least not the way it is now) is the answer.
And while I am the minority in my views, I am not alone. One of Dwight Duncan’s 360+ recommendations that were submitted to Dalton McGuinty today included a recommendation to scrap full day kindergarten. This is because the program is too costly and quite frankly the government cannot afford it.
So if not full day kindergarten, what do I think should happen?
I think the government should scrap full day kindergarten and invest in child care instead. I think the government should help all existing child care programs provide quality care (rather than only the current select few), and help create new child care centers. This way parents will hold on to their right to choose the best environment for their child, without the dangling carrot of "free child care" as full day kindergarten is portrayed and viewed as by parents.
Currently, even a parent on subsidy can choose: a Montessori, High/Scope, Play Based, or any other curriculum model that best meets their ideas of what early childhood education looks like. This choice will slowly fade away as the government takes over control of what and how our children learn. Essentially the goal for the government is to get an early start at shoving their academic driven curriculum down our children's throats.
Where child care sits today
Today, Dwight Drummond put forth a 700 page report outlining over 360 recommendations to help Ontario get back of financial track. One of the recommendations was to scrap Full day Kindergarten.
Another part of Drummond’s recommendation that is not at the forefront of news stories, is to remove Early Childhood Educators from the Full Day Kindergarten classrooms if the government doesn’t follow the advice of scrapping them all together.
As an Early Childhood Educator myself, I can tell you that Educators are properly trained to care for young children and provide a developmentally appropriate classroom environment and program. To avoid getting too heavily into this point I ask you; would you want a gynecologist to perform your heart transplant? (Hopefully your answer is no). It’s the same thing.
As of today the Ontario government is standing firm is their decision to go ahead with Full Day Kindergarten because they know that the only reason they won the votes of Ontario voters is because of this very promise. However, it is a huge mistake that, unfortunately, parents can't seem to see yet.
If we do not get off this road or address all the potholes ahead, we will lose our quality child care in Ontario. period.
2.11.2012
Laptop Shooting dad: Read Between The Lines
I watched the laptop shooting dad video several times trying to comprehend how any normal human being (especially a parent) could watch it and think it was cool of dad to do it. How can they think that the daughter deserved this or that this is acceptable parenting? Did we all watch the same video, because I am left floored with a hurt heart just thinking about the life of this teen and the future of this family?
There is little doubt in my mind that this brick wall family has left this girl emotionally abused long prior to the disrespectful messages. I also sense that the father doesn’t care in the least about the emotional stability of his daughter and doesn’t even make an effort to understand her.
I am not blind to society. I know many teens are defiant and downright spoiled. I know that the generation of today has it easier than generations past. However, this video contained so many examples of deeper issues that I need to point out to you.
One of the first things the father says in the video is that Hannah was grounded for 3 months for doing something similar in the past. That is an extremely long sentence for exercising freedom of speech.
I am not saying what she did is ok, but it’s not like she is the first teen to vent in anger. Doesn’t anyone remember bitching to their friends about their parents during those years? Sure we didn’t have Facebook back then but the concept doesn’t change. Facebook is a method of communication for teens of today and that isn’t their fault.
If this father had not grounded her for 3 months and instead dealt with the REAL problem at that time, perhaps things wouldn’t have gotten this far. You see, punishments tend to escalate each time and when you start excessive it gets more excessive each time. Let’s hope that the next time (because there will be a next time) that he doesn’t “show her who’s boss” but putting every bullet he has in her actual ass.
He should have figured out WHY she was so angry with him and had a discussion like adults and work together for a solution. That way, he would have taught his daughter a lesson in respect by saying “what you did hurt me, but I still love you, I hear what your concerns are, these are my concerns”.
Because he treated her unfairly, trust was already long gone in their relationship. It was to the point where this father decided to spy on his daughter through Facebook and didn’t like what he found.
Then he pre-meditated a revengeful plan to get back at her. To get back at her. His ultimate goal as a parent was to make his daughter hurt and suffer embarrassment through public humiliation because he was humiliated. How is he any better than her? Actually, he is worse than her because as an adult you would expect him to have better parenting tools to set an example of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.
When I listen to Hannah’s posting I hear a teen who is feeling stressed out, in need of a break and on the verge of depression. I don’t care what teens of yesteryear went through that was worse. Everyone handles stress and expectations differently and something isn’t right with her and it needs to be addressed. There are also many contradictions between what she says she does and what the father says she does.
Listen.
Hannah says she feels like a slave. Perhaps it’s because of HOW these chores are presented to her and how her work is treated by the family. She said she has to make their coffee. I wonder if she is busy doing something important to her and called downstairs to make it while the parents watch TV. (that’s an assumption on my part, but why is she responsible for this I wonder). She also says she is shoveling fertilizer for the garden but the father doesn’t list that in his (edited) short list of what he wants viewers to think the chore list is. He also left out the work she does at his clinic. He didn’t deny that she does these things either. But the part that I heard loud and clear as the major problem she has with doing chores is not the chores themselves but the disrespect of having people carelessly mess up the work she just put in. As a wife and mother I can appreciate that frustration. Who would like to just clean floors and then have people walk all over them with muddy shoes knowing that she will have to clean it up again or be grounded. That does sound slavish to me. I would surely feel like one.
The way this father speaks to his daughter on this video gave me an insight to how he talks her in real life and what he thinks of her. If I can hear it and feel it, certainly she is too. I sense he has little respect for her as a human being. He thinks that doing things for his child, like installing software, makes him a good parent. He thinks of his daughter as lazy, not worthy of trust and not smart enough.
Hannah says she is finding it hard to keep up with school and chores and burdened by the hanging threat of being grounded constantly. The father seems to feel like he had a hard life and is so full of himself that he doesn’t care about the individual needs of his daughter. She should just be like he was and if she can’t handle it than he will sit back and emotionally abuse her.
Now, I am not saying that she should be coddled and not have to do anything because that will not help her either. However, she needs support, encouragement, to be treated fairly, and to have a voice in the household. Teenagers need a sense of empowerment so that they can learn to take responsibility for their own lives.
The father doesn’t show respect for what she does in the video, so I can’t imagine he shows any in day to day life. He had initially listed several chores and his lowball estimate of how long they would take (obviously he has never actually done any of these chores in his life), but then he turned around after listing his superhero powers in his own teenage life (which I also assume are exaggerated) and said her ONLY responsibilities were waking up on time and catching a bus. If you were actually doing a lot more than that and then told by your father that was all you are responsible for is waking up and catching a bus, how would you feel? Now imagine its been happening your entire 15 years of life.
He also belittled her for having a list of the chores she is to complete. Wouldn’t a good parent encourage the use of lists? Isn’t that a sign of responsibility? I have countless lists in my life, does that mean I’m stupid?
Teenagers need discipline and guidance, not punishment and unforgiveness. I think he has forgotten that his daughter is a human being, not a robot. She will make mistakes, and so will he (as he clearly demonstrated through the creation of this video). However, even a person who comitted a real crime would receive more forgiveness than she did. She is going to put in 3-4 years for posting a mean status on Facebook. I’m pretty sure a rapist somewhere is getting a lesser sentence. I come to this conclusion because he said she will not get her things back until probably college. This punishment is far too extreme. Where is the guidance and where is the chance to do better? Where is the love? Several times in the video we are told of past groundings and the constant threat of grounding. The punishments are meaningless and not working (because punishment doesn’t correct behaviour) and so each time they escalate until you wind up shooting 9 bullets in your daughter’s laptop.
Now let’s assess the message this father sent to his little girl. He said you love your laptop. It contains your school work, pictures, a social life and who knows what else and I am going to destroy it in the most violent way I can think of. I feel powerful when I use a gun and since I will go to jail if I shoot you, I will just shoot this and make you watch it and post it so your friends can laugh and you and the whole world can see what a brat you are. He showed his daughter and everyone who watched the video that if someone ever disrespects you that it is ok to disrespect them right back in an ever worse way to show them they are worthless and you are king. It’s ok to humiliate them back and then take it a step further by deliberately and violently destroying something meaningful to them to emotionally hurt them and make sure they suffer for years. Then, to add insult to injury he makes immature comments that she will owe him for the cost of the bullets and the cost of the software.
As he pulled out a gun and began shooting the laptop all I could feel was the hate he was feeling towards his daughter. No other emotion would bring about such an over the top action. He shot his daughter’s property in cold blood. This said so much to me about his character that I am left feeling like “no wonder she is the way she is”. Look at her role model? And if he isn’t enough he implies that the other trusting adults in her life feel the same way. Could you imagine being treated this way for making mistakes in your life?
Before you jump on the bandwagon that he is the coolest father ever, giving him kudos and egging him on for his amazing parenting skills, perhaps you should try to remember mistakes you made as a teen and then imagine your parents not forgiving you. Who would you be today if that happened to you?
If you are not one of the 13,000,000 people (and counting) who watched this video, you can watch it here:
There is little doubt in my mind that this brick wall family has left this girl emotionally abused long prior to the disrespectful messages. I also sense that the father doesn’t care in the least about the emotional stability of his daughter and doesn’t even make an effort to understand her.
I am not blind to society. I know many teens are defiant and downright spoiled. I know that the generation of today has it easier than generations past. However, this video contained so many examples of deeper issues that I need to point out to you.
One of the first things the father says in the video is that Hannah was grounded for 3 months for doing something similar in the past. That is an extremely long sentence for exercising freedom of speech.
I am not saying what she did is ok, but it’s not like she is the first teen to vent in anger. Doesn’t anyone remember bitching to their friends about their parents during those years? Sure we didn’t have Facebook back then but the concept doesn’t change. Facebook is a method of communication for teens of today and that isn’t their fault.
If this father had not grounded her for 3 months and instead dealt with the REAL problem at that time, perhaps things wouldn’t have gotten this far. You see, punishments tend to escalate each time and when you start excessive it gets more excessive each time. Let’s hope that the next time (because there will be a next time) that he doesn’t “show her who’s boss” but putting every bullet he has in her actual ass.
He should have figured out WHY she was so angry with him and had a discussion like adults and work together for a solution. That way, he would have taught his daughter a lesson in respect by saying “what you did hurt me, but I still love you, I hear what your concerns are, these are my concerns”.
Because he treated her unfairly, trust was already long gone in their relationship. It was to the point where this father decided to spy on his daughter through Facebook and didn’t like what he found.
Then he pre-meditated a revengeful plan to get back at her. To get back at her. His ultimate goal as a parent was to make his daughter hurt and suffer embarrassment through public humiliation because he was humiliated. How is he any better than her? Actually, he is worse than her because as an adult you would expect him to have better parenting tools to set an example of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.
When I listen to Hannah’s posting I hear a teen who is feeling stressed out, in need of a break and on the verge of depression. I don’t care what teens of yesteryear went through that was worse. Everyone handles stress and expectations differently and something isn’t right with her and it needs to be addressed. There are also many contradictions between what she says she does and what the father says she does.
Listen.
Hannah says she feels like a slave. Perhaps it’s because of HOW these chores are presented to her and how her work is treated by the family. She said she has to make their coffee. I wonder if she is busy doing something important to her and called downstairs to make it while the parents watch TV. (that’s an assumption on my part, but why is she responsible for this I wonder). She also says she is shoveling fertilizer for the garden but the father doesn’t list that in his (edited) short list of what he wants viewers to think the chore list is. He also left out the work she does at his clinic. He didn’t deny that she does these things either. But the part that I heard loud and clear as the major problem she has with doing chores is not the chores themselves but the disrespect of having people carelessly mess up the work she just put in. As a wife and mother I can appreciate that frustration. Who would like to just clean floors and then have people walk all over them with muddy shoes knowing that she will have to clean it up again or be grounded. That does sound slavish to me. I would surely feel like one.
The way this father speaks to his daughter on this video gave me an insight to how he talks her in real life and what he thinks of her. If I can hear it and feel it, certainly she is too. I sense he has little respect for her as a human being. He thinks that doing things for his child, like installing software, makes him a good parent. He thinks of his daughter as lazy, not worthy of trust and not smart enough.
Hannah says she is finding it hard to keep up with school and chores and burdened by the hanging threat of being grounded constantly. The father seems to feel like he had a hard life and is so full of himself that he doesn’t care about the individual needs of his daughter. She should just be like he was and if she can’t handle it than he will sit back and emotionally abuse her.
Now, I am not saying that she should be coddled and not have to do anything because that will not help her either. However, she needs support, encouragement, to be treated fairly, and to have a voice in the household. Teenagers need a sense of empowerment so that they can learn to take responsibility for their own lives.
The father doesn’t show respect for what she does in the video, so I can’t imagine he shows any in day to day life. He had initially listed several chores and his lowball estimate of how long they would take (obviously he has never actually done any of these chores in his life), but then he turned around after listing his superhero powers in his own teenage life (which I also assume are exaggerated) and said her ONLY responsibilities were waking up on time and catching a bus. If you were actually doing a lot more than that and then told by your father that was all you are responsible for is waking up and catching a bus, how would you feel? Now imagine its been happening your entire 15 years of life.
He also belittled her for having a list of the chores she is to complete. Wouldn’t a good parent encourage the use of lists? Isn’t that a sign of responsibility? I have countless lists in my life, does that mean I’m stupid?
Teenagers need discipline and guidance, not punishment and unforgiveness. I think he has forgotten that his daughter is a human being, not a robot. She will make mistakes, and so will he (as he clearly demonstrated through the creation of this video). However, even a person who comitted a real crime would receive more forgiveness than she did. She is going to put in 3-4 years for posting a mean status on Facebook. I’m pretty sure a rapist somewhere is getting a lesser sentence. I come to this conclusion because he said she will not get her things back until probably college. This punishment is far too extreme. Where is the guidance and where is the chance to do better? Where is the love? Several times in the video we are told of past groundings and the constant threat of grounding. The punishments are meaningless and not working (because punishment doesn’t correct behaviour) and so each time they escalate until you wind up shooting 9 bullets in your daughter’s laptop.
Now let’s assess the message this father sent to his little girl. He said you love your laptop. It contains your school work, pictures, a social life and who knows what else and I am going to destroy it in the most violent way I can think of. I feel powerful when I use a gun and since I will go to jail if I shoot you, I will just shoot this and make you watch it and post it so your friends can laugh and you and the whole world can see what a brat you are. He showed his daughter and everyone who watched the video that if someone ever disrespects you that it is ok to disrespect them right back in an ever worse way to show them they are worthless and you are king. It’s ok to humiliate them back and then take it a step further by deliberately and violently destroying something meaningful to them to emotionally hurt them and make sure they suffer for years. Then, to add insult to injury he makes immature comments that she will owe him for the cost of the bullets and the cost of the software.
As he pulled out a gun and began shooting the laptop all I could feel was the hate he was feeling towards his daughter. No other emotion would bring about such an over the top action. He shot his daughter’s property in cold blood. This said so much to me about his character that I am left feeling like “no wonder she is the way she is”. Look at her role model? And if he isn’t enough he implies that the other trusting adults in her life feel the same way. Could you imagine being treated this way for making mistakes in your life?
Before you jump on the bandwagon that he is the coolest father ever, giving him kudos and egging him on for his amazing parenting skills, perhaps you should try to remember mistakes you made as a teen and then imagine your parents not forgiving you. Who would you be today if that happened to you?
If you are not one of the 13,000,000 people (and counting) who watched this video, you can watch it here:
2.07.2012
Star Wars Dreams Come True at Disney World
I live with a bunch of Star Wars nerds. At first it was just my husband who would race to the theatre to watch every movie the minute it was released (Like he will Friday when Episode I comes out in 3D), and buy every video game in the same fashion. But then we had kids, and those kids are boys. It was only a matter of time before he got to them. Now I have three out of control Star Wars nerds running around.
In my house there are Star Wars: movies, video games, clothing, books, toys of every kind (stuffed animals, costumes, lightsabers, lego, transformers etc), bedroom decor (wall stickers, lightsaber lamp, piggy banks, tins, posters etc), and even spatulas and pancake molds.
Not a day goes by where the kids don't dress up and chase each other around the house with lightsabers. And more often than not my husband is also in on the action (sans costume).
That's why Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando Florida was our first stop on our Disney vacation. From the Star Tours ride, to the Tatooine gift shop, to the Jedi Training experience, my Star Wars family has enough memories to last us a lifetime, including this family photo we had done:
We rode the Star Tours ride three times, which also meant that we visited the Tatooine gift shop three times. (Every ride at Disney drops you off inside a gift shop). The kids were able to build their own lightsabers in the gift shop for only $21. They even light up and make the cool lightsaber sounds.
DeAndre's lightsaber
Dorian's lightsaber
But by far, the best experience they had was being a part of the Jedi Training Show in front of an audience. At the end they received a certificate declaring them official Padawans which we framed and hung up in their Star Wars bedrooms.
Without further ado, I present to you my little Padawans in action.
DeAndre is the one with the green lightsaber in the back right, and Dorian is the one in the front on the left. You can see DeAndre attack Darth Vadar at 9:16 and Dorian attacks him at 11:00 in.
In my house there are Star Wars: movies, video games, clothing, books, toys of every kind (stuffed animals, costumes, lightsabers, lego, transformers etc), bedroom decor (wall stickers, lightsaber lamp, piggy banks, tins, posters etc), and even spatulas and pancake molds.
Not a day goes by where the kids don't dress up and chase each other around the house with lightsabers. And more often than not my husband is also in on the action (sans costume).
That's why Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando Florida was our first stop on our Disney vacation. From the Star Tours ride, to the Tatooine gift shop, to the Jedi Training experience, my Star Wars family has enough memories to last us a lifetime, including this family photo we had done:
We rode the Star Tours ride three times, which also meant that we visited the Tatooine gift shop three times. (Every ride at Disney drops you off inside a gift shop). The kids were able to build their own lightsabers in the gift shop for only $21. They even light up and make the cool lightsaber sounds.
DeAndre's lightsaber
Dorian's lightsaber
But by far, the best experience they had was being a part of the Jedi Training Show in front of an audience. At the end they received a certificate declaring them official Padawans which we framed and hung up in their Star Wars bedrooms.
Without further ado, I present to you my little Padawans in action.
DeAndre is the one with the green lightsaber in the back right, and Dorian is the one in the front on the left. You can see DeAndre attack Darth Vadar at 9:16 and Dorian attacks him at 11:00 in.
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