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.
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