Dreaming of Better Child Care

I just got home from visiting a child care center. In addition to writing about child care and parenting I also work a variety of freelance jobs that involve going into programs to observe and collect information. Usually my visits remind me of the fun side of child care, the parts I miss. And I am always reminded of how difficult a job it is and what stamina it takes to care for children all day. But today my visit just made me sad.

The teachers I saw rarely smiled. They seemed tired and had lost their enthusiasm for nurturing. The toys in the room were broken, missing pieces and far too few. The art area consisted of dried up markers and crumpled paper along side a half a dozen pair of scissors. The teachers did not appear to understand how to manage the children's behavior in a positive way. They only spoke to scold. I don't believe they were bad caregivers; I believe they were good people providing bad care, because they did not have the resources they needed to do their job. Unfortunately, they are not the only teachers lacking resources. Look at your own child's classroom. Do the teachers have everything they need?

So what do they need? And what can you, as a parent, do to help? They need more arms for hugging, more legs for moving quickly across the room, more laps to sit in, more smiling mouths to offer praise and encouragement to eager learners, more voices to read stories and sing songs. My visit today was to a classroom of four-year-olds. For this age group child development experts recommend 8-10 children per adult, although many states allow higher ratios. Even at the recommended ratios, it is impossible for one person to meet all the needs of ten children. One person cannot possibly be in every corner of the room offering the positive interactions children need.

Think about a child playing with blocks. She works hard to build a road and drives a toy car happily along it. She is so proud of her accomplishment that she jumps up to find someone to show it to. "Look what I made!" she cries triumphantly. But there is no one there. The teacher is across the room supervising painting on the easels. The assistant is setting up for lunch. At best she might get a "good job!" from across the room. But now imagine that there are enough adults in the room so that someone has been in the block area with her all along. Someone offering encouragement to rebuild when the first road fell apart, showing her how two shorter blocks equal the length of one longer block, suggesting that they make a bridge and then helping her figure out how to do it.

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