Research

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Speaking as an adoptive parent, I have asked particular teachers and my kids schools, to be sensitive to some issues regarding my children as adoptees.  As an example my oldest son has no baby photos or any other photo or item from his childhood prior to age approx. 10.  We don’t know what age 5 of our kids were when they learned to walk, lost their first teeth, and learned to speak.  There are big gaps or no information whatsoever regarding their babyhood and infancy.  I have asked teachers to bear this in mind so we do not again face situations where one of my kids may be the only child in the class who is unable to bring in a baby photo when the class is studying child development, or is unable to complete an assignment on biology and heredity as he cannot trace hair and eye colour through his family.  As their teachers were aware and sensitive to some of these things, they altered assignments so that my kids did not need to feel different to their peers.

Adoption in the United States is on the risenational estimates indicate that 1 million children live with adoptive parents (Stolley, 1993). As the number of adopted children in classrooms continues to rise each year, early childhood programs must begin to educate teachers about adoption issues. Adoption awareness will help teachers support young children who are trying to understand, and adjust to, their adoptive status.

Celebrating individuality, fostering self-esteem, and developing self-confidence in the world beyond the family are socioemotional goals that receive top priority in high-quality early childhood programs. Multicultural materials are provided in many classrooms, and activities are planned to heighten childrens awareness and sensitivity to all families (Derman-Sparks, 1989). Amidst the attention given to recognizing the value and uniqueness of each family represented in an early childhood class, teachers will want to consider the special needs of children who have been adopted. Careful curriculum planning combined with adoption awareness, genuine concern, and sensitivity will insure a positive early education experience for these children. This Digest provides suggestions for teachers who may have children in their classroom who were adopted.

Select Curriculum Activities and Materials That Represent Diverse Families Teachers can help young children develop an awareness of and appreciation for the many kinds of family structures in todays society. Because adoptive families are becoming more prevalent, it would be appropriate to represent them in class discussions and activities. Specifically in cases of transracial and international adoptions, teachers can strive to provide curriculum materials and experiences that “celebrate diversity, complexity, and the interrelatedness of cultures” (Wardle, 1990, p. 46) by including images of families whose
members do not necessarily share similar physical or other characteristics.

The overall emphasis can be placed on the “belongingness” definition of a family, rather than on the circumstances surrounding a particular childs birth. Children might enjoy compiling photographs to make books about their individual families, or they may be interested in cutting pictures from magazines to make a family collage or bulletin board. Either activity could be used as an introduction or summary for thematic experiences planned to help children understand the many kinds of families and ways families are formed.

Teachers can be sensitive to adopted childrens feelings in the selection and planning of family-themed activities. “Family related assignments stimulate thought about who we are and where we come from, bring our feelings about our families to the surface, help us to look at our families from a different perspective, and make our families more visible to others” (Edwards & Sodhi, 1992, p. 13). For children who have been adopted, this reflection may result in confusion, raise questions that cannot be answered, and underline differences between these children and their peers. For example, a teachers request for newborn photographs needed as part of a bulletin board display would be inappropriate, and perhaps disheartening, for a child who was adopted at the age of 2 years.

Reconsider “Adopt-a” Projects The phrase “adopt-a” is frequently used to preface the name given to specific projects within classrooms, schools, or communities. It is difficult for adoptive parents to explain adoption to their child when his class is involved in an adopt-a-whale or an adopt-a-road program. The obvious reason for the phrase being problematic is the manner in which it devalues the concept of adoption and adoptive parenthood; in the above examples, adoption is considered a temporary commitment dependent upon annual monetary renewal or trash removal. “Adopt-a” programs may result in “adopt-a-confusion” (Johnson, n.d.). Because young children are not abstract thinkers, they may struggle with the task of sorting out the differences between adoption of people and adoption of animals or other objects. Teachers do not need to eliminate these types of commercial projects or sponsorships, but they might want to consider a more appropriate name.

Listen Carefully to Childrens Questions
Childrens questions can help teachers gain an accurate understanding of what the child wants to know. If a childs question deals with the concept of origin, the teacher should not assume that the child is asking about adoption; the child who asks “Where did I come from?” may simply be looking for an answer to give his friend who has said “I was born in Chicago.” In such cases, an appropriate response to the childs question might be “What do you mean?” This response gives the child an opportunity to clarify his question and identify exactly what information is needed as an answer. Similarly, a question such as “Do I have two mommies?” could be given a reflective response such as “Is that what you think?you have two mommies?” This type of response opens the door for dialogue that may give the teacher insight into the childs evolving understanding of adoption.

Preschoolers and kindergarteners who were adopted as infants or toddlers rarely display any adoption-related adjustment problems; they have little understanding of reproduction and, therefore, cannot really understand what adoption means (Smith, 1993). Through sensitive discussions and simple, honest explanations, however, teachers can help children understand that (a) every baby grows inside a womans body, and (b) after a baby is born, he may live with the woman who gave birth to him, or he may live with other parents (Melina, 1989a). Emphasis should be placed on helping children develop an understanding of adoption as a way families are formed and an inclusive concept of “family” that refers to people who care about each other independent of their biological parentage.

Avoid Bias toward Adopted Children
Some adoptive parents are reluctant to share information about their childs origin with classroom teachers; they are concerned that teachers may not understand the confidential nature of the information and may treat their child differently from other children in the classroom who have not been adopted. They may further believe that teachers may start looking for problems because the child is part of a nontraditional family (Melina, 1989b). Teachers, like many other people, may react to societal stigmas and stereotypes of adoptedness that paint a less than accurate portrait of an adopted child.

Generally, teachers make a conscious effort to treat all children equally. Specifically, they should maintain consistent academic and behavioral expectations that are independent of a childs adoptive status. Teachers may especially want to examine the degree of leniency used in situations involving an adopted child, because research suggests that teachers are more lenient with a preschool child who has been adopted (Kessler, 1987).

Consider Using Bibliotherapy
Although a number of books for young children deal with the topic of traditional adoption, not all of these stories portray the same process. Teachers need to carefully select adoption books that not only relate a contemporary story but also parallel a particular childs adoption history. For example, The Chosen Baby (Wasson, 1977) describes a couple who easily adopts a baby boy, and later a baby girl, through the services of an adoption agency. Although this delightful story is classic in its charming explanation of the
adoption process, it does not describe the means by which many, if not most, adoptive families are formed today. However, it may be difficult, if not impossible, to find books that do fit a particular childs adoptive situation; a published book about a single woman adopting an infant through a notice in the newspaper would be a rare find indeed. In this and similar less common situations, making a book or a scrapbook might be suggested as a way for parents to relate their childs adoption story. In fact, the best storybook to use in talking to a child about adoption is one made by the adoptive parents themselvesa loving, sensitive, factual description of their child and their adoption experience just the way it really happened (Melina, 1989b).

Conclusion
The familial landscape of our nation is ever changing. No longer can early educators assume that all children in the same classroom share a common traditional family structure. “The reality is that children living in non-traditional families now represent the majority in the classroom. Their undeniable presence challenges our traditional definition of family and demands that we create a more sensitive and inclusive environment that supports children regardless of their family configuration”

 

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Proposed Research for FMS and CFS ??

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Has the NIH research come up with the number of people who have contracted CFS or FM or both?  Also how many are on disability due to these diseases? It seems to me that number of those afflicted would be very high.  In terms that gov’t officials and corporation leaders can understand, that is a LOT OF MONEY in sick day wages, sick benefits used and lost production; and there is the cost of gov’t support for the disabled in the way of income, housing, food and medical.  I think the need is obvious to increase research for these diseases.  I really enjoy writing my officials.  One in particular is such a jerk when it comes to health care, the environment, education, etc.  If he weren’t so young and fairly good-looking, he would never have been elected.

There was one bit of encouraging news in the NIH grant.  Drs. Staud and Vierck received the first clinical research award on FMS from the Nationnal Institutes of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS).  As recently as 1997, NINDS was complaining that FMS was “not their problem”, meaning there were no neurological abnormalities in FMS so why should any of “their” funding have to support research into it?  

I was discussing this with my neurologist (who treats me for migraines, not fibro) last week, and he said that the neurologists just don’t want the illness.  They either don’t believe it’s real, or they believe it is, but know how hard it is to treat since there has been very little research.  My doctor said that someday, someone will find the neurological/immunological/rheumatological connection, and the FMS field will be full of neurologists because from the other side of the desk, it’s a fascinating illness.  Remember that MS is an autoimmune disease, but once it was proven to involve the brain neurologists pretty much took over from the rheumatologists.  My neuro sees a similar thing happening with fibro, including decent funding that diseases like MS get, but only after someone finds a connection to the brain that NINDS and the practicing/researching neurologists can’t ignore.  Rheumatologists will still be involved in treatment (trigger point injections, PT stuff, etc), but fibro will be thought of as a mostly neurological illness.  I think he’s right and I’ve already written my representatives to complain about the skimpy funding.

 

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Research Requested on Importance of Fathers in Early Childhood

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Research on flexibility and children’s well-being has shown that better levels of flexibility exist when there are two parents present. Better flexibility is linked to lower levels of destructive parent-child interaction, the absence of a juvenile offender in the home, lower reports of sexually abusive behavior, decreased levels of psychopathology, and less chemical dependence.”  _Chapter Four: Social Fatherhood and Paternal Involvement: Conceptual, Data, and Policymaking Issues.  In NURTURING
FATHERHOOD: IMPROVING DATA AND RESEARCH ON MALE FERTILITY, FAMILY FORMATION AND FATHERHOOD.   Report of the Working Group on Conceptualizing Male Parenting. Randal D. Day, Ph.D. (Co-chair). V. Jeffery Evans, Ph., D., LLD (Co-chair). Michael Lamb, Ph.D. (Co-chair). June, 1998.

“Extensive research has been conducted on the effects of divorce for children’s well-being (Kelly, 1993; Furstenberg and Cherlin, 1991; Wallerstein, 1991; Chase-Lansdale and Hetherington, 1990; Hetherington, 1981, 1979) and the problems experienced by children growing up in single-parent families (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994). Such research has found that children are better off financially, psychologically, and emotionally when they are raised by two parents.”  NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS: Statistical Analysis Report: Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools.  October 1997.

“A large body of social science research indicates that any child growing up without a responsible, involved father is more likely to encounter difficulties than a child growing up in a two-parent family. Fatherless children in poverty face even greater risks. During this first year, therefore, the Commission chose to devote most of its attention to the issues of low-income, often unwed, fathers whose families are under the greatest economic pressure and at the highest risk.”  The Massachusett’s Governor’s Advisory Commission on Responsible Fatherhood and Family Support. August 1998.

The Effects of Fatherfullness

According to a Gallup Poll, 90.3 percent of Americans agree that “fathers make a unique contribution to their children’s lives.” –Source: Gallup Poll, 1996. National Center for Fathering. “Father Figures.” Today’s Father 4.1 (1996):8. Source: The National Commission on Children. “Speaking of Kids: A National Survey of Children and Parents.” Washington, DC, 1991. A study on parent-infant attachment found that fathers who were affectionate, spent time with their children, and overall had a positive attitude were more likely to have securely attached infants. –Source: Cox, M.J. et al. “Prediction of Infant-Father and Infant- Mother Attachment.” Developmental Psychology 28 (1992): 474-483.

A study assessing the level of adaptation of one-year olds found that, when left with a stranger, children whose fathers were highly involved were less likely to cry, worry, or disrupt play than other one-year olds whose fathers were less involved. –Source: Kotelchuk, M. “The Infant’s Relationship to His Father: Experimental Evidence.” The Role of the Father in Child Development. by Michael Lamb. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley, 1981. Father-child interaction has been shown to promote a child’s physical well-being, perceptual abilities, and competency for relatedness with others, even at a young age. –Source: Krampe, E.M. and P.D. Fair-weather. “Father Presence and Family Formation: A theoretical Reformulation.” Journal of Family Issues 14.4 (December 1993): 572-591.

A survey of over 20,000 parents found that when fathers are involved in their children’s education including attending school meetings and volunteering at school, children were more likely to get A’s, enjoy school, and participate in extracurricular activities and less likely to have repeated a grade. –Source: Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Schools. National Center for Education Statistics. Washington DC: GPO, 1997. Using nationally representative data on over 2,600 adults born in the inner city, it was found that children who lived with both parents were more likely to have finished high school, be economically self- sufficient, and to have a healthier life style than their peers who grew up in a broken home. –Source: Hardy, Janet B. et al. “Self Sufficiency at Ages 27 to 33 Years: Factors Present between Birth and 18 Years that Predict Educational Attainment Among children Born to Inner-city families.”Pediatrics 99 (1997): 80-87.

In a 26 year longitudinal study on 379 individuals, researchers found that the single most important childhood factor in developing empathy is paternal involvement. Fathers who spent time alone with their kids performing routine childcare at least two times a week, raised children who were the most compassionate adults. –Source: Koestner, Richard, Carol Franz, and Joel Weinberger. “The Family Origins of Empathic Concern: A Twenty-Six Year Longitudinal study.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 58 (1990): 709-717.

 

Filed Under: Childhood Education, Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

IT’S TIME FOR A NATIONAL EDUCATION LABORATORY

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -A national survey of 438 colleges and universities finds that early childhood teacher preparation programs will not be able to meet growing federal and state calls for better-trained early childhood teachers.
        Researchers at the National Center for Early Development & Learning (NCEDL) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) found that institutions of higher learning are already understaffed and will be strained by growing demand.
        “Overall, programs will not have adequate faculty to meet the projected workforce needs during this era of stronger teacher preparation requirements. In fact, our data indicates that a 76 percent increase in early childhood faculty would be needed if all current early childhood teachers were required to get a Bachelor’s degree,” said Dr. Pam Winton. She is co-director of the study with Dr. Diane Early, both at NCEDL.
        Research has consistently shown that young children that have better educated teachers in preschool do better academically when they reach elementary school. “Unfortunately, 75 percent of the early childhood teachers in NC have no degree past high school,” Winton said.
        Increasing demand for better-educated and qualified teachers is coming from such agencies as Head Start nationally and Smart Start in North Carolina, and from parents who look for child care centers with higher ratings. The N.C. Division of Child Development reports that a quarter of all Tar Heel children under six attend some form of child care. But less than 20 percent of the licensed child care centers in the state have the highest, five-star rating. That rating is calculated, in part, on the education level of the staff.

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Help Reqested on Early Childhood Education Research

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Oregon Department of Education has formed a task force to evaluate the readiness of Oregon children to begin school. This effort is in response to the set of educational goals recently established by President Bush, i.e. “Every child shall be ready to begin school.” After some deliberations the task force has decided that no appropriate evaluation instrument exists and that they might benefit from the advice and an “Ethnographer.” A request for assistance in finding such help arrived at my office, but, since I am
not an ethnographer, nor do have I have any experience in early childhood education, I would like to ask the readers of QUALRS-L for any help or advice they could provide for the task force.

Please note that I do not believe that the members of the task force have any understanding of the methods or potentials of ethnography, or any other kind of qualitative reserach. However, I do think this is a valuable opportunity for the qualitative research community to influence a state department of education and so possibly inject some alternative viewpoints into the process of policy development.

Specifically:

1. What studies exist that the task force could read that would help them to formulate a multi-dimensional (their word) evaluation tool, or process to evaluate the readiness of children to begin school?

2. Is there a way for qualitative research methods to develop a set of descriptions of the learning potentials of various categories of pre-school children?

3. Is is possible to conduct a wide scale, qualitatively based assessment of pre-school children?

4. Are there specific individuals the task force could consult with on this topic?

 

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Government Spends $280 Million on Education Labs, Research Centers

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON (UPI) — Several universities and education organizations across the country will receive $280 million in competitive federal grants to operate educational laboratories and research centers, the Education Department said Thursday.“This is the greatest investment the federal government has made in educational research and development,” Assistant Secretary Christopher Cross said at a press briefing.
        He said education can only be improved through developing research on innovative ways to reach teachers, parents and children. Ten regional educational laboratories will receive $162 million over the next five years “to help solve pressing education problems in schools and school districts and assist policymakers and administrators in its region,” the department explained. In addition to addressing regional concerns, the labs will focus on improving student retention and meeting the needs of small rural schools.
        Another $118 million over five years will go to several universities to operate 17 education research centers, with each center focusing on a specific topic.
        The 10 regional labs are:
        –Northeastern region, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands – Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands, Andover Mass.
        –Mid-Atlantic region – Research for Better Schools Inc., Philadelphia.
        –Southeastern region – SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
        –Midwestern region – North Centeral Regional Educational Laboratory, Elmhurst, Ill.
        –Appalachian region – Appalachia Educational Laboratory Inc., Charleston, W. Va.
        –Southwestern region – Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, Austin, Texas.
        –Central region – Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory, Aurora, Colo.
        –Northwestern region – Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Ore., which will distribute information about a new program designed to increase Indian parents’ involvement in their children’s education.
        –Western region – Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development, San Francisco.
        –Pacific Basin region – Pacific Regional Educational Laboratory, Honolulu, which will concentrate on early childhood programs.

        The 17 research centers are:
        –Education Policy and Student Learning at Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey.
        –Learning to Teach at Michigan State University.
        –Literature Teaching and Learning at the State University of New York at Albany.
        –Mathematics Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
        –Postsecondary Learning, Teaching and Assessment at Pennsylvania State University.
        –Student Learning at the University of Pittsburgh.
        –Adult Literacy at the University of Pennsylvania.
        –Education in the Inner Cities at Temple University.
        –Educational Quality of the Workforce at the University of Pennsylvania.
        –Families, Communities and Children’s Learning at Boston University.
        –Organization and Restructuring of Schools at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
        –Science Teaching and Learning at Ohio State University.
        –Teacher Performance, Evaluation and Educational Accountability at Western Michigan University.
        –Assessment, Evaluation and Testing at the University of California at Los Angeles.
        –Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
        –Writing and Literacy at the University of California at Berkeley.
        –Education Finance and Productivity at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

This, and all articles in this news hierarchy are Copyright 1990 by the wire service or information provider and licenced to Clarinet Communications Corp.  for distribution.  Except for free samples, only paid subscribers may access these articles.  Any unauthorized access, reproduction or transmission is strictly prohibited.  We will reward the first provider of information that helps us stop violators of this copyright.  

 

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Early learning, Internet Content and Research

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Kindersite project has been established to investigate how Internet content should be used in the education of early learners. The project has received the following message from the Director of Education Technology at the National Association of School Boards in the USA, I quote, “The mission of your site looks wonderful and I commend you for your work in this arena of early childhood education”.

1. To allow early learners access to the best graded content available on the Internet in a safe and secure environment and allow them to choose and use the content freely
2. For qualified academic educational researchers to study the childrens usage of the content and follow up their usage to best understand outcomes of how and if technology should be integrated in to the educational process

The site is still at a very early stage and most of the site is still to be constructed including the childrens interface. The site today is being used to test the concept and to gain feedback from the almost 50 schools in 10 countries aleady testing the site. An academic board of advisors is also being assembled to guide the
project.

 

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The War on Poverty worked, that is why conservatives hate it

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The problem with liberals is they refuse to address the root cause of poverty. They just want the easy answer of egalitarian policies that penalize the productive over the non productive.   Liberals claim the welfare state is a success, yet they have solved nothing. Instead of just giving the non productive money, that money would have been better spent training these poor people with skills that would give them more than a minimum wage job.

Focusing policy-related investments on children rather than adults is likely to result in a higher level of skill development and yield a greater rate of return. In Policies to Foster Human Capital, a Joint Center for Poverty Research (JCPR) working paper, James J. Heckman recommends several policy interventions and reforms designed to foster early learning and promote skill formation. With higher skill levels, Heckman argues that young individuals are better equipped to enter the job market and subsequently reap the benefits of the investments made in earlier years. These early investments include high quality education, early intervention and job training programs. His findings will enable policy makers to better evaluate fund allocations, and should aid researchers who are examining job training programs, tax policies, education, and financial interventions in early childhood.

Key Finding:
As young individuals can expect a longer period of employment and are more apt to acquire new skills and develop existing abilities, Heckman recommends that they be the main beneficiaries of policy related funding in such areas as education, early intervention, job training, and tax policies. In addition, Heckman highlights trends in the American labor market that demonstrate a decrease in wages and an increase in unemployment for individuals with low job skills. His research indicates that substantial investments are required to offset the magnitude of capital losses and increase the skills of these individuals.

Early Intervention:
It is a common interpretation that family credit constraints prevent children of low-income families from attending school, thereby stunting their skill growth. In actuality, however, it is the long-run influences of family and environment that shape the ability, expectations and future college readiness of children. Since scholastic ability promotes academic progress, successful early intervention in the life cycle of learning leads to higher overall achievement. Heckman finds that family income received at early ages is a much more important determinant of complete schooling than education subsidies. This increased income gives families access to better quality school experiences, which enable children to perform better and develop their skills.

Privatizing Job Training:
Public sector job training programs for those who are older or economically disadvantaged are generally ineffective, based on the low level of earning gains. Programs offered through the private sector, however, yield greater success and offer the best hope of a reasonable rate of return. These programs foster skill development, affect behaviors beyond school and work, and are highly integrated within the local labor markets. In the private sector, programs are tailored to meet the most recent market trends and are typically of higher quality since these programs are normally funded at higher levels than those which are offered by the public sector. Heckman therefore recommends a shift in training programs from the public to private
sector.

Education:
Instead of focusing solely on academic achievement, education programs must also recognize the need to foster the development of additional aptitudes and social skills. Young students should have the opportunity to participate in quality programs that bridge the worlds of knowledge and practice, and offer more diverse choices and instill motivation. Providing young children with these opportunities gives them the advantage of an early start to their skill development, improving their chances of successfully participating in the job market in later years. The current public school system, Heckman notes, has a monopoly on education. Instead of offering parents a choice between several competing education programs, as is the case with post-secondary institutions, the public education system offers parents limited options for their children’s schooling. With increased competition and choice, he argues, educational quality increases.

Tax Policy:
Heckman advocates a reduction in taxes on capital and a shift toward flat human capital taxation. Since the current U.S. tax system is not flat, rising earnings result in higher tax rates, thus discouraging human capital investment. The intuition behind suggesting flat labor income taxes on human capital investment arise from the fact that the cost of time inputs to investment is foregone earnings, which are tax deductible. Far more important for wage growth and economic efficiency are reforms in the taxation of capital. Promoting capital formation raises the real wages of skilled and unskilled workers, with only slight effects on inequality in earnings. Such tax reforms are often ignored or misrepresented as favoring capital and the wealthy. However, higher levels of capital stocks raise the wages of all workers in a roughly uniform way.

Background:
Recent studies that have examined the increasing gaps between high and low-skilled worker earnings have captured the attention of policy makers. Many of these studies support the idea of increasing both the skill level of unskilled workers and the supply of skilled workers as a means of diminishing this gap. However, researchers do not agree over the means by which workers should be trained and employment-enhancing skills fostered. Several studies stress that learning is a lifetime process, much of which occurs in the early years, outside of schools. The results of these studies suggest that abilities are not fixed and that they can be measured in ways other than cognitive tests. Results also emphasize that parents and the environment play a large role in the success of young children. Based on these studies, Heckman concludes that redirecting policy dollars to early childhood initiatives is likely to increase skill level and decrease the economic gap.

 

Filed Under: Early education, Research Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Research on the Pros and Cons of Non-Parental Childcare

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I am a working mother and have a working spouse.  We do not work in the child care environment.  I have a 15 month old daughter who is, like your son, beginning to show her personality and “shine.”  I love it, she is soooo cute and funny and wonderful.

I am a civil servant and the daycare I am able to use is on an Army installation.  Besides being NAEYC accredited, they must comply with the Army regulation on Child Care which is sometimes as strict, if not more, than NAEYC.  All the providers at our daycare have some type of background in early childhood education.  I feel that my children are much better off in my particular daycare environment than at home with me because they are not babysitters — they are educators.  I feel my children are learning something everyday and it has been evidenced through watching my 4-year-old grow up there.  I do not feel that I could stimulate them as much as the educators at their daycare because these people are trained and specialized in this area.  I know there’s something to be said for being with your child and I love every minute.  But, I feel very comfortable with the daycare environment due to the opportunity I have with the facilities available to me.  I never worried about either of my children even the first day I left them because I knew they were being well taken care of and loved.

To parents who are concerned  about commercial daycare centers.  I can say my situation is very ironic.  I worked in daycare for many years and when recently graduated from college with a degree in child development. I believe that any caregiver who truly respects children will do a great job with your child.  The ironic thing about my career choice is, I too, never placed my children ( now 6 yrs. and 19 months ) in a daycare center for fear of them being mistreated. Believe me, I understand.  However, I want to reasure parents who have to work, or just chose to work.  Staying at home is not an easy job.  If being a fulltime mom means being stressed all day and yelling at your child because you are going nuts being in the house all the time, face it, not all moms can be stay at home moms.  It’s okay.  There are however, people like myself who truly enjoy being with children all day long.  I truly hope that parents will research each daycare center before choosing one for your little ones.  They are precious and deserve to be treated with respect just as adults demand to be treated with respect. I wish that we could say all daycares even home daycares, were good ones if licensed.  Not so, sadly, but not so.  Just be aware of what’s out there.  Not all day cares are bad.  Like myself, I got tired of seeing children mistreated and underfed at lunchtime.  I decided to get my college degree and open my own center. There truly are professionals out there who work in commercial daycares.  Check it for yourself.

I, too, am the Director of two child care centers.  For the past 15 years we have opened and operated five centers.  We have combined centers the last few years because we now do consulting work and do quite a bit of traveling.  I only hire quality people–people that I really know, most times our parents who we have gotten to really know over the years.  Look for NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) accredited centers to guarantee QUALITY centers with low staff/student ratios.  This is our National organization.  If you have any questions about child care centers, I’d be glad to help you out and try to answer them.  I am a certified teacher and have taught in my schools for 15 years as well as administrate.  I also do consulting work in the field of early childhood education and staff training, etc.  If anyone has a need for this type of work, please e-mail me and let me write a proposal for you. Thanks.  Anyone out there in early childhood education?  I’d like to talk to you and get to know you in the newsgroups.  I am new to this forum.   Faith

 

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Early Childhood/Technology Research

January 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

One of my administrators just handed me an article that was basically critical of using computers in elementary schools, especially with early childhood classes.  The article cited a report titled “Fool’s Gold: a Critical Look at Computers in Childhood”.  On it he scribbled, “What is your opinion”.  I would like to give him a thoughtful reply.  Here is my question:  Do any of you know of any research which supports using technology in the lower elementary grades? Are there published reports out there which would provide a balance to this one?  Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. There is a lot of research on both sides of the fence, here are a couple of articles from Education World that outline some of what’s out there. Basically technology in early education does have benefits, but at certain costs to the children, the full extent of both may not be seen for some time.

The positions in the groups article are half right and half baked. Definitely children need physical activity and hands on learning.  No technology program worth its salt would deny this or plan to cut down on this. I also agree that arts should not be cut for technology but that is a political question.  People need to vote in some way or raise taxes to fund both.  The bottom line is that art and music is usuallly supported by parents who have computers at home and technology programs are supported by educators worried about educational equity.  There is a computer technology divide coming that will challenging to cross.  It is not the way to use Excel, or the best Powerpoint presentation.  It is knowing how to think in a networked world and understanding teamwork skills in what will still remain a competitive environment.  I chuckle some when I see one of the tech skills objectives in many school districts – children in second and third grade should be able to tell how using computers makes work easier.  Actually they should be having them think open-endedly and also see how using computers makes things harder.  One person is expected to do more.  The finished product is expected to be more polished. Toomuch information means you have to narrow your focus.  All sorces have to be investigated before trusted. Teachers don’t want you to copy – but they download free lesson plans blithely so they don’t have to work.  Who decided somewhere that this was more easy than before computers?

Two last thoughts: The basic skills needed by elementary children can be learned many ways – and low tech is a solid solution.  However -Technology is here to stay – it will change greatly in the next few years – it has some great possiblities for meeting learning objectives when you know what you want to do with it. It holds the potential to reduce work drugery, captivate student interest, be patient with slow learners, open the poorest school district to resources used by Harvard and MIT.

 

Filed Under: Research Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts