With all the candidates squawking about the need for universal childcare; with the city wide discussion about what early childcare should offer the child; with parents wondering what children need and how much this is going to cost, it's a difficult project to put it all into perspective and make sense out of what we hear on TV, read in the newspaper, or glean from friends.
As someone still in the trenches of early childhood work some 36 years, I will say the best thing I've ever heard concerning early childhood is from my school partner, Edith St. Louis. She says of our students, "Take a child from where ever he is as far as he can go."
To elaborate: take a child on his first day with you, watch him, spend time with him, find out his weaknesses and his strengths, and then take him through the channels and hurdles of learning to the last day you have him in your care. Give him everything you can, physically, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and morally.
It's a covenant; it's pact; it's a promise; it's a daily endeavor that begins in the beginning on that first day and stays with a child his entire life. A child should be able to return to his preschool or kindergarten teacher when he's grown and say, "Thank you for caring about me." He should remember because the early childhood years are first and probably most important building blocks there are in a child's formation.
We hear a lot about development. I like to use the word formation. Development revolves around the idea that there is a standard, and we should jump into the box that contains that standard. I would like to think that more than adopting a standard, a child will create a standard for himself that always remains out of the box. That his formation will include much more than standards and that his formation will aways be precious to him and continue forever.
We hear a lot about developmentally appropriate. I like to use the word discovery. We are geared as early childhood professionals to channel activities into certain sphere of learning that "Is not out of the range (box) of what is appropriate - developmentally." I like to think children discover during their days and through their discoveries, they learn much more than what is expected and even, at times, appropriate.
We hear a lot about outcome. I like to use the word input. Anyone can expect a predictable outcome for children. He will know his letters at 5; will know his math facts at 7; will know how to write his name at 6. With a little input, a child can do any of these things when he's good and ready. But he won't know he can if he's not introduced to the possibilities. If he doesn't get paper and pencil, how will he know he can write his name clearly at three? He won't know he can read at four if he's not taught.
And there is the real word - taught. A teacher will teach and teach and teach repeating the same thing over and over and over. Finally, a child will understand. In a class full of eager minds and unprogrammed thought, there will always be a domino effect. One child will have a breakthrough, and then another, and then another until every child understands that which has been taught and consider it learned. It's a teacher's joy.
We hear a lot about school readiness. The question is: Is a child ready to go to school and is the school ready to receive him. It seems to me that any respectable early childhood place should not even have to ask the first part of the question. It should be the first and primary goal of any school to both make a child ready, and then receive him.
So what's a fair range of "I can do's" a child should have accomplished when leaving an early childhood place? He should know about himself, about his family, about where he lives, about his state and country. He should be able to pledge the flag. He should know how to address another child, a teacher, his parents, an authority figure, and a stranger if need be. He should know how to listen, how to be quiet long enough to understand a story, a joke, a directive or even pray. He should know how to follow directions, how to ask a question, how to answer in turn, how to play a game, put a puzzle together, sit at a table, draw a picture, understand numbers from 1-100 and how to sound out words. He should be able to sing a song, stand in line, pick up his own mess, wash his hands, eat with a fork, and go to the toilet unattended.
These are just a few of the many things that build a child's formation in early childhood. So when you listen to the great debates about universal childcare, think about these things - especially the idea that teachers take a child as far as he can go. That's what we're voting for, looking for and paying for - nothing less.
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