Is it because many of early childhood educators are females? Is it because some people still think that anyone can easily
take over the role of an early childhood educator? What is the difference between an educator and a babysitter?
Today many people in our society
seem to pay a little bit more attention to early childhood education, as we can
see that there are more childcare programs and preschools. There are more
families who enroll their children in childcare center or preschool. There are
more people who pursue their dream as early childhood educators. Yet, why do
they still struggle and still don’t get much support to be successful as other
educational fields, or other jobs?
While I was studying in my general
classes in college, several of my friends asked me what was my major. When I
told them that I was majoring in Early Childhood Education, some of them asked
me if I liked to play with children. Some of them complemented that it would be
a best career match for me because I was a woman. But some of them told me that
I should switch to higher education filed, such as kindergarten or elementary
school teacher. Some of them even started to question if I cared about my
future income, as they knew that I might end up in a low pay work. However, the
worst question was that they asked me why did I have to study to become a
“babysitter”. I was so surprised and confused about how some people were so
ignorant about what Early Childhood Education entailed and how come some people
didn’t care much about the early stage of human life.
Personally, I think that the early
childhood stage of all human being is the most important part of development.
It is the first start where children develop themselves physically and mentally
based on the environment they are in and the people they interact with every
single day. I now totally understand why many people still don’t take what we
do seriously as they do other jobs but I just want people see and think more
clearly about the difference we make in children’s lives everyday.
How can we let others know the difference between an educator
and a non-educator? How can we show the importance of what we do to the society? How can we make other people believe in our abilities and
take our roles as educators more seriously?
"Why do you look tired, all you do all day is play with the children and watch them, so they son't beat on each other?" That was a comment that was made by a parent at pick-up one afternoon. I was so upset, I smiled and said "See you tomorrow". That was the parent that I "invited" on a class field trip. I wanted him to see that I was not a "high paid babysitter". By the end of the day, he had a great appreciation for what myself and the other staff did.
ReplyDeleteI think that people are SLOWLY understanding the importance of Early Childhood Education. In the past there was no such thing as preschool. You stayed home with either mom, aunty, grandma... whoever was the "babysitter" of the family. As more and more women went into the work force, the mentality started to change. I feel that the parents in my program understand the value of Early Childhood Education or else why would they enroll their children. Do they fully understand the worth?
We as educators in this line of work have to remember that we did not get into this because of the pay... I know that I become an educator for this age because I wanted a hand in the future. Why did you get into this field?
Hi Som,
ReplyDeleteWould attitudes about ECE be any different if it were a predominantly male industry? Why? Why not? How does the U.S.'s attitudes towards women and their roles affect the nation's perspective? If women were truly treated as equals, what would the ECE industry look like? How do we attract more qualified and passionate educators into the field, regardless of their sex? How does our nation's market-driven education policies affect our education system? How do we begin to step away from these detrimental education policies?