If children are our greatest resource, then Week of the Young Child, which began Sunday, is an especially good time to see how as an area we’re tending our “garden” of young hearts and minds.
Beth Toland, an early childhood educator at Allen Community College, believes we’re making strides in the right direction.
In Allen County, about 800 children are between the ages of birth to 5.
Toland estimates about 500 of those attend home day care centers; another 120 are in preschools, such as Kids Kingdom, Iola, and The Growing Place in Humboldt.
SHORTLY AFTER Toland moved to Iola in 2007, she was hired by ACC to start up the Early Childhood Education program at ACC. With the help of five adjunct instructors, the program now has more than 65 students.
About one-third of those will proceed to a four-year college to become certified in early childhood development, Toland said. The other two-thirds are expected to graduate with their associate degrees to become childcare providers.
The goal of the program is to teach providers “how children develop and learn and the connection between the two,” Toland said. “It’s then they also can become advocates for children.”
Being able to provide the best opportunities for a child is not necessarily intuitive, Toland said.
The right environment, for example, can teach what Toland calls “soft skills” — the ability to solve problems, to keep on task with a project, the importance of learning to ask questions.
“Preschool should not be a ‘skill and drill’ experience,” she said. “Rather, it should be a time of exploration, learning how to get along with other children, and helping children learn to appreciate a somewhat structured day. Through the right experience, we are tapping into a child’s natural capacity to learn.”
A MOTHER of two, Toland considers childcare a “backward profession,” meaning that providers typically get in the business before they pursue any formal education in the field.
One of the reasons is because child care providers earn low wages, Toland said, estimating most home day care providers earn $15,000-$20,000 a year.
Many providers get into childcare when they themselves have young children, Toland said. It’s only later they discover education in the field can greatly enhance what they provide in terms of behavioral development.
