Week 4 - Sharing Web Resources

This assignment was a little tricky at first, only because the websites I originally chose to use did not have as much information on them as I thought. The National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (www.naecte.org) had many newsletters but the information all pertained to the organization itself. Maybe if I were a member, I would have access to more information, but unfortunately that was not part of my budget. So, I decided to look into another site. I chose to study the Center for the Childcare Workforce site (www.ccw.org). This website had tons of information on it! 

The January/February 2011 newsletter briefly discussed “The Lowly Child-care Worker,” which is a blog written by Sue Shellenbarger. In her blog she talks about the pay of a child-care director and child-care employees. The numbers look dismal. I was rather shocked. When I worked in childcare I was paid way more than the mean hourly wage. I wonder if education level has something to do with that. In any case, it was said to see the pay so low. So she asked a couple of very important questions:

“Do you think child-care workers should be paid higher wages, or would it take too much of a hit out of your pocket? Would you ever want to be a child-care worker?”  

What are your thoughts? For those that work in the school system, would you want to work in child-care? This really made me think because I have been contemplating leaving the school system and going back into child care. But I cannot afford a pay cut. It is very unfortunate.

Located in the March/April 2011 newsletter was a blurb about not shortchanging education. They provided a statement from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. He gave a speech before the Citizens Budget Commission in New York. In the past, you would not normally see economists arguing for early childhood education but times are changing. He agreed with all of the resources that we read this week that the payoffs of early childhood education are high.

I am still unsure of the motives of these economists, neuroscientists, and politicians who are speaking out on behalf of early childhood education. Nevertheless, I believe the children and their families will benefit.