Power to the Profession

Since March I have been enrolled at UW Milwaukee in an early childhood leadership course. One of the main topics we discuss is how early childhood educators are still struggling to be recognized as true professionals. It seems that society is willing to recognize how important the work that we do is, but is not yet ready to validate the teachers who do the actual work. One of the obstacles is that there is not a lot of unity amongst the profession throughout the nation in terms of professional development, knowledge required, curriculum used, quality standards, compensation, or even the term we use to describe our centers. Are we daycares, child care centers, preschools, nursery schools, etc….? The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has launched a new campaign, titled “Power to the Profession”. Power to the Profession is a national collaboration to define and unify the early childhood profession. You can go to www.naeyc.org/profession to learn how you can get involved. Looking at the history of early childhood education we have come a long way; from being simply a place to “corral” children during the first world war when mothers had to enter the workforce, to becoming regulated “babysitters” to the highly accredited centers we are now, but we can still go further to recognizing and appreciating the work that we do for young children. Now is the time to advocate for your child’s teacher!