Dr. Marcy Whitebook gave us a wonderful and inspiring lecture last night. We discussed a bit of the history of the child care movement and worker response to buget cuts, poor wages and working conditions. We also discussed the importance of being advocates for young children and ensuring that the rights of all who are involved in the care and teaching of children are treated in an ethical and appropriate manner. Continue the dialogue by responding here!
I must say that I enjoyed Dr Whitebook’s talk. Being a woman of color i can identify when Dr whitebook stated that there aren’t that many women of color in the field. Her talk increased my want to be an advocate for children and for families who have no access to early care. The need to keep teachers stable is grand and necessary in order to have have lessen turnover rates; this in turn would give children a better sense of stability. Like I said previously, great talk last night; very informative and it makes me want to work harder for children.
Dr. Mary Whitebook’s presentation was great. It highlighted some great points in regards to the challenges that early childhood education faces today. The one that stood out to me is when she talked about the state of California not really encouraging teachers and educators to get a higher education and instead would push them toward taking training classes. This was surprising, but it is clear to see that this train of thought is purely driven by the fact that the policy makers do not want to allocate more funds to better pay for educators. Again, I really enjoyed this Dr. Whitebook’s lecture.
Ashley Gomez
Lecture Response
Marcy Whitebook stated that educators are agents of change. Educators have a responsibility to guide children towards academic success. However, there are specific circumstances in which hinder children’s ability to progress. Whitebook stated that in the year 2012, twenty-three states denied childcare assistance to eligible children. It is shocking to hear that some places are denying children the opportunity to explore and question their surroundings.
The idea of “Flavor of the Month” stood out to me the most. Each flavor considered a policy. I do not like the fact that each policy is reviewed only on an individual basis. No policy should ever “go out of style”. I believe that they should all be integrated and multifaceted with one another. Each idea would help make other ideas stronger and more effective.
It was very inspiring and creative when Marcy Whitebook chose to reflect the song, “When I’m 64”, by The Beatles, back to early childhood.
First of all, it was so inspiring to be in the presence of a woman who has been working so tirelessly for the rights of teachers and appropriate policy. Unfortunately, it has been a theme throughout the semester that policy makers are so terribly disconnected with the world of education, despite the fact that their policies govern that world. As Dr. Whitebook pointed out, the “silver bullet” is the answer given by the leaders, but a simple solution to a complex problem does not solve the issue, it merely buries it. Taking away the requirement of higher education for teachers is ludicrous, and does not solve anything; it actually creates more problems. According to Dr. Whitebook, children who are around undereducated adults can grow up to believe that education is not important, thus implementing a vicious cycle of under-education. A world of lesser-educated children is certainly not a good world to live in.
Its good to know that there are people out there that are trying to make a difference. People do care and are doing what ever they can to make that difference show or be notice. It was surprising to know that the waiting list regarding child care has vanish(New York). One of the biggest and most wealthy states have for some reason or other manage to vanish a list that it is important. Child care should be given more importance and should not be just put aside. I liked when Dr Whitebook stated”Mentoring, education, and compassion, all work together”. This is very true because if we take the time to look at them one cant work without the other. When she mention the FIVE DOMAINS(teaching support,learning,job crafting, leadership, and well being) this also gave us the information that perhaps some dint know. Child care goes past what we see and most likely will need more than what we can give to be fixed. However, as long as we have educators and people like Dr Whitebook trying to make a difference, I think maybe sooner than later there will be a difference. Perhaps we would not be able to see it, but hopefully our grand-kids will.
So sad I could not make it to this lecture was really looking forward to it. I had to take my 3 year old son, who has asthma to the hospital Friday night, then I had to run back to the hospital Sunday night and it turned out to be pneumonia. I can imagine how hard it would be for teachers dealing with children like my son in their classrooms, especially if they are under medication, which might get them a little hyper sometimes. Going back to what I’ve read in the class assignments there are situations that teachers love what they do, but do not keep their job because they really cannot afford it. They might enjoy and feel satisfy with what they do, but most of the time they are underpaid. Is great to hear someone is fighting for the right of teachers who are putting their all to help educate children.
I enjoyed Dr. Marcy Whitebook’s lecture this Tuesday as she focused on the prospective of the child care establishments and child care providers namely on the obstacles they face as the workforce at their jobs and careers. It is quite astounding that on average child care providers and professionals’ wages are on the boarder of poverty level. What I also liked about Whitebook’s talk is her stressing the point that teacher training is as important as training of every other profession, and also importance of understanding teacher’s sensitivity, which in return will definitely help foster and maintain the high quality early childhood educational settings where children will create proper warm and caring relationships/attachments which in return will give enough encouragement for learning and exploring education.
Dear Ms. Whitebook, thank you for visiting us at CWE. Your presentation was interesting and informative. I look forward to reading Leadership in Early Childhood: A Curriculum for Emerging and Established Agents of Change.
I would like to thank Dr. Marcy Whitebook, I really enjoyed her lecture last Tuesday. It was very informative and well presented. I think she mentioned very important issues that educators are facing nowadays, and how it affects early childhood education. For me it was very interesting to know how educators are treated and California.
This week’s talk by Dr. Marcy Whitebook was very interesting. Her knowledge of child care movement and the problems faced back then are the same issues being faced today. I believe there should be more advocacy for the children or these problems would never go away, because as Dr. Whitebook mentioned, the policy makers who make the decisions are far removed from the classroom. However, it was shocking to learn of the treatment meted out to the children and educators of California, it almost seemed privileged to living in New York.
I enjoyed Dr. Whitebook’s lecture. I think the biggest issue she spoke of is the funding for school/programs that have been removed by the board of ed or political officials since World War 2. How parents have a very hard time finding child care that they can afford, and how teachers often leave pre-k positions in day care centers to find better paying teaching jobs. More and more states are given less money for funding, 27 states in 2012 received less money than ever before. Also Dr. Whitebook talked about the Leadership learning gap which focused on how the officials deciding who gets funding and how much are made by people who are not educated in the field of early childhood education, that the same issues from thirty years ago are still on the table and not being resolved, and as long as people who are ill-fit to make these decisions keep making them, obviously there will be little change in the system. Also, higher education was a hot topic. Dr. Whitebook talked about Sue Russel who believes that if we help teachers get educated and reward them with better pay when they are done, this could resolve teachers leaving the profession. I think it is a good idea to have teachers receive a higher income, teaching is one of the most important professions out there, yet teachers get discouraged because of low pay, not enough funding to expand curriculum, etc… I believe that what Dr. Whitebook said about taking politics and policies out of the education system is key. Political officials who do not have experience with education, teaching, and child development should not be making decisions in the world academia.
I enjoyed Dr. Whitebook’s lecture as well, I found it very informative. She spoke in great detail about policies and how they affect education. A lot of topics she discussed related to the material we read in regards the treatment of workers and the impact it has on the staff in general. One comment she’d mention was about how quick policies last. Basically stating that what was enforced one month will change the next. Most time just being forgotten about and not taken seriously as they changed so often.
As Dr. Whitebook referred to it as the ” Flavor of the month”.
She spoke from experience and was very passionate about these issues and the impact it has.
Dr. Whitebook lecture was indeed interesting, she pointed out many facts that just made me wonder about our future. For instance, describing unstable polices as “flavor of the month” really stood out to me the most. I agree with Dr. Whitebook when she stated that more educators should have the power when implementing a policy into out school system. Most policies are taken upon individuals that have no sense of what is an early childhood setting like, and because of that, policies are always changing–they never last too long. Instead of playing mix and match, I feel that there should be a change–more educators should speak up and together try and change this way of being.
Dr. Whitebook’s lecture was wonderfully informing, but I left with mixed feelings. It is true, that as educators, we must educate ourselves and become “savvy about politics;” however, it sounds to me that there are some quite unsavory dealings involving subsidies for childcare. She mentioned that although the number of children needing subsidized care remains, officials, “got rid of the list” of names, to make it appear as if everything was ok! How do we stop this? We can collect data but if its going to be fudged and in some cases, “lost” how does that help. Becoming policy savvy does help expose the issues from an educators perspective but we need the respect as educators to make a difference. Whitebook mentioned that she spoke at a policy meeting only to have almost the whole room disappear. The decision was made based on funding not what’s overall best for the child and society as a whole.