Top Five Reasons Why I'd Choose An Educated Child Care Professional

Top Five Reasons Why I'd Choose An Educated Child Care Professional

Written By: Ms. Child Advocate

        I've recently been on the hunt for a preschool that would meet both my child's needs and my expectations and while I didn't expect to find many who'd fit the criteria I was expecting to find more than I actually found. First I found that many of the preschools that were within reach of the average parents working middle class either didn't offer progressive programs that are age appropriate and those that did were in high price ranges. Many of the learning environments in question were structured in environments themselves that were unprogressive and unwelcoming first leading many to question the safety of the environment. Secondly, as many of the individuals employed at these establishments aren't necessary professionals at their 'profession' concerns are again raised with the extent of progressive lessons and environments that can be constructed for individual children. While experience is a great teacher it does leave one lacking knowledge in areas and would need to be explored in order to be efficient at the profession. For instance, would you allow your child to be treated by a 'physician' with ten to fifteen years experience but no medical training? I'm sure the answer would be no (unless under dire circumstances) so why would these 'schools' be operating without at least a CDA present at each facility? Simply put, what I found was that there weren't many educated child care professionals within our territory and while I was shocked I as also stunned at the fact so many individuals believed in experience over education with all that has come to light about early childhood education. Too many of the preschools within our territory are welcoming individuals as teachers who have little experience in the field and no education and sadly it seems the only reason for so is to save these 'businesses' money; the lesser educated professional received a lesser pay grade. I has also come to my attention that the preschools within our territory were given a deadline of summer 2015 to either educate their staff on the profession or add members with the right credentials, which would be an associates in any field related to early childhood. It is for this reason I decided to write this post about my reasons for choosing a childcare provider who is educated within their profession.


1. Information- An educated child care provider would have common knowledge of different learning practices, techniques, policies, and procedures making learning more versatile with the individual children they encounter. They would also have common knowledge about the symptoms of diseases of various disorders, illnesses, and even common diseases making a diagnosis easier for those involved and hopefully any processes smoother. As we all different as individuals it should be equally important that a educational professional have different resources to ensure progressive developmental learning is taking place. While I wouldn't dare say that an educated professional would be open minded whereas an uneducated professional won't be I would say that with the wealth of knowledge they would've developed such a way of thinking, but people will be people and there is no way to determine such a thing. 


2. Quality- An educated professional would be quite aware of the need for stimulating experiences for early learners to thrive and progress; facilitating nurturing environments where all is concerned regardless of age or disability. They would provide an atmosphere that's inviting and loving while age appropriate, placing an importance on developmental aspects while making it engaging to learn. 

3. Respect- An educated professional is more cultured and would more easily accept and be open toward others cultures or those with special needs. Respect is this aspect is very important not only between teachers and students but between the school/ institution and parents/ family members as well for interaction between all parties concerned is necessary and anything hampering such could also hamper the child's views and development. 



4. Family & Community Ties- Many educated and uneducated professionals network alike ,but those who have attended educational institutions and others alike are included in larger networks based on those institutions and the professionals within these institutions. Networking and collaborating with after school programs, inter neighborhood programs, religious programs and family/community members helps to build solid relationships and a strong foundation for trust and engagement


5. Safety- As I mentioned before, safety can come in many different forms but the one topic that was repeated mentioned during interviews for this article was that of the safety of the environments of the early learners in question. Educated professionals have a wider network of resources to enable them to provide safe yet engaging programs in safe environments. 


 In closing I know that many parents choose their child care providers on a budget and have all rights to do so, I know I do, and by it's convenience but I implore many of you to actually consider the education levels of the 'professionals' working with your children and consider this, would you depend on your child's primary teacher or intermediate teacher if they were uneducated within the field? Cause it is basically the same thing.