Marcy Whitebook, Director of the Center for Study of Child Care Employment states a sad fact:
"The unfortunate reality is that child care employment offers low wages, few job benefits, and limited opportunity for professional advancement"(Whitebook 1999)
Reference: Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol 563(1),146-161
Renee,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the quote, but I am curious to understand the context behind the quote. I know where I work the professional advancement has come a long way and we are offered many more opportunities to advance professionally. Unfortunately the income is not the greatest, but I would like to know when this quote was stated and maybe some context behind it so we can see if we have come further since then.
Hi Lisa,
DeleteThis quote was written in 1999 for an article titled, Childcare Workers: High Demand, Low wages by Marcy Whitebook. Suzanne Helburn created the Annal for May 1999 entitled "The Silent Crisis in Child Care". Some of the other articles relating to the main subject were:
"Market Constraints on Child Care Quality" by John R Morris
"Current Trends in European Early Child Care and Education" by Wolfgang Tietze and Debby Cryer
"Who Should Pay for the Kids?" by Paula England and Nancy Folbre
among others. The study discusses the increase in need for care outside the home due to mothers having to support the family or wanting careers. This high demand draws inexperienced, poorly educated workers who take the job "watching kids" rather than work at a fast food chain or similar low expectation position. The early childhood field still carries little respect from those not involved in it, and seems to draw young inexperienced providers who think they are taking a job to "watch kids" and are earning that level of pay respectively. When they realize what the job entails and the level of responsibiltiy, they quit, resulting in high turnover.
To advance in this career usually means to not work in the classroom, where most of us gained our passion for helping children and families began in the first place. If the teacher position could involve
increased benefits and levels of responsibility that increased with experience and education, there would be more incentive to stay in the most important position of all-the classroom, and hopefully mentor these young workers on the proper interaction techniques child care rooms are lacking.
I don't think we have come very far in my area. I decided to come back to school because my 18 years of child care experience and my CDA credentials still leave me in the same position as my assistants, who have no experience and only center required training, with no change in sight.