Unintended Consequences

In child care directors circles (of which I have long been a member) there is a well known secret staffing strategy. There is a category of teachers called “warm bodies”. They keep us in compliance with staff-child ratios, they make teacher lunch breaks possible, they are the last resort in staffing early care and education when qualified teachers aren’t there or are moving on to other work. Sometimes they turn out to be terrific teachers and we don’t admit to being surprised . Sometimes they fill spots and then we shed them when “qualified” teachers become available. They hold the system of care together so parents can go to work but they do not (usually) rise to the level of providing quality care and education. Not their fault..

Since I used to be one, let me tell you what they do bring: they play with children ({sometimes – an important unappreciated disposition), they “watch children” so no one gets hurt. Too often they are on their phones. They are welcome relief for hungry or tired or exasperated teachers. They are often what is referred to when people say that dreaded unprofessional tag “day care”. When I was a young woman, for a while, I was a very good warm body. I genuinely liked children. I had one of my own. I used to be one. I hugged and rarely yelled.

Here is what I didn’t do: I didn’t know how to help children resolve their conflicts without “time out”, so I didn’t prepare them well for controlling their impulses and developing executive function in their rapidly growing brains. I didn’t know how to not holler “clean up time” right when a child’s work was most educational. I didn’t know that circle time and calendar were just watered down second grade memories that didn’t match the needs of very young children. I didn’t know how dumb it is to teach two year olds to share, to raise their hands or to get in line. Master experienced teachers spent years alongside me, teaching me all of those things that eventually made me a supportive teacher of “quality care and education.”

I don’t believe that improving compensation -alone- is going to fix this crisis. Of course, unconscionably low wages are largely responsible for the equity and social justice issues that trickle down and land squarely on children. But it will not be rectified with moderately well paid warm bodies. A radical contemplation of this profession is needed, not a tinkering to the workforce, however well intentioned. We need policy makers, social change agents, women, to dig deeper than surveys – to not just identify the problems (of course every one of us points to wages) but to the solutions that strengthen a profession upon whom children’s real life futures depend. Think. Listen. Make Change.