Best Start or False Start?
I think most people agree that a revolution in education in general is needed to engage and prepare students for life, not just employment. Never was this so pertinent than for our very young. Early Childhood Education (ECE) has become big business, and it would be fair to say that our children are not seen as unique, wonderful, sentient and potential-filled human beings, but dollars and cents in the pockets of many unscrupulous corporate bodies. Too many centers are run on a minimum budget, maximum profit model and have become almost industrial in their day to day running.
I am a Playcentre mum. In fact, I was president of my Playcentre and a strong advocate for parents as first teachers. I first fell in love with “Te Whariki” (the ECE curriculum document) when I took my then 6 month old son to his, and my, first Playcentre session. The Playcentre model best emulates the maxim of “it takes a village to raise a child”. The holistic and inclusive approach of Te Whariki facilitated the whanau/family environment of Playcentre. Everyone mucked-in as best they could, using their various talents, interests and passions from which to launch authentic learning experiences. The mix of cultures, genders (although female heavy, there were more males than one sees in the ECE centers) and approaches meant that our children experienced life in its fullest. I have never attended a Playcentre that didn’t have an extensive outdoor area with a plethora of activities set up and plenty of green grass on which to run, roll, skip and jump. Playcentres were/are a veritable “home away from home”. Would this not be an ideal situation for our young children?
There came a time when I had to return to work, albeit part-time, and I had to find an alternative to Playcentre, much to my distress. I cannot tell you the hours spent visiting centers and talking with other families about where to take my children. The anguish was very real. Place after place, I wandered through, sat with the children and talked quietly with the staff. Even then, almost twenty years ago, it broke my heart to see so many children missing out on the joie de vivre of childhood, crammed into artificially set out indoor environments and little to no plantings or grass areas outside. Somehow, many of the children seemed subdued and almost depressed. I finally settled on one place which promptly closed a few weeks after, once being sold to the ABC Child Care Corporate (obviously not profitable enough). I then settled on a kindy in the most unlikely location in the middle of “Gangland” Rotorua, where my son enjoyed his time with some amazing staff members and many new diverse friends.
Staffing has always been an issue in ECE, as staff are not generally treated with much respect or appreciation - after all, you get to play with kids all day, right? - and therefore retention of decent staff is difficult. For some bizarre reason a degree in ECE is somehow considered inferior in some circles, which is absolutely ridiculous considering the absolute importance for development and ongoing learning that the early years in a child's life hold.
The first 1000 days in any human’s life determines their experience for the rest of their lives; neuroscientists like our very own Nathan Mikaere Wallis and Kathryn Berkett will testify to this through hundreds of hours of research. It is of utmost importance who, where and how we care for our children in their early years. With the rat race becoming even rattier and racier in recent years, too many of our precious children are being left to grow in child care centers and the like. Institutionalization starts at a very young age these days, due to the financial pressures the modern age has placed on parents. Some opt for home-based care, which I would choose if I had small children. Somehow, having a smaller group of friends and a surrogate “mum” seems much less “damaging” to me.
Mike Bedford of ECE Reform is a very interesting man to speak with. He has gathered like-minded people together to form an advocacy group for the reform of ECE. They are working on three projects:
A new, quality-based system to govern ECE and care providers
A new Early Years Ministry
A new, 2-teacher, 8-child model for home-based ECE and care
Reading through the website about the projects, I couldn’t help but think that many of the changes that are being proposed for ECE could well apply to education in general.
The quality-based contracting model could be adapted slightly and applied to schools and other educational institutions. Rather than being “performance based” it is based on observing the environment and the children themselves, as far as I understand. This model gives a certain amount of freedom to teachers, schools and communities to develop environments that suit the students in situ, rather than having a “cookie-cutter” approach like our present system. This is a high-trust model and one that is monitored by the well-being and engagement of the students themselves. I have always said, “If you want to know how I’m doing as a teacher, look at the students in my care.” The present obsession with compliance and “paper-work” has been an enormous contributing factor in the degradation of our public schooling system. This model could well revolutionize how we think about and operate our schools.
I understand the wish to create a new Early Years Ministry in the present paradigm. ECE has been swallowed up by the Ministry of Education machine, and is being chewed up and spat out left and right. The care of our most vulnerable is being left to body corporates who actually don’t care about our children at all! The thinking behind a new ministry for early years is embedded in creating more cohesion and applicable support for children 0-7 years. In the present model, education, social development and health are completely separate, and none of them is particularly keen to work together, therefore there is opportunity for deniability of responsibility from all ministries (which happens with boring regularity) leaving many whanau/families out in the cold and/or extremely frustrated. Having an all encompassing governing body will bring cohesion and best integrated services to our young ones. At the core of such a ministry will be legislation (Early Years Quality of Life and Education Act) that ensures every child is entitled to “having a life that is enjoyable and worth living”. Why a ministry for the early years and not for the child? The answer is simple: early years always end up at the bottom of the heap under public schooling, hence its delegation to the corporate world and the resulting quality of care issues. Indeed this model could well be applied to all stages of education, providing a seamlessly integrated service for each stage. Perhaps a Ministry of Learning, Health and Wellbeing could be an answer, with sub-sections for each sector?
Smaller student to teacher ratios, contrary to John Hattie’s postulations, are definitely advantageous especially in the primary years. Relationships are essential for any child’s development and smaller numbers make for more time and deeper more quality relationships.
Te Whariki is more of a framework than a curriculum as such, and could be very easily adapted for general education from preschool through to tertiary. If you have read my blog, “The End of Public Education?” you will know my views on curriculum and control of knowledge. The recent return to play-based learning is based on the values under-pinning Te Whariki, and play-based learning leads to project based learning, which is a model well illustrated in the film “Most Likely to Succeed” - authentic learning based on creativity, problem-solving and collaboration. We already have a framework that is tried and true.
ECE is simply a limb of our ailing education system. The malaise is so deep rooted that it oozes out of every pore. The body-corporate takeover of ECE is mirrored in tertiary education. The Neoliberal values of profit above all else has become the underlying kaupapa/philosophy throughout our present system. The suggested model advocated by ECE Reform could well be adopted throughout the system. However, for any reform or revolution to happen there has to be a shift in view or way of thinking, a paradigm shift. Priorities need to be rethought and values revaluated. In these most uncertain times the die could fall any which way. I am doing my small part to ensure that the odds are stacked for our next generations, our communities and our planet by creating this space for discussion and imagining. I would love for you to join me on our fortnightly discussions. See the events page for the next meeting.
Written by Calli Veludos
