No matter how hard one tries, it is impossible to completely separate one's personal and professional lives. Worries, annoyances, illness--it all bleeds through. If an educational professional is experiencing one or more -isms in their personal life, this is bound to effect interactions with coworkers, families, and students.
One stereotype that most professionals in the field of early childhood education is that we are nothing more than glorified babysitters and that we aren't "real" teachers. I am faced with this attitude by at least one parent almost every single year. When faced with this attitude now, I simply pull out my professional development record log (held in an overstuffed 3" ringed binder) and explain the extensive amount of education I have achieved, including the progress towards my advanced degree. A few years ago, however, it was no so easy to brush such prejudice aside, especially since the center for which I was working didn't value their teachers any more than the parents did. It seemed as though nearly all of the parents viewed the teaching staff as servants and treated us as such. This attitude was picked up by the children, who showed no respect for anyone or anything. I found myself resenting the parents who treated my so unfairly, and resenting their children as well. It got so bad that I dreaded going to work each day, and it took a serious toll on my health. In fact, I seriously considered leaving the field altogether.
My husband saw what this was doing to me and he insisted that I leave that job and take a much-needed break instead. It took several months for me to work up the courage to try teaching again. That was five years ago. Although I still struggle with my blood pressure, I have eliminated the other health issues caused by the extreme stress I was under. I am in a center that is challenging but supportive and respectful. While I still encounter the occasional prejudiced parent, they are not the majority,and I have the full support of my co-workers and director. Because I no longer have to deal with that "-ism", I can focus my talents and attentions on my students.
Kathleeen,
ReplyDeleteI really can relate to your post there are some parents who think preschool is a babysitting service. There are some parents who sign there kids in and just leave they never take the time our to walk around the classroom and see the progress their child has made or ask how their child is progressing. Teachers are professionals that have gone through training sessions, years of college, and interning so we are far from babysitters. We deserve the same respect as other professionals. Parent-teacher communication is very vital for the success of the students. The text states, when we reach out to families to include them in every aspect of our program, families feel that they are teachers true partners. Then children receive the wonderful benefit of seeing both their home and their early childhood program as equally welcoming, safe, and enriching places(Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).
References
Derman-Sparks, L. & Edwards, J.O.(2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).
Kathy,
ReplyDeleteI think that your babysitting problem has started to come into the public school arena as well. Many times in our public elementary school I feel that we are also just thought of by parents and some legislators as educated baby sitters. As public school teachers we are required to have a bachelors degree to be a level one teacher. We can only stay at level one for five years so this means that we have to complete a professional dossier before our five years of teaching is completed in order to move to level two. Many teachers start working on this around their third year of teaching. Because if we do not pass the professional dossier than we have to redo whatever part we did not pass so it is best to start early. After completing level two you do not have to continue on to level three but if you want to make a higher salary you can complete your masters degree and do another dossier and if you pass it then you can move to a level three teaching salary. You can also do your national boards in order to move to level three but either way there is a lot of work involved. So we do have options but I still feel like some parents only send their kids to school to have someone to take care of them all day and feed them breakfast and lunch.
Hi Kathy,
ReplyDeleteUnlike in some countries, I agree that early childhood educators are looked at as 'babysitters' by a large group of people. I think a majority of these thoughts are because people are under educated about the importance of early childhood education. I have thought about leaving the field because of the financials that are involved, but the love of working with children is strong. It does not help by any means when parents are not appreciative of the accomplishments their child can reach because they are being taught by a TEACHER and NOT a babysitter.