THE ADVENTURES OF JONATHAN THE COMPUTER GEEK, MICHAL THE RABBINICAL STUDENT, XANDER THE MUSICAL CHEF WHO NEEDS TO "DO IT MYSELF!", AND ARI THE MASTER OF DROOL.
I've been puzzling over this article for a few days myself, and I think that quality infant-toddler care is KEY for the Jewish community to address. That said, there are many barriers to address: Cost, quality and regulation, workforce issues, and most importantly, shifting our communal conception from the idea of "daycare" to "early care and EDUCATION." This conversation is happening in the national policy/practice dialogue in ECE. In preschools, the Jewish community was always a leader, the question is whether or not we will continue to make the investments both in energy and financial resources that we made in preschools when the workforce was shifting during the 70s and 80s. Jewish preschools (and high quality preschools in general) were heavily dependent on women who had education and social service degrees who wanted to work part-time, etc. for it's workforce. Now as women have moved into other, higher paying professions, the workforce landscape has shifted and it is harder to fill those positions. We need to find a way to make ECE positions attractive to qualified, competent individuals in order to really bring the kind of care that the author of this article describes into reality.
I love when you post, Rebecca, I had no idea about any of this! One question though: the teachers in Jewish preschools reflected the population of secular preschools. Do you think that the Jewish ECE programs will change without secular participation? I.e. is this a Jewish conversation, or a basic ECE teacher training one? Because it will be much harder to change if it's the latter, I suspect.
I think this is definitely a Jewish conversation, but it requires knowledge of and careful attention to the secular ECE landscape. If the Jewish community doesn't have teachers to draw upon from within (and I suspect it doesn't, given my own experience working in a variety of Jewish preschools with both Jewish and non-jewish staff- most programs would be hard pressed to find only jewish staff members for their programs) then the Jewish community will need to be engaged in the national dialouge about ECE in order to really confront ECE workforce issues.
And, I am glad you enjoy my comments. I always read the blog, I just don't always have enough time to compose a comment!
I agree that day care centers are great places to make a community. Ironically, even though we sent the kids to a Jewish daycare, most of the kids there were _not_ Jewish. So while we met some wonderful people and it definitely felt like a community - it wasn't really a Jewish community. sheryl
7 comments:
I've been puzzling over this article for a few days myself, and I think that quality infant-toddler care is KEY for the Jewish community to address. That said, there are many barriers to address: Cost, quality and regulation, workforce issues, and most importantly, shifting our communal conception from the idea of "daycare" to "early care and EDUCATION." This conversation is happening in the national policy/practice dialogue in ECE. In preschools, the Jewish community was always a leader, the question is whether or not we will continue to make the investments both in energy and financial resources that we made in preschools when the workforce was shifting during the 70s and 80s. Jewish preschools (and high quality preschools in general) were heavily dependent on women who had education and social service degrees who wanted to work part-time, etc. for it's workforce. Now as women have moved into other, higher paying professions, the workforce landscape has shifted and it is harder to fill those positions. We need to find a way to make ECE positions attractive to qualified, competent individuals in order to really bring the kind of care that the author of this article describes into reality.
I love when you post, Rebecca, I had no idea about any of this! One question though: the teachers in Jewish preschools reflected the population of secular preschools. Do you think that the Jewish ECE programs will change without secular participation? I.e. is this a Jewish conversation, or a basic ECE teacher training one? Because it will be much harder to change if it's the latter, I suspect.
I think this is definitely a Jewish conversation, but it requires knowledge of and careful attention to the secular ECE landscape. If the Jewish community doesn't have teachers to draw upon from within (and I suspect it doesn't, given my own experience working in a variety of Jewish preschools with both Jewish and non-jewish staff- most programs would be hard pressed to find only jewish staff members for their programs) then the Jewish community will need to be engaged in the national dialouge about ECE in order to really confront ECE workforce issues.
And, I am glad you enjoy my comments. I always read the blog, I just don't always have enough time to compose a comment!
Hmm, that makes total sense. Definitely food for thought, and we should chat about it at some later time.
And hey, feel no pressure to comment... I just like knowing that you read it! :)
Oh, I feel no pressure to comment... I just wish I had more time to do so!
I agree that day care centers are great places to make a community. Ironically, even though we sent the kids to a Jewish daycare, most of the kids there were _not_ Jewish. So while we met some wonderful people and it definitely felt like a community - it wasn't really a Jewish community.
sheryl
That's weird, Sheryl, almost everyone there is Jewish for us.
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