ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Francis makes an excellent point. We as early childhood educators know that the social-emotional skills are so important. Learning how to be a member of the classroom community is such an important skill. The classroom should be a safe, nurturing environment for all of the children. That being said, there needs to be more than adequate adult support for the children in the classroom. Not only is our national focus incorrectly placed on academic outcomes but our ratio requirements are much too low for my liking. I am so fortunate to direct and teach a small preschool (not a daycare), 20 children - four teachers, and some days I think we still need more adults. So many of the children just want to talk, play, and interact with the teachers and if you have a child with challenging behaviors, you could certainly use extra sets of hands to help. So in most instances, the law says two teachers are adequate for 20 preschoolers, and so you do the best you can---challenging behaviors and all. Obviously, in most schools/daycares finances restrict the addition of more teachers, but the children deserve it.

While I totally agree with the message here, the "elephant in the room" is the fact that in the past programs focused on social and emotional development; now, due to the emphasis on inappropriate standards and frameworks, they are required to focus on discrete academic outcomes. The net result is less time and energy devoted to important social and emotional development, and the need to get rid of behavioral distractions to concentrate on these academic outcomes.