Nursery School? Pre-School? Day Care? What Do We Call It?
Posted on 12/24/2021 @ 07:00 AM
Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay
Caring for children’s wellbeing has always been an essential goal of the many different kinds of child care options, from children being taken care of by family members to children going to child care centers. In fact, Head Start[1] was founded in 1965 to give comprehensive care to children living in poverty. At that time, only 10% of children 0 – 5 years old were enrolled in “nursery schools” or child care centers!
“Nursery school” reminds us of the word “nursery,” a child’s bedroom, a place where children who are not old enough to go to school are cared for.
“Pre-school” implies that whatever you are sending your child to, it’s not yet really school.
“Day care” sounds like it’s a place to park your child during the day to be watched and kept safe but not much else, which is probably why we now hear it used in the phrase “doggie day care.”
None of these names— “nursery school, pre-school, day care”—currently reflect what our schools for young children are.
Today, we call our schools Early Childhood Education (ECE) centers.
We do that because over the past 30 years something momentous has happened that propelled the change in language - Brain Research.
Here’s what we now know:
- 90% of human brain growth develops before kindergarten.[2]
- The quality of a child’s experiences in the first few years of life – positive or negative – helps shape how their brain develops. [3]
- Early brain development has a lasting impact on a child’s ability to learn and succeed in school and life. [4]
- Research has shown that children who attend high-quality early childhood education are better prepared to be successful in school and in their future careers. [5]
- “[R]research shows that staff knowledge and skills are among the most important determinants of the impact of early childhood programs.”[6]
- “A highly-qualified early childhood educator- one who know how to create a dynamic, accountable learning environment- is at the center of a high-quality early learning experience.” [7]
Though it may appear to the untrained eye that way, children 0 – 5 years old are not simply playing. Play is their way of actively engaging with the world around them, learning what it means and how they can and want to interact with it. This play includes asking questions, experimenting and experiencing with other children, adults and the myriad of environments they encounter every day. Our youngest children are actively learning in their ECE settings.
The adults who guide them are not only caring, nurturing people. At their best, these adults are educators who stimulate children’s development in intentional and purposeful ways. These educators can be enormously impactful in the life of young children, motivating them towards success and spotting worrisome trends or behaviors while children are still malleable enough to adapt and change.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
In a 2007 paper put out by the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, the authors highlighted “a persistent tolerance in our society for poor-quality care and education in the early childhood period” despite the fact that “research shows that staff knowledge and skills are among the most important determinants of the impact of early childhood programs.”
This is why CAJE is fighting for our schools and our entire community to take education during the early childhood years seriously!
And that’s why we call it ECE—Early Childhood Education.
Stay tuned for the article next week in which we explore compensation for ECE teachers and the changes we need in the field.
If you or someone you know is interested in becoming an
ECE educator, please reach out to CAJE’s Director of
Early Childhood and Congregational Education
Joy Schandler
[1] Head Start was the first publicly funded preschool program in the United States. Created in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. As new research came out on the effects of poverty and its negative impact on education, the Head Start program ensured that children living in poverty would be cared for in a comprehensive program developed to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional, and educational needs.
[2] https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/
[3] https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/
[4] https://www.firstthingsfirst.org/early-childhood-matters/brain-development/
[5] National Association for the Education of Young Children
[6] Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2007
[7] National Association for the Education of Young Children
