Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/imagine!-child-care-a-great-place-for-teachers-too/5014250/
"Welcome. We're glad you're here! You can see that you belong here. You are a valuable part of this community."What if, each and every day, this is what our child care environments said to children, families, and the adults who staff the program? Our profession has done a better job defining what a good learning environment looks like for children - the design and arrangement of space, the materials and equipment needed, the policies that support it - than it has defining a good work environment for the adults. Yet the two must go hand-in-hand if we are going to create the kinds of programs where staff stay and give their best, where children learn to delight in new knowledge, and where families feel safe and supported.
One only needs to consider that, in fact, one out of every three child care teachers is likely to leave her job this year, putting the healthy development of children at risk. We know that the most significant way to stabilize the workforce is to improve wages, but it is not the only answer to the problem of staff recruitment and retention. While the work of securing just compensation for the child care workforce ...