Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/places-to-live-important-dimensions-of-child-care-settings/5017819/
We have institutionalized childhood!We have institutionalized our children!
Yikes! Shocking but true. Many young children spend all day, five days a week, 48 or more weeks a year in child care centers; up to 12,000 hours in the first decade of their life; about the same time they spend in school, kindergarten through grade 12.
Further, we are forcing children to get older, younger. When you look at what is expected of young children in early care and education, age 4 has become the new 6. (Interesting, this reverses itself for adults �" 40 is the new 30!)
The hard edge shock value associated with the word institution is useful, not because institutions are bad, but because they can be bad, if we don’t get them right. Institutions are valuable because they can represent order, stability, tradition, and the establishment of good practice.
Child care centers can be great institutions of learning and caring, if we pay attention to some important dimensions that also make them reasonable places to live.
Comfort and softness
It was a spotless classroom, gleaming tile floors, and shiny tables and chairs. It might have been a great playroom or school for a few hours, but a place for all ...