Did You Know?

04/10/2006

I'd rather be a failure at something I enjoy than a success at something I hate.
George Burns

Years ago, Kathy Thornburg authored a feature in Exchange magazine called "'Did You Know?" where she presented interesting numbers from our field. Today, we are reintroducing this feature in ExchangeEveryDay with periodic contributions excerpted from Kathy's "2006 State of Children Documents" at http://mucenter.missouri.edu/.

In 2004, poverty increased for the fourth consecutive year. An increase of 12.8%, or 1.5 million more than 2000, brought the total of children living in poverty in the United States to more than 13 million. (i)
Each year approximately 11% of all teens aged 15-19 get pregnant. (ii)
Sixty-four percent of mothers with children under six years of age and 60% of mothers with children under two are working. (iii)
Twenty-eight states do not have any pre-service training requirements for child care center teachers and 38 states do not have such requiements for family child care providers. (iv)
The proportion of children who are overweight has increased three-fold in the past two decades. (v)

(i) Children's Defense Fund. Retrieved December 2005 from
http://www.childrensdefense.org/pressreleases/050830.aspx

(ii) Planned Parenthood. Retrieved December 2004 from
http://www.plannedparenthood.org/library/TEEN-PREGNANCY/teenpreg_fact.html.

(iii) U.S. House of Representatives (2004). 2004 Green Book.

(iv) National Child Care Information Center (2003). "Child Care Bulletin: A Snapshot of trends in child care licensing regulations." Washington, DC.

(v) Administration for Children and Families (2005). Retrieved January 2005 from
http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/factsheets/fatality.cfm

Contributed by Exchange, The Early Childhood Leaders' Magazine Since 1978

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