ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

In reading some of the findings in this article regarding the research of African American single parent families, I was interested to read the finding where 'mothers' 'tended to justify in their own minds their use of low quality providers by choosing to see the care that was going on as better than it really was'.
I have lived through poverty, as a single parent, from a minority culture. In time I trained as an early childhood teacher, gaining 2 undergraduate and 1 postgraduate qualifications. However, as a parent prior to training, I was not aware of what indicators to look for when seeking quality early childhood education for my child.
In the past 10 years, as a teacher working with families, I have assisted families from both low and high socio-economic and socio-cultural backgrounds in selecting early childhood centres for their children. Through these experiences I have come to understand that unless families have access to information or resources which highlight what to look for when seeking a high quality centre, parents will choose centres in the 'hope' that they will give their children quality early childhood education.
I do not believe families choose to ignore low quality indicators, they just may not be aware of what indicators to look for and, considering the financial constraints of the families who participated in the research, their options due to poverty were limited/restricted, therefore impacting on their choices. I would hope the research would highlight the many impacting factors of poverty, not to identify these parents as passive and who 'justified' their choices of low quality childcare.

Another wonderful, must READ resource for gaining a better perspective on poverty: A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne. This book is a fast read, chocked full of useful and practical information. One of my favorites were the short quizzes: Could you Survive in Poverty? Middle Class? in Wealth? Great for training!

This is very interesting data. It makes me want to see comparative data from the same countries on the percent of GNP spent on human necessities. It would be interesting for early care and education alone, what percentage of GNP is spent by government?

As limited as the opportunities for access to high quality pre-school is for low income families, the access is even more limited for the working poor as the anecdote of the mother losing her child's slot when her income went over $6.90 an hour demonstrates. For those of means, access is rarely an issue and for those living in poverty there is usually a range of admittedly limited options, but for those who make too much money to qualify for those programs aimed at the poor and who do not make enough to pay for high-quality, private care, there are often no options.

Accepting children who are subsidized in my state means taking a 25-30% pay cut. I think it would be a wonderful incentive if the goverment would exempt that lower pay from income taxes.