THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By FELIX FALKNER
LENGTH: 81 lines
Day care is in the news again. This time the uproar is not over crimes against children but, instead, in favor of reducing the standards that protect children against damaging care. No, it is not a pederastic organization seeking stalking rights. It is no other than the state of Virginia under the Council of Day Care, appointed by the governor.
Somewhere in the mad rush to reform welfare, the powers-that-be decided that reducing the education requirements for a lead teacher from a high school diploma or GED to no formal education was a good idea. Proponents of these reductions, without support from any formal study, believe that welfare mothers would be perfect candidates for teaching positions without the nuisance of the existing standards. The proponents get excited when they talk about increasing the requirements for eight hours of formal training per year to 24 hours of training, but this only for new employees with only six months' experience when they first start. Even the Virginia Real Estate Commission requires more formal training for a licensee. Is the selling of real estate between adults with financial means more critical than working with children? Will welfare mothers be herded into day-care jobs under the threat of losing benefits to their children?
The state has numerous programs to help people get GEDs. Why not open connections between GED study and welfare reform and help those in need of education succeed, allowing them to earn the hope for life that self-success enlivens. Then they could enter fields of their choosing and join the pursuit of happiness. No matter what the solution for welfare reform, young children in day care need the best educational leaders that can be provided.
The Council for Day Care also proposes increasing from 12 to 15 the number of 4-year-olds under the care of one caregiver and from 10 to 15 the number of mixed 3- to 6-year-olds under the care of one teacher. Even the television producers cried ``Eight is Enough.'' And that popular show followed a script, not the serendipity of real life.
Humanity is moved to donate money, time, toys and other helpful items when a mother becomes overburdened by the birth of quintuplets. Educators, and the governor himself, demand fewer students in a classroom because all formal studies show that children work better with a lower ratio of students to teacher.
Preschoolers are highly egocentric. Studies by many developmental psychologists, reported in Newsweek's Feb. 19, 1996, issue, strongly suggest that neurological connections necessary for successful implementations of music, math, language and emotion are formed before a child is 10 years old.
As the teacher-to-child ratio increases, so does the potential for conflict and the need to exercise more discipline by the teacher. The purpose of education is to develop each person to his or her fullest potential, not to create an army of stressed-out order-followers. A common response from teachers concerning those that propose increasing ratios is ``let them work in my classroom for a few hours, then ask them about ratios.''
Parents must have the certitude that their children are secure, safe and coached in their development by qualified and competent providers in order for the parents to perform unselfishly for their employers.
During a December hearing of the Commission on Day Care and Programs, Sharon Jones, chairman of the Council on Day Care and chief proponent of reducing standards, refused to answer Rep. Al Diamondstein's yes-or-no question about whether she believes that increased ratios are good for children. The least the state can do is let the standards involving quality of child care, developed after more than two years of intensive state-supported study, stand. If the Council can provide empirical evidence that shows that the uneducated make good lead teachers, or that students perform better with fewer teachers, then the proposals would make sense. However, unsubstantiated sound bites claiming the changes would ``reduce the cost of day care for parents'' and the plan would ``create more choice'' have a hollow ring next to the consideration for the welfare of children in day care.
Those of us who remember a childhood spent learning about life with our protective parents nearby should endeavor to understand the needs of parents today who have no choice but to work and be parents. All should write the governor, their elected Virginia representatives and the Council for Day Care and give the gift of political pressure needed to stop the plan to reduce quality day-care standards.
The reductions require no vote from the General Assembly. The Council on Day Care, which has championed the reductions, has the authority to make changes in the standards. MEMO: Felix Falkner is administrator and co-owner of Norfolk's Parkdale
Private School for Children preschool through second grade.