There’s so much controversy surrounding today’s education system. Whether we’re bickering about uniforms, or what the kids eat at lunch, education is always a hot-button topic. At least now a topic has come up that seems to have been ignored for so long. Local school boards have decided to hire ECE’s as full-time employees, working in partnership with kindergarten teachers, and running before and after school programs. Parent’s seem happy, educators seem thrilled, but despite the obvious benefit of having ECE’s in the classroom we’re only scraping the surface. Educators today need to tap in to the psychological, and behavioral issues affecting children’s learning. There’s no doubt that having ECE’s in the classroom will benefit students. Not only are they more specialized (than the everyday kindergarten teacher) in how a child’s mind operates, but they are trained to better understand exceptional students (those with learning disabilities), and to find the most effective way to make learning enjoyable for young children. The issue is that they aren’t looking at the root of many possible problems. That is where I feel a CYW would be most effective; as a floater in each school, available for children who display learning, behavioral, and emotional problems that an ECE or teacher is not equipped to address.
Let’s look at what an ECE’s college career looks like: at Mohawk College in Hamilton, Ontario, the ECE program is a 2 year program with 3 field placements. Throughout the program, the core courses are very much focussed on the educational experience of children, (Creative Expression, Health and Nutrition, Child development and Behaviour, etc.). ECE’s are taught how a child’s mind works, and how to connect the child’s mind with the teacher’s curriculum; beyond that they have very little expertise.
A CYW learns how to interact with children on a more emotional level. At the ages of 5 and 6 (kindergarten), children are very much governed by their emotions. They are not logical, they do not think methodically, in fact when something is going wrong at home, everything about their psyche is changed. For example, a young girl was notorious for suddenly “shutting down”. She would seem fine one minute, and for whatever reason, could at any moment be triggered to either hide, turn silent, or both. This sounds like something quite common in a kindergarten classroom. The typical response is constant questioning and encouragement to involve themselves in the class. Many teachers find it frustrating when they can’t break through the child’s shell and figure out what their trigger is. When an ECE gets involved and puts their methods to the test, how surprised would they be to find out they may never succeed? Why?… because this particular student happens to act this way as a result of deep seeded psychological disorders. I can say disorder because her actions were obviously a result of fear that is so extreme is isn’t just a fear, it is actually classified as a “phobia”. No ECE could come to such a conclusion, because in order to realize this child suffers from severe anxiety, you would have to understand the psychological and emotional causes for her behaviour.
To be crystal clear, I am by no means suggesting we ultimately “shrink” our kids on a daily basis. In fact CYW’s do not “counsel” in any way, they simply play the “big brother” role, and give children the life skills they need to effectively deal with emotional and psychological dilemmas. Not to mention the fact that if an issue becomes severe enough, CYW’s are learned in child and youth advocacy. That is to say, they have the connections both legally and clinically to direct children in to the appropriate channels.
School boards have definitely taken a step in the right direction. If they can bring the other foot forward, and combine the skills that both ECE’s and CYW’s have to offer, I feel that we would not only have created an ideal learning environment; but also the opportunity to teach children the life skills to identify, deal with,and avoid behavioral, emotional, and mental triggers that would impede a child’s ability to learn.
~Tinatinks~
Thanks for your thoughts! As far as the Government going for the idea… the money will be the deciding factor… it’s hard to sit here straight faced and say they really think the benefites to having both CYW’s and ECE’s will be worth the dollars and cents that they will need to put in to it. If they can look at it long enough they may realize that having both will make more job opportunities for both groups, and more parents will take advantage of the convienence and the governmanet could possibly even work a small fee in to the registration fees for school that parents are already paying…. it can be done!!
That is a very interesting subject, but have you knowniced, that our goverment seems to press the brake paddle when funds are required for education. I’am guessing the school board would welcome such programs as ECE and CWY’s. As for funds I’am a little skeptical.
Would our beloved government go for this idea.