Our church is doing a lot of reorganizing with the help of our denomination's district leaders, and our Church Council is now a large part of our church's daycare's advisory board. Oh, at first I thought, good! Maybe I can be a positive influence on our small sea of early education....
Well, tonight I sat in on my very first meeting with several parents who had "concerns" about the school. Okay, some of their concerns about communication between teachers and parents, and other things mentioned were valid, and we need to address those issues.
But so much was focused on "my child has to be ready for kindergarten, and I'm worried he's spending too much time just playing this summer" or "in the past month, I've noticed that when I ask my son what he learned today, he doesn't remember." (I sooooo wanted to say, um--it's summer, isn't it? Maybe he's been busy enjoying that in the past month?")
Yikes! I realize that it's a big thing to hand your child over to someone else for 10-11 hours a day with the expectation that these people will expertly shape your child's future....at least until you hand them over to another set of people who will shape their future for 13 more years! Listening to the expectations of these parents, I am so glad I have not had to do that. I also realize that, probably in most daycare centers, there is not much gentle learning going on.....after all, they've gotta get those kids ready to throw into the public education system by age 5!
