Why Early Childhood?

"I'll never forget the sense of wholeness I felt when I finally realized what in fact I 

really was: not just a writer or a language buff or a student of human development or a telecommunicator, but I was someone who could use every talent that had ever been given to me in the service of children and their families."

                                        

                                                                     --Fred Rogers

     I began working in the early childhood field back in 2012. I had just finished college, graduating with a B.A. in Christian Ministries from Williams Baptist College. I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with my degree, I didn't know where to go from here. I started praying and asking for God's guidance. My question to God was, "what do You want me to do with what You have given me?" I wanted to make a difference in the world around me, I wanted to make a lasting change, I wanted to DO SOMETHING. 

     One day soon after, a friend posted about a job opening at a daycare in Jonesboro. I remember thinking, I can do that. I can babysit kids all day for a paycheck, it'll be something I can do for now, until God shows me His direction. I began that job and with each day that I went to work, I was learning that I wasn't just babysitting. It was so much more than that. I fell in love with the field of early childhood during my first year of working there, perhaps even the first six months.  I made the decision that very same year to go back to school and get a degree in early childhood. I began school at Walden University and in 2014, I earned a M.S. in Early Childhood Studies. 

Throughout my quest to earn my master's degree, I worked full time. I did change jobs but it was still in the field of working with littles.  The more that I worked with the little people of our world, the more I saw the importance of what I was doing. I was these children's first teacher, (outside their parents, of course).  In early childhood, we are teaching the future. What I hope to see in the future, the changes that I hope to see in the world around us, it starts with me.  

It starts with what I teach in my classroom. If I hope to see more love in the world, I need to teach my littles how to show love to one another. If I hope to see more positivity in the world, the atmosphere in my classroom needs to be positive. If I hope to see less fighting in the world, I need to teach my students how to solve problems together.  I need to teach them kindness. 

Learning is more than just ABC's and 123's. It's more than reading and writing. Those things are very important and need to be taught, however, shouldn't learning be about things like love and kindness too? Every time we turn on the news, every time we read a newspaper, there are stories about someone killing, stealing, lying, cheating, etc.  As a parent myself, I have said many times, I am afraid of the world my son is growing up in. I have heard so many others say the same thing. As early childhood teachers, our littles have a clean slate.  We can instill these key aspects. We can show kindness and love in our classrooms. We can show them that sometimes we, as humans, get upset, we make mistakes, and we can also show them that's it's okay to do so. 

Early childhood is my passion and always will be.  One of my favorite parts of teaching in this field (which is birth-5), is watching a child succeed at something that they have been working at.  When they finally get it, their eyes light up and search for mine, to see if I'm watching. Children yearn for attention, they want approval. I want to show each child that I have in my care, that no matter what they do, no matter how many times they have to try at something, that it's okay. They are still of value to me, they still matter. They are still loved.