Do you feel Early Childhood Educators are under appreciated?

Question

Does our society(I'm from North America) simply view them as over glorified babysitters?

What do you think?

Answer 1

definitely -and underpaid!!!!

Answer 2

I feel as tho ALL educators are under valued

They co-parent and teach. They also teach parenting!

Bless you teacher!

Answer 3

I do, since I do not believe in placing young children in day cares or in structured school settings.

Personally I do not think children should be in the care of their parents, or other family members if needed, until they are ready; most of them will be around the ages of 6 or 7.

Just because a young child adapts to certain situations, like day cares or pre-schools does  not always imply it is in her/his best interest, developmentally that is.

Answer 4

Without a doubt they are under appreciated. I have a daughter in Pre-K and her teacher is a God send. I love teaching my daughter, but she is learning sooo much from her teacher that it amazes me.

Answer 5

Yes, I definitely agree with you that Early Childhood Educators are under appreciated!

Answer 6

Of course, I am an ECE teacher and director. We are underpaid without a doubt.

BUT, that said, I love my job and the satisfaction I get from it surpasses any dollar figure I could be or should be getting.

I feel very appreciated by the parents in my program and they do alot for me and for our staff. (bake us cakes for our birthdays, and give us lots of gifts, I have always maintained teachers get the best/most gifts!!)

When people call us "babysitters," I let them know that I am pretty sure it is illegal to sit on a baby.

Answer 7

I think they are very under appreciated.

Answer 8

The answer is of course yes.

Just look at what they get paid for providing for the education, safety and overall well being of our most precious investments. They are given so much responsibility and expectations but not the compensation or appreciation.

Answer 9

Absolutely undervalued. Childcare workers need to smarten up and start organizing. I think unions for these workers might be a great option. After all, they usually work for peanuts or close to it, yet are expected to continue their education every year- yet are often not reimbursed by their employers for doing so. Also, the healthcare plans that are sometimes offered for full time employees are generally too expensive. So, we've got people working in a highly stressful environment that is full of germs, (because as we all know our kids are prone to catching everything under the sun to fine tune their immune systems), who can't afford to look after themselves properly. I have seen many children who enter a preschool environment, that can't recognize any letters or numbers and need these "over glorified babysitters" to teach them just about everything. Yikes.

Answer 10

yea i can fully agree with that statement coming from a family of educators and going into the field myself soon i feel like educators are very underappriciated

Answer 11

Since lm from england maybe l shoudnt answer this.....but never feel under under apprecated............youll get love and glory from your pre schoolers!!

Answer 12

I personally appreciate them quite a bit.  Anybody who works to get kids started on the right track is ok with me.  Like all teachers, they should be well-respected and well-paid for doing a tough and important job.

Answer 13

As someone who worked as a preschool teacher for ten years I would have to say yes, we are very very under appreciated.  

I remember when I was leaving my job, one of my students who was 4 at the time asked her mother why, I was leaving.  She told her that I was going to go and get real job now.  I think that says it all.

Answer 14

They are so under appreciated

Answer 15

I think Early Childhood Educators are under appreciated.  I am a Early Childhood teacher and some years are better than the others when it come to showing appreciation.  I think that in our society, we are viewed as glorified babysitters because we sometimes lack professionalism and education.  I have seen people come into this profession with no knowledge of what it is all about.  I know that in Maryland, they set high standards for Early Childhood teacher, which includes education (2 or 4 year degree, CDA, 90-hours in Child development), continuing education (workshops, etc.), and professionalism courses. I believe following and implementing these standards will help Early Childhood Educators not be viewed as babysitters.

Answer 16

By some, yes.

But we're appreciated by the people that matter most - the children we teach.

Everyone else can take a flying leap in comparison to that as far as I'm concerned.  If my students appreciate me, I don't care what "society" thinks of my job.

Matt

Answer 17

I appreciate Early childhood educators simple because a lot of parents lack the skill their children need to learn to function in this world! If it werent for these educators more school children would be struggling.

Answer 18

I think many people do not appreciate what we do. I also think that many of the parents at my school understand what we do and appreciate what it takes to teach these preschool years. One thing I have discovered over the years are that some parents have a real eye opening experience when they help in the classroom even for an hour. One Mom helped us at lunch one day and said she had no idea how much work we do and how well we relate to the children. It seems we need to take advantage of parent helpers, conference times and programs to educate the parents on what we really do. That includes not only early childhood teachers but day care teachers and babysitters.

I agree that the children are the ones who really make us feel appreciated and that is the highest reward!