When did it start to go wrong?

Looking back at the changes in how we deliver early learning since the 1990’s,  I’m back tracking what sent us down the proverbial toilet. Trying to think objectively about it , it’s evident to me that when the focus shifted to parents instead of children everything we did and how we did it changed. The more early learning became competition for warm bodies, the bigger the shift in who really mattered at kindy.

The standout we all talk about is digital apps and real time updates. We know the pressure they place on us time wise but there is a psychological shift in how our role is viewed when what’s important is trivial updates to evidence what has gone in, on or come out of children. It’s not just the time to do these things, it’s creating data to prove we did it and it’s positioning ourselves as nannies. Even nannies though don’t update all this stuff but there we are diligently inputting data and letting ourselves and our profession be all about recording  sunscreen application and bodily fluids. 

Through providing all this daily evidence we also put ourselves in the spotlight when things are missed or late because we were busy. It’s very hard to be seen as a qualified and experienced educator when your dealings with families revolve around trivial and dutiful personal needs of the children you attended to. Sometimes you can feel like you had a great day as a teacher because you got all the updates done. What a horrendous shift in how we should reflect on our day.

Along with the constant pressure to provide evidence of care to parents, our environments are often set to make families feel comfortable instead of the children. Parents are choosing centres based on aesthetics, how tidy everything is and the inclusion of a parent coffee lounge.  Hey mum and dad, it’s not about you. You’re not here 10 plus hours a day!  

To add to this parent focus, the school readiness regime is in full force with alphabets and number flashcards coming at you on every wall and kindy prep tracing books lined up on shelves ready to go but often never picked up in any meaningful way. It’s all an illusion, crafted with salesmanship and delivered on booked tours of ” facilities”.

There’s still some of us here that remember carpet instead of floating floorboards that echo every sound and create bedlam. But floor boards look nice and clean is the narrative. The unstructured  play dough and finger painting and block play that should be your basics are often ignored for activities that are from an adult agenda and prescribed to meet targets and prove learning.  Don’t forget to take a photo or it didn’t happen . We are spending our days pleasing parents instead of children.

To view yourself as a professional and act accordingly, you also need to be given agency to do the job you are trained to do. If we compare services where educators usually wear their own clothes with a name badge, where what is provided to the children is based on what the children need over what the parents want, where the priority is being in the moment with the children rather than being on an iPad to please mum and dad, well the quality in the service is immediately visible. Children aren’t having meltdowns, educators aren’t leaving in drives because their knowledge is respected and families are happy because their children are thriving.

It takes courage to prioritise the children when the big sell is aimed at families. But what we have been doing is so wrong in most places. It’s not working, families are unhappy anyway because what they want makes it impossible to do our job properly. It makes it hard to have pride and dignity in what we do when the focus is on the parents and not the children.

If we can’t get educators to stay in the sector, shouldn’t the focus be on what the educators need to do their job well?

We need to take control of the bus again because the parents aren’t trained to drive it. Yes their opinion is important but it shouldn’t leave us careering off the road entirely.

Author:

Belinda Martin is an early childhood teacher with more than plus 30 years’ experience in the sector, currently working across New South Wales. She holds an Associate Diploma in Social Science and a Bachelor of Education. A former centre director and long-time educational leader, Belinda now combines hands-on teaching with mentoring and consultancy, particularly in areas of authentic practice and Assessment and Rating. She is passionate about working directly with children and advocating for purposeful, meaningful documentation over data-driven demands.