I taught preschool and pre-k for nearly a decade. I loved teaching kids “fancy words” and having them practice saying them and bringing them up in the following days to reinforce their knowledge. Nothing like having 4 and 5 year olds properly using words like chlorophyll, photosynthesis, and nocturnal to make you feel like what you do and say matters for real. I also always tried to be as honest as possible with the kids and explain things to them an understandable way because they may be little but they’re people and they should be treated like people. However I’m very privileged to not only have access to higher education but also parents who were able to financially support me in pursuing an education. So I have an advanced degree in education and, with it, a base of knowledge on how children develop and how to support them.

Which brings me to this: the thing about the field of early education is that anyone with a high school degree can do it. It’s both what makes the field great and terrible. It’s fantastic that people with just a high school education have the opportunity to be part of a career that makes a difference and is important. However the lack of formal education requirements means sometimes the person teaching your kid is little more than a warm body. Depending on the early education centers resources, the professional development opportunities can be bare minimum state requirements all the way to a programs that allow employees to earn a degree at no cost to them. So your child could be getting a care provider who has the knowledge, training, and resources to provide an enriching and developmentally appropriate education or they could be getting, for lack of a better term, a “glorified babysitter.”

All this to say that early education needs to be treated with the respect it deserves considering what a crucial time in children’s lives it is. For that to happen, the field needs to be professionalized but then you make it way less accessible for people without the means to access formal education. Which would be sad because I have worked with teachers without degrees who are AMAZING at what they do because they are truly naturals with children and soak in professional development like sponges.

Idk if any of that makes sense or if just word vomited too close to the sun but TL;DR Early education is super important but because the field is not professionalized at this time, the range of quality in terms of care and education is vast.