Stacey Slone

Q: Where is being told you look like a garbage truck a sincere form of flattery? A: In the best and most important job ever. In honor of Labor Day, I want to take a moment to uplift our nation’s early childhood educators. If you take anything away from my posts at all, let it be this: the years of early childhood are uniquely consequential. The period from prenatal to five is when the fundamental architecture of the brain is wired, ideally setting children on the path to longterm success in school and life. But we have a giant mismatch between the science and our public policy when it comes to how we support and compensate our young children’s teachers. Did you know that the median wage for preschool teachers (in child care settings) is only $13.22 an hour - less than we pay most fast food employees? Teachers who work with young children in public school settings do a little better, but still worse than their peers working with older students. This is, in part, because we persistently fail to recognize what I’ve tried to use my timeline to help illustrate: that learning begins LONG before children enter kindergarten. If we want to maximize brain development - and minimize the long term costs to society caused by our failure to do so - we simply must focus on the supports needed by adults, both in and out of the home, who do this hard, but joyful work. Put simply, our nation’s early childhood workforce deserves better. And our children need them to be trained and compensated like the literal brain builders they are. On this Labor Day, I thank early childhood educators. And hope you’ll do the same. This video offers just a quick glimpse of the joy of working with preschoolers. What else is entirely green and AMAZING? A garbage truck, that’s what! Thank you for the work you do, Ms. Glenna. (🎥 glennacolleen on TT)