The only topic I had disagreed with you over the years had been your stance on day care centers. I have to say before I worked as a lead teacher in one of the nation's primer commercial day care/preschool centers, I was a huge proponent of preschool. My children both attended church preschools for 3 hours a day/ 3 to 5 days a week. We had great experiences. I am a credentialed teacher and had been trying to find a teaching job for a couple of years at the K-6th grade level. I took a job offered to me at one of the best reviewed/distinguished preschool/day cares in the country. I only could handle the job for 5 months, and only stayed because I learned the class of students had been through something like 11 teachers over the course of a year and didn't want the kids to have to go through yet another teacher. My experience at this preschool/day care, was one of the worst experiences of my life, mostly because the experiences totally changed my views about education and people in the education business.
Most of these big corporate preschools are run by money hungry owners, who will skimp on every thing they possibly can, including sanitary supplies. This commercial day care center grossly misrepresented everything from what curriculum was taught, what food was served during the day, and teacher credentials, as well as years the teachers worked at the center. I regularly witnessed administrators lying to potential clients when touring the school. I also witnessed many events in which the school was negligent on actual safety procedures. These institutions will do anything they can to not report incidents to the state or to parents, so as not to be fined by the state licensing body or receive bad reviews. The school I worked at looked like a wonderful place to leave your child. However all the posted calendars of activities, menus, monthly curriculum guides, and daily sheets posted were all lies. As long as I worked at the facility, children were never fed any items off of the daily menu that were posted on the menu calendar. Teachers were not provided with any of the materials that were needed to teach the lesson plans posted.
Teachers sign confidentiality agreements when hired and are not allowed to speak with parents about any issues without director approval. It hurt my heart not to be able to warn parents of the lies they were told daily. I am even afraid to go online and post reviews of the particular school location.
Please keep letting your listeners know how important it is for parents to be raising their own children, even if it means not buying that new car, computer or house. Possessions mean nothing if your child has not been given the love, comfort and compassion only a family member can give! Tell parents to listen to all the warnings from past teachers in day care centers. The owners and administrators are like used car salesmen/women. I am a changed person by seeing what goes on first hand in one of these day cares.
L.
