The Mother Goose on the Loose Blog

The Raising of America

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During the past two weeks, I have been watching a newly released video series called “The Raising of America.”  In addition to giving updated facts and research regarding the importance of the earliest years in children’s lives, this series presents historical information regarding childcare in the US that I had not previously known. 

During World War II, a national network of child development centers throughout the US was funded by the Lanham Act. While mothers worked in factories replacing male factory workers who were at war, the government provided free childcare for 600,000 children.  However, when the war ended, the women were expected to return home and the childcare centers closed.

By 1970, about 50% of women in the US were again part of the US workforce. Senator Walter Mondale introduced a bill called the Comprehensive Child Development Act (CCDA), written with Marian Wright Edelman from the Children’s Defense Fund. Modeled after Head Start, the CCDA aimed to make the US government responsible for providing “high-quality childcare and early education, home visiting and other services to each and every family that wanted it.” The CCDA was passed in Congress with bi-partisan support from both Democrats and Republicans. It sought to promote both  social equality and national prosperity.

Richard Nixon mentioned the importance of early childhood in a speech at the White House Conference on Children in 1970. He claimed that his “absolute number one priority … was good quality, affordable child care,” and that he supported universal childcare. When the CCDA was passed, in order for it to become law it needed to be signed by President Nixon. Sounds simple, right?

Pat Buchanon had President Nixon’s ear. Backed by the Conservative Movement, he painted the bill as a “communal approach” to child-rearing, equating it with “Sovietization” of American Children. Phyllis Schlafely, founder of the Eagle Forum and staunch anti-feminist, launched a campaign equating childcare as “against family values.” According to Schlafely, a woman should be at home raising her children and not out working.CCDA opponents claimed that government programs that could help poor or working famlies would undercut “personal responsibility.” Ignoring the fact that a large number of women needed to work to support their families,  and thus need childcare in order to leave the home to work, “family values” were “invoked to undermine initiatives intended to help families.” The Conservatives put pressure on Nixon. Nixon caved in and vetoed the bill.

Since then, lower and middle class mothers who need to work struggle to find high-quality childcare that they can afford. Some families pay more monthly fees for childcare than they do for rent! If parents can’t pay for childcare, then they have to either stay at home, or leave their child is substandard care that is affordable.  The earliest years are the ones that form the social, emotional, and cognitive framework for children;  not having adequate childcare can severely limit possibilities for development of important skills and experiences. 

In each of the five segments, narrators referred to research regarding the formation of the brain’s architecture in the earliest years of life. They mentioned the detrimental effect constant stress can have upon the development of children’s brains, explaining how heightened levels of cortisol can permanently change the underlying structure. The need for children to have to have more than simply “custodial care”, to have social experiences and intellectual stimulation in addition to being fed and having diapers changed, makes a huge difference in their development.

The CCDA bill was re-introduced twice in Congress following the 1971 veto. Phyllis Schlafly again went into action, writing a newspaper editorial that stated: “We are told that the Mondale-Brademas bill will strengthen the family, whereas it will actually do the opposite because it will relieve parents of their responsibility for child rearing. Anyone who wants to strengthen the family should encourage mothers to stay home and care for their own preschool children.”(Observer-Reporter, August 3, 1976, A-4). Again, the bill was not put into action

After watching all five segments of the series, I could help but imagine what our county would be like right now if the CCDA had passed. If all families had access to free high-quality childcare, children would be nurtured from the very start, mothers would be able to help support their families financially without worrying, and childcare providers would be operating within a governmental framework that would require certification but also pay a decent wage. Rates of poverty in the US would be much lower, children would start with much better advantages, and the possibilities for advancement for families from all economic and racial backgrounds would be greatly increased.

I wonder if President Nixon realized the damage his veto would cause?  

According to “The Raising of America,” the US has the least the lowest amount of childcare support than these other nations: Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.  Childcare facilities are inspected less than prisons . According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, many childcare workers are paid a wage that is “lower than the poverty level income for a family of three.”

To find out more, visit The Raising of America Website; there are some incredible resources as well as transcripts and guides for leading discussion after viewing each of the segments.

 

What can we do to bring back the a bill to support universal childcare in the US?

Random Acts of Kindness

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Last week, while all of Baltimore was battling a tremendous snow storm, I was in Florida presenting a “Transforming Preschool Storytime” workshop to an enthusiastic and receptive group of children’s librarians. I left feeling  invigorated and delighted that our children have such a skillful group of educators devoted to helping them get the best start possible . While formal education may be cutting arts education and replacing it with academic work (even for the youngest children), children’s librarians are filling in gaps by introducing books and literature with songs, games, art projects, and drama. Examples were given of the creative programming that these librarians present on a regular basis to their preschoolers and school-aged children.  Seeing the talent, the dedication and the true joy that these Florida librarians have in planning and presenting  high-quality programs to their preschoolers was exhilarating.

Due to the snow in Baltimore, my flight was rescheduled a number of times, and I ended up spending an extra three days in Florida. I did not mind at all – those days included time with friends and a day visiting Harry Potter World at Universal Studios.

I’ve been back in Baltimore for a week, and today I received an unexpected card in the mail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a wonderful surprise! 

During the workshops, when discussing developmental tips, I mention the story told to me by a librarian who went shopping in a supermarket in an unfamiliar town she was visiting. Behind her was a father with his daughter, estimated to be around age 3. The daughter took a kid-sized shopping cart at the supermarket entrance and went racing into the store. The father calmly stood there and called out, “And the drum says STOP” (a phrase connected to one of the Mother Goose on the Loose activities). The girl immediately froze. The father strolled to join her with his cart and the two happily continued shopping together in the store.

The phrase “the drum says STOP” is a clear give-away that they had been attending Mother Goose on the Loose programs. But the fact that the father used it to get his daughter to stop indicates that their children’s librarian probably cited one of the standard MGOL developmental tips: “All children need to learn the word STOP. If you wait until they are doing something dangerous and call out STOP in a panicked tone of voice, your child will probably giggle and continue doing whatever it was. But, if you play freeze games at home, using a pot as a drum or anything else, then your child will become accustomed to stopping automatically when you request it. So, try playing freeze games with your child at home.”

We don’t know who the librarian was in that town, but there is little doubt that a developmental tip gave this father the idea to play freeze games with his child, using the exact expression “and the drum says STOP” to let his daughter know that it is time to STOP NOW.  I suspect, however, that their librarian has no idea that this dad listened to her tip and took the suggestion to play freeze games at home.

I use this example to show the power of developmental tips. Children’s librarians can be important influences for good, not only with children but with their parents and caregivers as well. A friendly face, a welcoming voice, a font of information, and a true partner in the nurturing of children makes children’s librarians heroes is so many ways. But, they don’t often to get feedback that lets them know about the impact they’ve had on so many families. For instance, the librarian of this particular dad and daughter might never know that her tip made a difference in their lives.  But it did!

We also talk about positive feedback and how clapping for a child who pulls Humpty off his wall, or using positive words when children tap “STOP” on the drum gives them the incentive to continue paying attention, waiting for their turn, and following directions. 

It is not often that people are told they have had a positive impact on the lives of other. Children’s librarians have positive impacts every day, but rarely get the feedback enabling them to know that they have made a difference to in people’s lives.  In addition to a wonderful workshop and a fun week in Florida, I am grateful to have received this lovely piece of positive reinforcement.  Thank you, Jodi!

kindness

Radical Change

| ALISE, children's literature, early literacy, Eliza T. Dresang, Inclusive programming, Positive Reinforcement, radical change, , ,
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I am currently at the ALISE conference in Boston. This yearly event is for library school professors and doctoral students to share research and network with colleagues.  The theme of this year’s conference is Radical Change, a theory coined by Dr. Eliza Dresang.  Eliza was an active member of ALISE and a beloved mentor to many members of the Youth Services Special Interest Group. Most recently, Eliza was the Beverly Clearly  Professor in Children and Youth Services at the University of Washington Information School, but she passed away on April 21, 2014.

The three components of radical change are interactivity, connectivity, and access. According to Dr. Annette Goldsmith, “The theory as elucidated in Eliza’s book, Radical Change, applies to books and other materials for children. It has been extended to also encompass digital media and information media.”

Interactivity, connectivity, and access are the digital age principles that Eliza drew upon.  Library and Information Science is a field that tends to borrow theories, but this theory was created from within the field. Eliza was an incredible scholar,  a warm and loving human being, a tremendous mentor and teacher, and a person who knew how to connect in meaningful ways with others.

While Eliza’s presence at ALISE is sorely missed, it is clear that in addition to recognizing the impact of her work, her work also continues to inspire others.

Click here to read an interview with Kyungwon Koh, who extended the theory of radical change to youth information behavior. 

What does MGOL have in common with the Declaration of Independence?

| early literacy, ECRR, lapsits, MGOL, Mother Goose on the Loose, The importance of conversation with children, , , ,
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While she was a student, my mother was required to memorize the part of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. She recited it to me when I was a child:

 “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all citizens are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Thus, I was brought up with the belief that the United States was a place where anyone could become successful if they were willing to work hard and follow the rules.

I was the only Jewish kid in my class at our small neighborhood school; my best friend was the only African American girl in our grade. My classmates’ parents or grandparents had come to the United States from Poland, Puerto Rico, Italy, Russia, Greece, Brazil, Norway, and a variety of other countries.  We were a mixture of lower middle-class children whose parents wanted us to succeed. In our neighborhood where people came from different backgrounds, we all got along.

I did not learn what prejudice was until I attended Girl Scout camp in sixth grade and learned that some people don’t like other people because they look differently or pray in different places.  This was a rude awakening for me then, and it still feels wrong to me today.

 I believe that the intent behind our great county is to be a place where everyone should be able to earn a living by working hard, families can live in neighborhoods without fearing for their lives, children are all given the same opportunities for success, each person is treated like a valuable human being, and everyone is encouraged to be a contributing member of society.

Unfortunately, this is not the case today. Murders and crime reports are daily features in the news. Many US families live in poverty; even while working at minimum wage jobs, they cannot afford to house, feed, and provide necessary medications for their family members. How can people think about contributing to their country when they are worrying where their next meal is coming from?

 In many communities, families with extremely high incomes do not interact with low income families. Lack of contact with children from different backgrounds can lead to skewed judgment and misunderstandings.

 Although all healthy children may be born with the ability to be successful US citizens, research has shown that certain factors are essential building blocks. A sense of security, joyful play experiences, a large vocabulary, and a positive sense of self are important factors in the formation of the architecture of the brain in the earliest years of life. Loving interaction with the significant adult in a child’s life is another meaningful element in the foundation for future success.

 There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but there are five simple practices, identified by the American Library Association, the Public Library Association, and the Association of Library Services for Children that can be done by parents with their children in order to level the playing field for their children: talk, sing, read, write, and play together.[www.ala.org/everychild/]

Although this does not require a large income, there are still obstacles. Some parents believe that they need academic skills in order to help their children “become smart.” Instead of realizing that they are their children’s first and best teacher, they put misplaced faith in “educational games” and “educational television.” Sometimes, they don’t even try to spend time talking, singing, and playing with their children because they are mistakenly convinced that they “don’t have what it takes.” How can we empower these parents to let them know that one of the best things they can do for their child is to talk together, play together, and sing together?

In order to keep children busy, parents sometimes hand them a smart phone or iPad loaded with apps. No matter how educational the app might be, if it does not involve one-on-one contact with a significant adult, the neurons in the brain do not make the same type of quality connections. Children learn best via a “conversational duet,” a give-and-take verbal sharing with the important adults in their lives. Studies have shown that “co-viewing” or “joint media engagement” (when parents sit with their children and play with the electronic device together), is much more beneficial than the most “educational” of apps, if the child is left to play with it alone.

The proliferation of electronic communication devices means that parents spend less time with their children. It is not unusual for parent-child conversations to be interrupted by phone calls. Work is no longer done mostly at the workplace; parents now view and respond to work-related emails on home computers and on smart phones, cutting into time that they might be otherwise spending with their children. Yet an important research study just showed that when parents interrupt conversations with their children to answer a phone call, the children learn less. (Reed, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (Under review: “Learning on hold: Cell phones sidetrack parent-child interactions.”)

Important social and emotional skills that children learn through joyful, play-based experiences are lost when children are deprived of opportunities to interact with peers, explore the properties of objects, interact with books in fun ways, feel good about themselves for paying attention and following directions. The sense of competency that grows when children accomplish what they set out to do, helping them to develop problem solving and critical thinking skills, is lost when children are not given the opportunity to use making mistakes as a learning tool.

The ability to learn how to read at grade level is hampered when children enter kindergarten without prior exposure to books, a sizable vocabulary, and enthusiasm for learning.

 In recognition that early learning is “a national priority essential to our economic and civil future,”[1]  The Institute for Museum and Library Services produced a report, “Growing Young Minds” that lists ten ways to support strong starts for young children’s learning. These include:

  • Creating pathways into knowledge- and skill-building through community “touch points”;
  • Having “safe places where families can learn together,” where parents and caregivers can “learn how to engage in age-appropriate interactions with their children,”;
  • Building brains by “offering learning environments that address the important social, emotional, and cognitive aspects of learning and foster persistence [and] self-direction..”;
  • Coordinating “learning experiences and effective transition practices that..scaffold increasingly advancing skills and knowledge, [promoting] a smooth transition into kindergarten”; and
  • Offering “rich collections of books and objects…and programs that foster…interest-driven learning.” ( IMLS, Growing Young Minds, p.1)

I believe Mother  Goose on the Loose programs help to grow young minds in all the ways stated above. I know it is not a panacea to all ills, but I do know from  getting feedback from huge numbers of parents and librarians throughout the years that it does change lives. And, as we know, helping the youngest children get a good start in life and make an incredible difference later on.

So, back to the Declaration of Independence…

MGOL is built on the belief that all children are created equal. By empowering parents with knowledge and using nursery rhymes to help children develop literacy, social, and emotional skills, we are giving the children a strong foundation upon which to build. Starting off life with with these readiness skills will place children from all backgrounds on a path for success in school, success in social relationships, and success in future jobs.

Whether or not a parent is literate, whether or not a family speaks English, whether or not a family uses electronic devices, when parents and children talk, sing, share books, and play together, a sturdy foundation is built.

Because of this, I am now on a quest to expand Mother Goose on the Loose, and to make it available to as many people as possible.  I will keep you posted!