Realizations

Today while I was getting my hair cut, (I have a particularly chatty hairdresser) I came to the realization that there are many under-qualified daycares out there. She was telling me about her search for a place to take her 3 year-old daughter and about the experiences she had at church daycares and home daycare. She also informed me that the quality daycares were too expensive for her to afford on her daily tips (yes I give her 20% but that's still not enough). It made me realize that there is a large portion of children who are not receiving quality childcare, and it is not the lower income families, but in fact the working class who do not receive government aid. It breaks my heart that people like my hairdresser want the best for their children but actually make too much money to give them the quality education that they need. I also realized while she was trimming up my layers that I could never work for a child center that was not accredited. I have been in two NAEYC accredited child care facilities and I am familiar and accustomed to the rigorous standards that are held in these centers; it would be extremely difficult and annoying, if not repulsing, to me to be in a center that had not gone through accreditation, nor felt it necessary to keep high standards for the sake of the children that they care for and teach.