If you’ve kept up with recent advocacy and state legislation, or you or someone you know has children enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs, you may know about the myriad challenges facing the sector. From parents struggling to find a program with enrollment openings for their children, to ECE program directors feeling torn between raising already high tuitions or having to continue paying their employees less than what they’d like to, we have spoken to a number of Upper Valley residents about what they have experienced in the early childhood education landscape. Voices of Early Childhood Education is a series that seeks to uplift community members’ experiences and about what they wish more people knew about the current realities of Early Childhood Education in the Upper Valley. Read on below to learn more!
The Magical Mr. Stevenson
Andy Stevenson is a resident of Fairlee Vermont, where he also teaches 1st grade. He has two children – the oldest is three years old and the second is one year old. They were born during the pandemic – a challenging time for everyone, including new parents. While certain things have gotten easier since the…
Caring, Passionate, and Exhausted
Joy Conley wanted to get into early childcare due to a deep passion for educating young children. While nannying in 2020, it became more apparent to Joy how too many children went without one on one time and quality care and education. This imbalance of care prompted Joy to pursue a career in larger educational…
Putting A Personal Story to Advocacy
Piecing together a life as a single mom in a rural community is hard enough on its own, but our conversation with one parent in the Upper Valley with one teenager, and two children under 5 illuminated the complexity of support systems, rural environments, and the realities of childcare programs for families in Vermont. As…
We Support Each Other
“He’s having to grow up a lot faster than he wants to, and quite frankly, than I want him to.” This is Krystal, a single mom of two young children speaking to us about how her older son has had to step up to help her look after her other, younger child, when childcare proves…
Looking Back to Look Ahead
Our interviewee, who grew up in Hartford, reminisced about her time in an early childhood education program in the 90s when she spoke with us. Though it wasn’t formal with the legislation that today’s ECE programs have, she recalls being in a mixed age program that focused on a combination of structured and unstructured play…