While the High Country has several 5 star centers and many in home situations that follow strict guidelines, availability and affordability for everyone is a low way off.
Education works best when it begins at a young age. Early childhood education is a central part of the educational process, and good programs can put young children at a greater advantage when entering the K-12 school system.
Despite its well known importance, however, early childhood education in America struggles immensely. It can be both almost non-existent in rural areas and overcrowded in cities, creating a large disparity between children and the education they receive.
The COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened these issues, bringing a greater sense of urgency to the educators who have devoted their lives to teaching our communities' most vulnerable members.
“The Pandemic has really brought to light some issues in early care and education that were commonplace before,” said Dr. Andrea Anderson, who is the director of the Lucy Brock Child Development Laboratory Program. “These issues that have up until now been fissures have become giant gaping holes.”
The Lucy Brock Program, which is run by Appalachian State University, serves two purposes: to educate young children and those who will one day do the educating. Through a rotation of students from the Reich College of Education future teachers gain hands-on experience in the classroom under the watchful eye of Dr. Anderson and her staff of permanently employed teachers.
“We know that children learn best from ages birth to three in terms of experiences within the environment,” said Dr. Anderson, “and those experiences from birth to three determine what kind of learner they’re going to be as they grow up.” By providing children with those experiences Lucy Brock hopes to help children become strong learners.
But Lucy Brock’s position as a part of a university hasn’t spared them from the financial issues that have come with the pandemic.
“The challenges that remain for early care and education are funding. Families have to pay for that education from birth to age 5, and families were really stretched during the pandemic,” said Dr. Anderson, “and programs were having to work with their families who were struggling which meant that teachers weren’t always getting paid what they should have been.”
The pandemic has created a very different environment for teachers, especially in early childhood education. Not only have they struggled with funding but they have also found the nature of their field to have changed immensely.
“I think that one of the things that has been changed the most is the way that families have been able to communicate with us,” said Cassandra Steffen, a permanently employed teacher at Lucy Brock. “When we teach young children everything that is involved has to do with their home life.”
Changes in the process of communication have also come with a higher need to recognize the home situations of children who are struggling through the pandemic.
“These children are going through a lot of the same stress that their families are, so that has affected our curriculum and how we interact with children and the relationships they experience in our classroom,” said Steffen.
These changes and the associated difficulties are compounding on teachers. Stress is higher than ever inside childcare schools.
Julia Sisbarro, another permanent teacher at Lucy Brock who works at the program’s classroom which operates out of Parkway Elementary School, is amongst those feeling the stress.
“We are all tired, physically and mentally. I think COVID fatigue is playing a major role in burn-out,” Sisbarro said.
This fatigue is more than understandable in the already stressful field of education. Now with safety requirements, teachers have to spend even more time keeping children out of situations that would be COVID unsafe. It can be difficult to make a toddler keep their mask on and learn at the same time.
“I think that it has almost shifted safety and health as a priority over curriculum,” Sisbarro said. “Not that that is necessarily the case, but I think that it has shifted significantly.” These changes are an unfortunate necessity of pandemic education.
Teachers are stressed, but not hopeless. They are still as determined as ever to educate and thankful for the support systems that have been put in place for them.
“Generally I think [working within a WCS school] has made it really easy. We have a really great support system in the administration side,” Sisbarro said. “Everybody is like a team or a family. The school system is doing a lot to support our mental health.”
And even at the end of the day, despite everything, early childhood educators still recognize their duty to their students.
“No matter what happens it's still our job to show up for the children,” said Steffen.
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