Early Childhood Learning – an Ontario Report

This week, the Ontario government released a report of recommendations on early childhood learning – with recommendations to offer optional full day junior and senior kindergarten programs in systems that do not already have it (the French school boards already offer this.)

The report is a comprehensive document highlighting ways that the government should mandate additional learning opportunities for its youngest students (including full-year learning opportunities), increase availability of extra-curricular/extended learning programs (with a parent-fee system) and create schools as centres/hubs of the community.

Inspired by a great post by Dani at Postcards from the Mothership (my readers know that I love this blog!), I wanted to post as a compliment to Dani’s post.  Mostly, I started to comment on her well-written blog and it got pretty long.

Here’s my full disclosure:  Since the McGuinty government started talking about full-day kindergarten, I had some pretty mixed feelings about it.  I raised an eyebrow at any suggestion that this somehow would make my four year old that much more social/smarter/advanced than others who weren’t in full time by grade 1.  I worry about kids not being able to be kids (have you seen some homework that comes home in SK?) and that school will be associated with work.  At age 4, that’s a stress I don’t want my children to have.  Conversely, I fully understand the benefits of having full time JK/SK to many working parents.  As a SAHM, not having to worry about daycare is something I’ve been blessed with, but I’ve watched far to many friends and family struggle with finding the right place, that is caring and enriching for their children while ensuring flexibility and balancing it with their jobs. 

After reading the report, I’m still not sure what I’ll do about my own son who will be entering kindergarten soon.  I still think that it’s a lot of work for little 4/5 year olds.  However, I fully understand how some children would more than benefit from a full day learning program.  I value education and literacy strongly.  I get what an early introduction may mean for some children. 

A full day/full year learning program also means that for many families, day care won’t be as much of an issue, especially with extended hours available.  But as Dani said in her post, the benefits extend those daycare considerations. 

Students in lower-income households with fewer options throughout the year would definitely benefit.  The stats included about impoverished homes and their vulnerability is heart breaking.  Extended hours for the school, increased extracurricular options and early-years/prenatal/postnatal parenting education would be offered.  

From the report:

Early childhood programs that help compensate children for difficult home and community environments, at the same time as they support parents to work or upgrade their job skills, are highly effective at reducing the rate and depth of poverty. (page 11) 

While I am concerned about some of the logistics and details (it, will no doubt, be a huge cost undertaking and ensuring schools have the facilities to host the influx of pupils, will there be a more difficult transition for children who don’t participate? could all be an issues) this report steers the full-day-or-not debate that I struggle with into a very positive direction.  I’m am very pleased that the report recommends that the program be optional, as I think I still feel that full day is just too much for a 4 year old (even though, yes, I know they will do just fine and many thrive in this environment!) but that is why having the option only is nice.  I suspect that even if he doesn’t go full time in JK, maybe by SK I’d be more willing.

Also, at times, I fear we to steer our society into a direction that suggests that the government will be raising our children, or have far too much control.  I prefer to see options that support parents in their choices, finding more balance to either stay at home with their children, work part-time, find flexibility in the work force etc.  But wait, the report speaks to that as well.

I am concerned that these other great aspects of the report, and there are many, will get lost in the conversation about full time or part time JK/SK.  Remember:  The JK/SK full time issue is optional.  As a parent, you have a choice.  But, the report goes further.  It suggests:

*Enhanced maternity/parental benefits (ie: extending parental/maternity leave to 400 days, flexibility to return part-time or extend leave, extending benefits to self-employed etc.  See page 23 for this awesome list)

*Offering a 6-week leave for the father or non-birth adult who is involved with the baby/adoption

*Extended learning times outside of school hours

*Extended extracurricular options for after school

*Prenatal/postnatal/community services offered at schools

*Potential for earlier intervention for children with learning disabilities/mental health concerns

*Schools as community hubs (thereby, reducing transition issues for many children)

These are some very positive steps towards empowering parents with more choice.   I am not anti-daycare, but I am parent-choice. I believe that working parents and SAHP should be supported with options and opportunities, no matter their choice.  What this report tells me, is that there is something for SAHPs as well as working parents.  Extended maternity/parental leave?  Flexibility to return part-time or ease transition time?  Benefits for the self-employed?  All of these things to me suggest that more parents may start to think about staying at home longer, delaying their return to work etc.  A shift in a very positive direction I would say.

Also, if schools become hubs for the community, I can certainly see ample benefits of combining community-based initiatives – a one-stop, early learning/parental education for parents.  It would cut down (hopefully) on infrastructure, costs, paper-work and delays in the system to offer additional support for children who may need it.  While I will reserve a complete opinion until I see more about how such a system would be implemented (with safety of our children in schools in mind in particular), I think it’s a very informed directive.  Check out the chart on page 20 and 21 to compare how the structure is run now, and how neatly it would be run later.

The report discusses other issues such as cost considerations, gender, parent engagement (yes please!), staffing, Aboriginal families and more details on implementation.

Again, I am still not convinced that I am doing my children any harm if I don’t send them to full time JK/SK, but support these recommendations, especially those outside of the daycare/kindergarten issues.  Those initiatives, to me, represent a real opportunity for parents to take more control over their decisions and available choices to stay with their children, or obtain greater flexibility. 

What can you do? 

Read the report.  Grab a tea or coffee, it’s long, and some sections I only browsed because it got lengthy, but it’s worth at least a glance (especially the pages I mentioned above.) Also, for a numbered highlight of all 20 recommendations, simply read page 55-57.

Read Dani’s post.  She talks about it, and other childcare/education issues in a well-written, easy-to-read manner.

Write to your MPP.  Sherri suggested this in the comments on Dani’s post, and it’s a fabulous idea.  Sure, more research and discussions are needed before this could be rolled out (and I question the availability for next year they are recommending) but our writing might get our members of parliament into action to make things move along.  We don’t want such a great report to be left aside once the media attention is gone.

If you stuck with my post this long, thank you 😉