Instagram video via mandvandheyd.
Gayle Julian, an education professor at Olympic College in Washington State, begins many of her classes with what she calls “A Minute With Dan,” in which her students watch and discuss the concepts in some of Mr. Wuori’s videos. .
His posts, he said, help prospective teachers, many of whom are young adults without children of their own, generally understand the difficulties that can arise when growing up without consistent, positive interactions with adults at home.
“What we’re learning about is early childhood trauma, stress and anxiety,” Ms Julian said. “It’s important to know what’s in a child’s development before they get to, say, high school English class.”
Mr. Wuori said he sees his cheerleading gig as perfectly aligned with his mission as a consultant, working with state lawmakers and governors to improve and expand child care and early childhood programs. Across the country, there are very few affordable options due to low wages in the field and a lack of public investment, making the United States an outlier among developed countries.
If the public better understood what a big difference a well-trained early childhood educator can make, Mr Wuori said, perhaps politicians would feel more pressure to invest in the sector, rather than seeing childcare centers as little more than “care custody”. while the parents work, staffed by workers who are paid, often, little more than minimum wage.
That will be the message in a new book he will publish this fall, entitled “The Daycare Myth.”
“There’s this false distinction between caring and learning,” she said. But given the correlation between early childhood enrichment and later success in school, work and relationships, Mr. Wuori said, child care centers are “the most important learning environments in all of humanity — with one notable exception home”.
