Make Child Care High Quality

Summary

Episode Summary: "Make Child Care High Quality"

Podcast Information:

• Title: No One is Coming to Save Us
• Host: Lemonada Media (Gloria Rivera)
• Season: 5
• Episode: Make Child Care High Quality
• Release Date: May 8, 2025

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Make Child Care High Quality," host Gloria Rivera delves into the pressing issue of America's childcare crisis. Focusing on the necessity of high-quality care, Rivera explores what it truly entails, why it's essential, and strategies to achieve it by prioritizing the well-being of caregivers. The episode emphasizes that every child deserves quality care irrespective of their socioeconomic status and highlights the critical role of supporting early childhood educators.

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Spotlight on High-Quality Child Care: Hannah Weed at Tumbleweeds, Juneau, Alaska

The episode begins with a vivid portrayal of a morning at Tumbleweeds, a home childcare center in Juneau, Alaska, managed by Hannah Weed. Rivera provides a detailed snapshot of Weed's caregiving environment:

• Engaging Activities: Children participate in creative endeavors such as coloring shamrocks and rainbows with black Sharpie markers ([04:58]).

• Routine and Connection: Weed emphasizes the importance of routine, greeting each child warmly upon arrival to foster trust and comfort. For instance, she welcomes each child by saying, “How's it going, buddy?” ensuring a stable and nurturing start to their day ([05:28]).

• Handling Transitions: Weed employs strategies to ease children's separation anxiety. She shares a technique where she and the child count the time it takes for a parent to return, turning a potentially distressing moment into a playful game ([06:19]).

• Personalized Care: Weed demonstrates an acute understanding of each child's needs, such as recognizing that certain children prefer personal space during meals and arranging seating accordingly ([07:38]).

• Building Trusting Relationships: Weed recounts a heartwarming moment when a shy child expressed love and trust, signifying the deep bonds formed through consistent and compassionate care ([08:15]).

Notable Quote:

"They lay down, make sure that they have their blanket, and then I say, have a good rest. And so we did that. And then he said, good night, and I said, good night. And he goes, I love you." — Hannah Weed ([08:15])

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Expert Insight: Junlei Li on Early Childhood Education

Gloria Rivera introduces early childhood education expert Junlei Li, who serves as the Faculty Chair in Early Childhood and Human Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was previously the co-director of the Fred Rogers Center. Li elaborates on the foundational role of relationships in early childhood development:

• Relational Health: Li underscores the concept of "early relational health" as a cornerstone for children's overall well-being, linking it to physical, mental, and behavioral health ([14:27]).

• Positive Childhood Experiences (PACES): Contrasting with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), PACES are defined as supportive relationships and environments that mitigate or even reverse the impacts of ACEs. Li illustrates this with his own experience adopting a child from an orphanage, highlighting how positive relationships can foster resilience and success despite adverse beginnings ([23:30]).

Notable Quotes:

"It's almost the soil upon which you grow anything worthwhile. And to the extent that learning and development for young children is incredibly important, then the soil upon which they draw that nourishment is important." — Junlei Li ([14:43])

"Positive childhood experiences can both mitigate and sometimes even reverse the impact of the adverse childhood experiences." — Junlei Li ([25:18])

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The Critical Role of Caregiver Well-Being

A significant portion of the episode addresses the well-being of early childhood educators and its direct correlation to the quality of child care:

• High Turnover Rates: The median hourly wage for early childhood workers is approximately $13, with over 40% struggling to afford basic necessities like food. Additionally, educators report high levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, leading to high turnover rates and staffing shortages ([34:22]).

• Impact on Children: High turnover disrupts the formation of trusting relationships between children and caregivers, which are essential for children's emotional and social development. Li expresses concern that high turnover often indicates systemic issues that negatively affect caregivers' mental and physical health, thereby compromising the quality of care ([32:32]).

• Systemic Solutions: Li advocates for prioritizing caregiver well-being as a fundamental indicator of the health of the entire early childhood ecosystem. He suggests that supporting caregivers should precede and facilitate children's brain development and school readiness. This includes implementing policies and programs that address caregivers' mental, behavioral, and physical health needs ([36:32]).

Notable Quote:

"If we work in a system in which there's rapid turnover, that means throughout that time period, our caregivers are not well. Right, right. That impacts their care every single day." — Junlei Li ([32:33])

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Strategies for Supporting Caregivers

To cultivate and sustain high-quality child care, the episode highlights several strategies centered around supporting and retaining early childhood educators:

• Recognizing Caregivers: Emphasizing the importance of viewing caregiver well-being as a critical component of child care quality. This involves acknowledging the emotional and physical demands placed on educators and providing adequate support systems ([36:47]).

• Policy Advocacy: Li suggests advocating for policies that prioritize caregiver health and stability. This includes better compensation, mental health resources, and professional development opportunities to reduce turnover and enhance job satisfaction.

• Community and Relationship Building: Building strong relationships within the community and fostering a supportive environment for both children and caregivers. Li underscores that healthy relationships are the bedrock of effective early childhood education and that supporting caregivers enriches these connections ([39:31]).

Notable Quote:

"We cannot make a lasting impact on children by skipping over these adults in the middle and just keep pushing. We have to support the people who are actually in relationship with children." — Junlei Li ([36:59])

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Conclusion

In "Make Child Care High Quality," Gloria Rivera and Junlei Li present a compelling case for reimagining America’s child care system by placing caregiver well-being at its core. The episode argues that fostering strong, supportive relationships between educators and children is paramount for children's development and long-term success. Achieving high-quality child care requires systemic changes that prioritize the mental, physical, and emotional health of caregivers, thereby creating a sustainable and nurturing environment for the nation's youngest members.

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Additional Remarks

Listeners are encouraged to support and advocate for policies that enhance the well-being of early childhood educators. By doing so, the community can ensure that children receive the loving, high-quality care they deserve, ultimately fostering a healthier, more resilient future generation.

Notable Quote:

"Our kids deserve high quality care, but that doesn't mean demanding a system that puts fancy gadgets in every classroom. It means demanding a system that serves, supports the caregivers enough so they can shower our kiddos with love." — Gloria Rivera ([39:31])

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Listeners are invited to share their thoughts and participate in surveys to further the podcast's mission of transforming child care through knowledge and advocacy.

Transcript

[Gloria Rivera]

Calling all early educators Neighborhood Villages, an innovative nonprofit organization working towards a transformed early childhood education system that meets the needs of all children, families and educators, invites you to learn about Learning Through Exploration, its new play based curriculum created specifically for toddlers and their caregivers, Learning Through Exploration offers an anti bias, Reggio inspired approach to teaching. This developmentally conscious curriculum provides toddlers with playful, engaging and joyful learning experiences. It also offers support for teachers as well as recommendations for activities and children's literature. The Best News it's free and available now on Neighborhood Villages website. Visit www.NeighborhoodVillages.org to download the curriculum. You'll also find free webinars and resources to get you started.

[Unknown]

Guess what? Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. You heard right, 99%. If you don't think so, maybe it's time to face facts. You're stuck in the past. Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report. Learn more at discover.com credit card.

[Gloria Rivera]

Hey everyone. First off, we want to thank you for listening to no One Is Coming to Save Us. And now we want to hear from you we what you've learned, what's sticking with you, what questions you still have, and what you're motivated to do as a result of listening. Right now you can take our short survey to help us better understand the impact of our work. And even better, once you've completed the survey, you can enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card. The survey is short and sweet, I promise, and it will really help us keep bringing you content you love. Take the survey at Bit ly noonesurvey that's bit ly no onesurvey thanks again. Lemonada I will never forget when I was looking for the very first place I would send my son to school. He was two years old and he felt like the most precious little human in the whole wide world. We were a little behind the ball and I was so nervous trying to find the best, most perfect place for him. I knew I wanted high quality, of course, but I couldn't quite define what that meant. Is a high quality preschool just a fancy preschool? I'm a journalist, so you know I love the research. I compared my options, dutifully, visited places, talked to local parents. But at the end of the day, it really came down to a feeling. And I can still see the sweet face of the woman who took my son's little hand in hers when I dropped him off that first day. It's a knowing that you can completely trust your child with another person for the longest part of your day. It's a feeling of warmth, of safety, of comfort and relief. Today we're talking about how to find and support those comforting spaces for our kids. I'm Gloria Rivera and this is no One Is Coming to Save Us, a show about the childcare crisis in America. This season we're talking about what the child care system needs to look like. A system that we demand to have. Last week we looked at why childcare needs to be guaranteed from ages 0 to 5. This week we're zooming in on high quality care. What it truly means, why it's necessary and how to get it by caring for our caregivers. Because every parent deserves high quality care for their young child. It shouldn't depend on where you live or how much money you have. And every child care educator deserves support and adequate compensation to sustain their important work. And by important work, I mean loving our kids day in, day out. Starting first thing in the morning, like at drop off time at Tumbleweeds, a home childcare in Juneau, Alaska. By 9am in the morning, six kids are absorbed in work at two different low tables. One table is wrapped in white paper. On it are shamrocks and rainbows pre drawn in black Sharpie. There are jars of markers in the middle. And four kids are coloring the shapes in the ages of the kids range from about 18 months to almost five and a half years old.

[Hannah Weed]

Look, I made a new rainbow.

[Gloria Rivera]

Two kids at the other table are building things with green clay and popsicle sticks. If you haven't guessed yet, it happens to be St. Patrick's Day.

[Hannah Weed]

The leprechaun did that. And he also made your milk green.

[Gloria Rivera]

The seventh and last kiddo for the day arrives with his dad, Hannah Weed, the owner and administrator and all around superwoman at Tumbleweeds turns her attention to the kid to welcome him.

[Hannah Weed]

How's it going, buddy?

[Gloria Rivera]

This is something Hannah does with every kid when they arrive because as she knows, kids thrive on routine. After some back and forth about the trucks, on his T shirt we see an excavator and yeah, this is the kid's. Dad says goodbye.

[Junlei Li]

I hope you have a good day, buddy. I miss you. I love you.

[Gloria Rivera]

And leaves.

[Junlei Li]

I see you later.

[Hannah Weed]

See you later.

[Junlei Li]

See you tonight.

[Hannah Weed]

You wanna see what we're doing?

[Gloria Rivera]

The kid doesn't bat an eye. He easily folds into the action in the room. But for others, this can be a challenging part of the day. We've all seen that kid who cries and screams when their parent leaves. I mean, maybe it's your kid, and that's total, okay. Because transitions are hard, but Hannah has strategies for turning the hard into something light and fun.

[Hannah Weed]

One of them, when she's upset about her caretaker leaving her. Like, we go to the window and we count and see how long he takes to get to his truck. Like, that's what we do. And by the end of it, then she's laughing because we're talking about how much slower he is than he was the day before or, oh, he's walking really fast now. And so it turns something that is challenging for them in an emotional time to something that's kind of fun in a game and something that they can.

[Gloria Rivera]

Expect at any given time. During this morning, Hannah may have five kids in her face, touching her, shouting almost indecipherable proclamations in those tiny, very cute kid voices. And she handles it in this unflappable, no sweat kind of way, attending to each of their needs, or one at.

[Hannah Weed]

A time, can you say, please don't poke my body? She doesn't like getting.

[Gloria Rivera]

I'm frankly amazed that no matter what, Hannah's voice stays steady. She never raises her voice to the kids. She never sounds flustered or out of control. She is calm, and she exudes peace. Another amazing skill Hannah has is knowing what each of the kids in her care needs.

[Hannah Weed]

I know that certain kids, when they're eating meals, shouldn't sit next to each other because one really likes to have their personal space and another likes to really touch everyone's stuff. And so if they sit next to each other, it's gonna be problematic.

[Gloria Rivera]

Hannah knows these things about the kids in her care because she builds a relationship with each and every one of them, and she lets those relationships grow over time. She remembers the exact moment when one of the shyest kids in her class started to feel comfortable. It happened during everyone's nap time as she was going through the usual routine.

[Hannah Weed]

They lay down, make sure that they have their blanket, and then I say, have a good rest. And so we did that. And then he said, good night, and I said, good night. And he goes, I love you. Out of the blue, unsolicited, like, I knew that he actually meant it and that he felt so comfortable being in my home.

[Gloria Rivera]

It was a transformative moment. And it's these kinds of bonds, these relationships that are at the very core of high quality care.

[Junlei Li]

Anyone who's ever dropped off their children for the very first time at a preschool and a child care understands how important it is for that child to Learn to trust that adult there.

[Gloria Rivera]

That's early childhood education expert Junle. He's a faculty chair in Early Childhood and Human Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

[Junlei Li]

And every childcare provider and educator who's worked in the field for years knows exactly what they need to do for each child differently to build that trust and to build that connection.

[Gloria Rivera]

He also used to be the co director of the Fred Rogers Center.

[Junlei Li]

This is something that Mr. Rogers used to say, like all of us, young or old, we learn and grow best through relationships. I don't think anyone out there, no matter who they are, is going to disagree with how central relationships are to each of us, whether we are three year old or whether we're 96 years old.

[Gloria Rivera]

While the relationship between your kid and their childcare provider is foundational to your kid's well being and growth, Junle says good providers like Hannah are doing so much more. They impact how your kid fits into the larger world and even within your own family. Junlei Li has spent more than 15 years traveling across the country and the world observing and researching early childhood care settings. He and his team may go to a daycare center in a low income urban community in the States or an orphanage in rural China.

[Junlei Li]

A lot of times when you have the opportunity to visit a school or orphanage or anywhere, I'm always really wary of being led on a tour, right? So I feel like I just like to see what simple, ordinary, everyday moments. I don't need to see the best parts.

[Gloria Rivera]

His focus isn't on the children either. It's on the people who support the children, the educators, the providers, the helpers. During a tour through an orphanage in Kazakhstan, Junle got to see the rooms where the babies sleep. He was led inside one room that had a nice white crib with a mobile attached to it. But what caught his eye was a chair.

[Junlei Li]

There's an old chair, like a clearly worn out chair, like right next to the crib, right? Like nobody would have put that chair there, make it look good because it was not a good looking chair. But I was just so touched because I can picture the person who wore the chair out. I can picture what they were doing when they were wearing the chair out, that they were sitting there next to the crib and they are often sitting there with the baby. And it just so happens that as the tour went on, I just, I was so drawn by the chair. Like I lingered behind so that the rest of the group has already gone and then the caregiver were allowed to come back into the room. So I found the caregiver. I dragged the interpreter just to say thank you to the caregiver. And the caregiver is like, I have been here for 25 years. And like, like, I sit there and let me show you the closet of this girl who's in the cribs. Like, she loves these clothes, and she was going through all these clothes with me. That, I think, is the heart of quality.

[Gloria Rivera]

High quality is often talked about through ratings and standards, a checklist on a clipboard, or protocols and binders that sit on a shelf. But Junlei says recognizing high quality is often something you feel in your gut, something that's not necessarily quantifiable.

[Junlei Li]

I want to start with just a very simple thought experiment, right. Like, imagine any of us, we don't have to be a researcher, right? And if I send you to a preschool or childcare and I say, you know, you have two minutes, and I like you to tell me at a gut level after two minutes, do you think this place is a high quality or not? Right. So hypothetically, if I let you choose when you go, hardly any parent would choose to go on the weekends when the place is completely absent of people. You just like, I like. I don't think a lot of parents wouldn't go and say, I'm going to go measure the floor and I'm going to count the number of books they have on the shelf.

[Gloria Rivera]

Right, Right, right.

[Junlei Li]

If all you have is two minutes, you want to go when there are people.

[Gloria Rivera]

Yes.

[Junlei Li]

And then let's just hypothetically follow that train of thought. Like, okay, so I'm there for two minutes, I see people. Am I counting, for example, the number of words that the caregiver is saying to the child? Or am I just absorbing the humanity that's in front of us and get this gut feeling of their connection? The way the child looks at the caregiver, the way the caregiver looks at the child, the way the child looks at other children, et cetera, et cetera. The idea is, I actually give a lot of faith to these two minutes or five minutes gut level impression, because it tells us something that often cannot even be captured with the most complex instruments about quality. And it's not just me saying so. Like, I've met so many researchers and quality assessors, and in private, they'll tell me something like, you know, sometimes I go to a place and they have, like, the highest ratings in quality, and I walk through and it just didn't feel like it. And then they'll tell me the Opposite, which is that sometimes I go to a place that didn't get rated very high, but I walked through it just felt right.

[Gloria Rivera]

Building trusting human relationships is important for a child's growth and development across the child's lifetime. The American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as other early childhood professionals are paying more attention to a term called early relational health.

[Junlei Li]

We talked a lot about mental health, we talked a lot about behavioral health, and there's always physical health. But if we can think of relational health as one of the important foundations upon which we build our physical health, upon which we build mental health, behavioral health and our learning and growing and development. And so I'm not suggesting that as yet another thing we need to worry about, but suggesting that as a foundation, right? It's almost the soil upon which you grow anything worthwhile. And to the extent that learning and development for young children is incredibly important, then the soil upon which they draw that nourishment is important. And that soil is relational health, the health of our relationships.

[Gloria Rivera]

I've seen my own kids thrive like little buds shooting up through rich soil when they're in a loving environment tended to. And I know the immense gratitude I felt dropping them off every day knowing they won't just be okay, they'll be great. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, how these positive relationships can actually act as a buffer against childhood trauma and adversity. I've got a house full of kids so let me tell you our home pantry has to be fully stocked with snacks at all times. With so many junk filled options out there, I try to be really conscious about which ones I buy. And that is why I love Thrive Market. My go to online grocery store for getting all of our healthy essentials delivered and I don't even have to leave my couch. Bonus. Plus I don't have to worry about whether I'll be able to pronounce the ingredients on my kids snack labels. With over 10,000 food additives allowed in the US it's hard to know what's safe to eat. That's why Thrive Market gives me peace of mind. They are a no junk online grocery store that bans over 1,000 harmful ingredients. Their team of product researchers do the hard work for me and my family so I don't have to spend hours reading labels. Plus they have all the hard to find brands at the best prices. My family has never been able to get enough of Annie's Mac and Cheese, Annie's Gummy Snacks and wow do we love Pirate's booty in this house. I throw it in my daughter's lunchbox and inevitably I munch on it myself for a midday energy boost. I also love that Thrive Market has a Buy it Again feature so it's really easy to make sure we never run out and who doesn't want to shop with a mission driven brand? Thrive Market seeks out the highest quality brands that follow ethical practices and strict quality standards. They also accept SNAP EBT and offer free memberships for low income families through their Thrive Gives program. Ready to make the switch? Go to thrivemarket.com no 1 for 30% off your first order plus a free $60 gift. That's T H R-I V E market.com no 1 thrivemarket.com no 1 hey Julia Louis Dreyfus here.

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[Gloria Rivera]

We'Re back. Before Junlei started visiting orphanages around the world for his work and research, he went to one in China as a soon to be adoptive parent. Junlei was just finishing his doctorate in developmental psychology, but this very personal experience was a turning point in his education.

[Junlei Li]

My first child came to us from an orphanage when she was about 2. So you can imagine right at the time I was a researcher and you can read about all the researches about children who grew up in the orphanages. And it's not a particularly happy research. But then after we adopted our child, we realized that. That she had been really well cared for in the ways that really mattered. Right. For example, that even before she understood what we were saying in words, she understood that grownups are people you can trust. Well, the only way you can develop that feeling is if you've had a grown up that you trusted.

[Gloria Rivera]

You might be wondering, how does Junle know that his new daughter had a trusted caregiver? It was all in their very first encounter, which did not exactly go as smoothly as he hoped.

[Junlei Li]

I remember at the moment of adoption when they literally hand the child over to us, the child was very upset. Right. So as a parent, you can have two kinds of reaction. One is like, oh, no, I don't know how to connect with this child. Like, you know, what am I going to do as this new parent? But on the other hand, I think if you take a step back, I think the feeling is gratitude, because sometimes I've witnessed that transfer and the child is just kind of limp, and the child almost didn't care who was holding them. Right. But for a child who protests, for the child who got angry, who got accept upset, all those were signs that the child had a deeper relationship with the people who cared for her.

[Gloria Rivera]

It's just such a beautiful moment. Did you know it in the moment? Did you know, okay, this is actually a very positive sign that the child I am about to take home is so bonded with her caregiver.

[Junlei Li]

I think right in the moment, I was feeling anxious as any new parents would.

[Gloria Rivera]

Okay, fair, fair. Junle ended up meeting his daughter's caregiver.

[Junlei Li]

And the two of us talked for half an hour, and she was telling me, like, the. The first day the child was brought into the orphanage, and she was telling me about all those little things only someone who really provided care would know. And they think my gratitude just grew and grew and grew.

[Gloria Rivera]

It was through this experience that Junle began to recognize just how incredible these caregivers can be. As he visited other orphanages, he continued to see more caregivers who were just as nurturing and supportive like his daughter's caregiver, like the one he met in Kazakhstan.

[Junlei Li]

They provide care in a setting that have what I would consider some of the harshest conditions, but nevertheless, they became kind of this protective buffer around the children.

[Gloria Rivera]

Meaningful connections between caregivers and children create the foundation for great early education, no matter the setting. And these connections contribute to positive childhood experiences. So I'm sure many listeners are familiar with the term adverse childhood experiences, also known as ACEs. These are traumatic events that many people experience as children. Horrible things like abuse, violence, death of a loved one. The list goes on. And they're linked to long term challenges with physical, mental and behavioral health. We hear a lot about ACEs, but are you familiar with PACES? PCES, or positive childhood experiences are the counterbalance to the negative or the adverse childhood experiences, and they are equally powerful.

[Junlei Li]

When we used to talk about adverse childhood experiences ACEs for almost 20 years, the conclusion you tend to draw from that is one, well, the only way children would do well is if you somehow create a world in which all of the ACEs are eliminated and we don't live in a world like that. And simultaneously you get this feeling that, well, if you're exposed to ACEs, one or two or three of them, you're kind of doomed. The risk factors would be so high for your mental health, behavioral health, and physical health. But what the newer analysis and data about these positive childhood experiences show is that, well, one, you're not doomed. Lots of people experience adversity as they grow up. And so the crucial factor then becomes, do they also experience positive childhood experiences at the same time that these positive childhood experiences can both mitigate and sometimes even reverse the impact of the adverse childhood experiences? And I'll make this very concrete. So you think about the daughter I was talking about being abandoned at birth due to societal challenges to grow up in an orphanage for two years. That by any standards, we would call it adversity. Right? She just graduated her undergrad and she's in her master's program to be a civil engineer now. So what then happened? Well, as I mentioned earlier, during those first two years, despite the adversity, she had caring relationships with orphanage care providers. Those were the positive childhood experiences, right?

[Gloria Rivera]

I mean, what's striking me about that description of her journey is that as you were about to say, yes, an orphanage is an adverse experience. I thought your next sentence was going to be, but then she had loving parents and advantages. But no, you're talking about from the moment she was abandoned until she was ready to leave. It was that caregiver that was a positive experience in an environment many would immediately characterize as adverse.

[Junlei Li]

Exactly.

[Gloria Rivera]

Positive childhood experiences address three categories of human connections. One is about family. And questions to figure out if you've experienced positive childhood experiences include, do you feel safe with at least one person in your family? Do you feel supported by your family? Can you talk to your family about your feelings? Then the second category is about your life outside the family. Do you feel like you belong in school? Feel supported by friends? Do you like participating in your community?

[Junlei Li]

And then the last of the seven questions is actually my favorite. It says, have you ever had two non parent adults who have taken a genuine interest in you anywhere? Like in school, at church, out of school time, on the sports field, in your classroom, wherever it is? Right. That's the seven questions. And to be able to say yes to each of those questions, even if you can just do it for two or three or four, it serves just as potently like the yeses there is as potent as a counterweight as the yeses to the aces question. Except the aces ones of course, kind of pulls you in the other direction.

[Gloria Rivera]

This does not usually happen to me, but I'm, I'm somewhat speechless right now because your description of that just took me right back to seventh grade and my Latin teacher, Chuck Reinschmitt. If you're out there listening, but a genuine interest in me, I felt seen, I felt someone cared for me. It was pivotal. Early childhood educators can do this too. Ideally, they're some of the first non parent adults who care about your child.

[Junlei Li]

But providers do so much more than that. An educator and provider helps that child not only to build a relationship with them, but for to help that child fit in right in this whole community. So in positive childhood experiences later on we talked about do you feel supported by friends? Do you feel like you belong in school? Well, the first time you have friends and the first time that you're in a school is in a child care or preschool. And then what we learned over time is that early child care providers provide support not just to the child, but to the parents. They help to help new parents to feel reassured about their children, about themselves, so the parents feel more able to support their children at home. And so a good provider professionally is someone who actually supports the strength of connections inside a family.

[Gloria Rivera]

What Junelight is saying is an early childhood care provider has the potential to touch all three areas of positive childhood experience, including strengthening bonds within a family. So if we're lucky enough to find a child care educator who does that, how can we cultivate and perpetuate that high quality care, especially with high rates of teacher turnover in early childhood education settings? That's coming up after the break.

[Unknown]

Are you still quoting 30 year old movies? Have you said cool beans in the past 90 days? Do you think Discover isn't widely accepted? If this sounds like you, you're stuck in the past. Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide. And every time you make a purchase with your card, you automatically earn cash back. Welcome to the now it pays to Discover. Learn [e-mail] credit card Based on the February 2024 Nielsen report, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. So join Teach for America, a bold group of change makers working to ensure all kids get the education they need to succeed. And Ripple, a tech company creating greater economic opportunity through transformative crypto and blockchain enterprise solutions in celebrating teachers. Because teachers don't just impact what children learn. It's the little things teachers do every day that create a chain of possibilities that go far beyond the classroom. That's the TFA Ripple effect and we can't thank teachers enough. So celebrate that teacher who juggles lessons, laughter and lost homework when you donate to Teach for America. Today, Ripple will partner to match your gift. Visit teachforamerica.org/r I P P L E to give because for our teachers, a little thanks can add up to a lot.

[Gloria Rivera]

So when we're thinking about quality, that will involve great teachers coming back year after year developing strong relationships in their communities. Conversely, high rates of teacher turnover stand in the way of providing high quality care.

[Junlei Li]

I think there are two worries in terms of the turnover's impact on children. One worry is that it interrupts the relationship that the children built and that the children would have to build new relationship. And if the turnover happens quite suddenly without a transition, it's very strange to children how this adult that I've learned to care and trust and an adult who cares me suddenly can disappear right from my life. I think that's one kind of concern. And I think we as parents, we can understand that concern. I think to degrees, which means that children aren't so fragile that they must have the same teacher, let's say from the entire span of their early childhood or something like that, so long as children continue to have people that they can trust in the sett. But I have a worry that's actually bigger than the interruption of the relationship. My worry is that if you are at a place where you see very high turnover of teachers either at a particular school or in a particular neighborhood or a town, what that is an indicator of is that the system in which these educators are working is not a healthy system.

[Gloria Rivera]

Yeah, okay. Yep.

[Junlei Li]

That to me is a much bigger worry than the disruption of the relationship. If we work in a system in which there's rapid turnover, that means throughout that time period, our caregivers are not well. Right, right. That impacts their care every single day. This has. This isn't about the disruption. This is about them being stressed, them not being well, mental health, behavioral health, and physical health. And that impacts how they relate to children every single day. That's not different from parents. If parents are unwell, it impacts your interaction with your child every single day. I would worry about that as a whole system.

[Gloria Rivera]

You just said our caregivers are not well, and that is something that resonates deeply with this podcast. Across the country, the median hourly wage for an early childhood worker is about $13 an hour. More than 40% don't have enough money to pay for food for their families. Early childhood educators also experience high levels of stress. These types of conditions lead to high turnover rates and teacher staffing shortages. Many early educators can find more money and less stress working outside of child care. So if, as you said, our caregivers are not well, how do we create? What do we need to do within our systems to cultivate an environment where our caregivers are well? Mentally, behaviorally, physically?

[Junlei Li]

I think to start with, we can collectively, not just as early childhood system, but as a society, Right. Foreground caregiver well being as one of the indicators, one of the critical indicators of the health of the entire early childhood ecosystem. And caregiver well being to me has at least two parts. One caregivers at home and two, caregivers outside home. Just put that out front and center. I personally, and this may be a bit radical, I personally would put that ahead of things like children's brain development or school readiness or all these things that we always put in front over the last 20 years of early childhood investment. The reason is that I don't think healthy brain development and school readiness can ever be achieved if we don't do the kind of things that supports caregiver well being. Agreed, we measure all kinds of things about children. But if we can just, even at a system level, have an indicator of caregiver well being both for families and for these providers outside home, and then systematically through programs and policies and investment, we actually tried to move that indicator in positive directions. Earlier we talked about positive childhood experiences for children. Well, what about positive childhood experiences for care providers? What do they need in order to be well? What is clear in the research on caregiver well being? I think the latest data in a national survey was that one out of every two care providers experience moderate to high anxiety and depression symptoms in childcare. And one out of every three providers experienced moderate to high sense of sadness, hopelessness, and worthlessness.

[Gloria Rivera]

Oh, God, that's hard to hear.

[Junlei Li]

It is hard to hear, right? But. But if we actually put that front and center as one of the key indicators of whether or not we actually have a functioning system, Yes, y. I.

[Gloria Rivera]

Think we can start there, particularly in this country. How can we help the helpers? What can we do to support early childhood educators?

[Junlei Li]

I have over the last 10 years or so, traveled to perhaps 34, 35 of the states. And in each state I would speak with educators and often with those who are administrators of that system or sometimes elected leaders and policy makers. I find two things that have been helpful in having these conversations. One is to emphasize that all of us, young or old, we learn and grow best through relationships, regardless of the division that the kind of partisan positions that people have taken. Start with this idea that it's the relationships in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our communities that ultimately nourish us as human beings and as people. And then to talk about how relationships is the foundation of everything that we hold dear when it comes to children's development. And then the argument moves to if you care about relationships, then by definition you have to care about both ends of the relationship. I think when we talk about children and talk about children's policy, it's easy to just talk about one end of the relationship. Let's do it for the children. No, if we care about relationships, we have to care about both ends, which means we have to care about the people who are actually in relationship with children, and that is their families, and that is those who provide care to children. And then from there, push the point and push the very common sense argument that we cannot make a lasting impact on children by skipping over these adults in the middle and just keep pushing, repeating that and ask how can our current practices, our current programs, our current policies, support these adults in the middle?

[Gloria Rivera]

We need to support early childhood educators to continue to do that work. We need to provide recognition, compensation, and, yes, care to the care providers. Our kids deserve high quality care, but that doesn't mean demanding a system that puts fancy gadgets in every classroom. It means demanding a system that serves, supports the caregivers enough so they can shower our kiddos with love.

[Hannah Weed]

One, two, three. Pick a boo. Dude, where's O.J. peekaboo.

[Junlei Li]

Peekaboo.

[Gloria Rivera]

There's more. No One Is Coming to Save Us with Lemonada. Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus content like unheard clips from our Internet. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts. No One Is Coming to Save Us is A Lemonada original, this series is created and produced with Neighborhood Villages, a nonprofit dedicated to transforming childcare through innovative program building and policy design. Visit www.NeighborhoodVillages.org to learn more. I'm your host, Gloria Rivera. Lisa Fu and Hannah Boomershine are our producers. Ivan Korayev is our audio engineer. Our music is by Hannis Brown. Jackie Danziger is our VP of Partnerships and Production Executive. Producers are Stephanie Whittles Wax and Jessica Cordova Kramer, along with me, Gloria Rivera. If you like this show and you believe what we're doing is important, please help others find us by leaving us a rating and writing a review. And most importantly, tell your friends. Follow no one is Coming to Save Us. Wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. Thank you for listening and we'll be back next week. Until then, hang in there. You can do this.

[Unknown]

It's Teacher Appreciation Week, so join Teach for America, a group of change makers working toward educational excellence for all kids, and Ripple, a tech company creating greater economic opportunity through transformative crypto and blockchain enterprise solutions. In celebrating teachers for the little things they do that create possibilities that go far beyond the classroom, you can celebrate your favorite teachers with a gift that helps them create their biggest ripple effect for America's kids. Give [e-mail] ripple and ripple will partner to match your gift.

[Reshma Saujani]

Hey, I'm Reshma Sajani, founder of Girls who Code and Moms First. I consider myself a pretty successful adult woman, so why is it that in midlife as I'm about to turn 50, I feel so stuck? Join me as I try to find the answer on my so called Midlife from Lemonada Media. I talk to experts and extraordinary guests about divorce, exercise, menopause, sex, drugs, and more to understand what we're going through and how to make the most of it. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.