For people who say "school is not for childcare"...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate how the phrase degrades the valuable work of childcare providers, who are nearly all women.

When teachers union leaders say this, it comes across as incredibly out of touch and degrading. I don't understand why they do not see how awful they sound when they talk like this.

Agree. That’s another reason it’s cringey

Not to mention half if the providers at our preschool has a bachelor degree, one with a masters. It's completely degrading and inaccurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate how the phrase degrades the valuable work of childcare providers, who are nearly all women.

When teachers union leaders say this, it comes across as incredibly out of touch and degrading. I don't understand why they do not see how awful they sound when they talk like this.

Agree. That’s another reason it’s cringey

Except teachers themselves are predominantly women and childcare providers are not expected to write legal documents, take data, conduct assessments, prepare children for state tests, etc.
If childcare providers want to become teachers, they are certainly free to work through school to make that happen. I was a nanny and I got my transitional license, went to school at night, and worked my way through my certification. The two jobs are not the same, and one of them requires a master's degree, while the other does not require any educational qualifications. That's reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that childcare is not the primary purpose of school, if it were it would be open year round like daycare.

Yes, but it is A purpose of school. To say it's not puts an unfair amount of burden on working parents.

Sorry, but two-working parent household here, and I have never considered school to be childcare. Did it make life a little easier when they were in school full-day? Sure. But that's just coincidence. Still have to arrange post-school childcare, driving, etc. School is NOT childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Employers should provide childcare on site. It’s crazy that they don’t. It would solve the problem of the school day not aligning to the work day, snow days, teachers work days, summers off/school breaks, etc. and really increase productivity for working parents.

I work on a restaurant. That prob isn’t going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that childcare is not the primary purpose of school, if it were it would be open year round like daycare.

Yes, but it is A purpose of school. To say it's not puts an unfair amount of burden on working parents.

Sorry, but two-working parent household here, and I have never considered school to be childcare. Did it make life a little easier when they were in school full-day? Sure. But that's just coincidence. Still have to arrange post-school childcare, driving, etc. School is NOT childcare.

You're completely ignoring the reality for millions of people based on your personal feelings. It's childcare. It's education, but it's also absolutely childcare. That you can't bend your mind around that is shocking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate how the phrase degrades the valuable work of childcare providers, who are nearly all women.

When teachers union leaders say this, it comes across as incredibly out of touch and degrading. I don't understand why they do not see how awful they sound when they talk like this.

Agree. That’s another reason it’s cringey

Except teachers themselves are predominantly women and childcare providers are not expected to write legal documents, take data, conduct assessments, prepare children for state tests, etc.
If childcare providers want to become teachers, they are certainly free to work through school to make that happen. I was a nanny and I got my transitional license, went to school at night, and worked my way through my certification. The two jobs are not the same, and one of them requires a master's degree, while the other does not require any educational qualifications. That's reality.

Just stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really hate how the phrase degrades the valuable work of childcare providers, who are nearly all women.

When teachers union leaders say this, it comes across as incredibly out of touch and degrading. I don't understand why they do not see how awful they sound when they talk like this.

Agree. That’s another reason it’s cringey

Except teachers themselves are predominantly women and childcare providers are not expected to write legal documents, take data, conduct assessments, prepare children for state tests, etc.
If childcare providers want to become teachers, they are certainly free to work through school to make that happen. I was a nanny and I got my transitional license, went to school at night, and worked my way through my certification. The two jobs are not the same, and one of them requires a master's degree, while the other does not require any educational qualifications. That's reality.

Just stop.

I know. Lol. The 2nd to last sentence tipped it over the edge...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that childcare is not the primary purpose of school, if it were it would be open year round like daycare.

Yes, but it is A purpose of school. To say it's not puts an unfair amount of burden on working parents.

Sorry, but two-working parent household here, and I have never considered school to be childcare. Did it make life a little easier when they were in school full-day? Sure. But that's just coincidence. Still have to arrange post-school childcare, driving, etc. School is NOT childcare.

1. How old are your kids?
2. Did you pay for back up care on retainer pre-COVID?
3. Do you have family in the area that would take your kids at a moments notice?
4. Did you have an agreement with your spouse that snow days, etc. would be split 50/50 - or did it fall primarily on one of you?
5. Was your post-school care through the school? Or through another entity?

Generally curious - not trying to be combative. I'm struggling to understand how "school is not child care" has become a talking point - and what people who say this had in place pre-COVID? Because I guarantee you - during COVID - trying to fix any of the above situations/dependencies has been terribly difficult.

[Anonymous]

I am a single mom.
School is not child care.
I don’t have the answers. But school is not child care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a single mom.
School is not child care.
I don’t have the answers. But school is not child care.

It's not pejorative, it's factual. They're taking care of children who are not old enough to take care of themselves. It's the definition of childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really hate how the phrase degrades the valuable work of childcare providers, who are nearly all women.

When teachers union leaders say this, it comes across as incredibly out of touch and degrading. I don't understand why they do not see how awful they sound when they talk like this.

Thank you!
-a child care provider with a master's in Special Education who works with other providers who have bachelor's degrees. Those who have CDAs and associates work just as hard and have just as many skills.

[Anonymous]

The financial advice I got when starting our family was to space out my kids 3 years apart so we didn't have to pay double daycare bills. School was childcare then, not sure what's changed....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that childcare is not the primary purpose of school, if it were it would be open year round like daycare.

Yes, but it is A purpose of school. To say it's not puts an unfair amount of burden on working parents.

Sorry, but two-working parent household here, and I have never considered school to be childcare. Did it make life a little easier when they were in school full-day? Sure. But that's just coincidence. Still have to arrange post-school childcare, driving, etc. School is NOT childcare.

You're completely ignoring the reality for millions of people based on your personal feelings. It's childcare. It's education, but it's also absolutely childcare. That you can't bend your mind around that is shocking.

+1

It's telling that PPs post is all about her feelings about it and how she considers it and not the practical realities of how today's world works. I mean, I might "consider" myself a unicorn but that doesn't mean the world interacts with me that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"School is not childcare" is shorthand for "I am spoiled, entitled, and have no ability to understand the life experiences of anyone who isn't part of a wealthy two-parent family." When someone says that, I find I discount whatever else they are saying, as they lack the depth of larger societal awareness necessary to have a reasoned discussion.

I kind of like it when people say it, though, because it's quick differentiator as to whether I should consider their opinions as soundly grounded or not.

"School is not for childcare" means that while childcare is a benefit of public school, it is not the goal or purpose of school. So, the need for childcare should not be driving the decision-making for when to open schools.

No, it is not spoiled and entitled. I am in a two-income working household and we are amongst those families who are struggling to adequately support our children in school. I understand the situation that many families are in, but I also understand that there are many families including many teacher families that have high risk family members and requiring teachers and those students to go into school buildings with the complete disregard for any health and safety measures is ridiculous.

We need to invest a lot of money into getting safety equipment and supplies to the teachers in adequate quantities. But as is typical, we want schools to function but aren't willing to secure enough supplies and teachers are being forced to pay out of pocket to augment the school budgets that will not accommodate safety shielding, PPE, cleaning solutions and more.

This is what teachers are being asked to open with to accommodate all children. And I have a lot of teacher friends who have sent photos of what their actual classrooms look like and it isn't that different. I especially feel bad for my friends who are teachers in NYC who every thinks is opening so safely. Their classrooms look like the worst of these with desks 2 feet apart, no space between students and teachers and no safety shielding. The classrooms are more dangerous than the hallways that were posted from Georgia. At least the students are moving in the hallways, but they are in one place with a large group for 45-60 minutes in the classrooms.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/what-in-person-learning-looks-like?utm_source=dynamic&utm_campaign=bffbbuzzfeednews&ref=bffbbuzzfeednews&&fbclid=IwAR3tHvS2BHbLf1pFcMdwz1RPGTFSqFp7QL0PAHvK_cDbHWgyAzNNz-NTjnE

While I don't disagree, we should be doing this for everyone who is required to work in person right now. Teachers were able to shut it down because they have organized unions. It's too bad other industries haven't been able to do so as effectively, they need to go to work or don't get paid.

[Anonymous]

People probably mean to say that parents shouldn’t rely on school as the only source of child care, for example on snow days. But like OP said, it’s really hard to have reliable backup care ready for all situations.