In my previous article I commented on the chaotic scenes unfolding as the ‘pandemic babies’ start school, displaying aggression, maladjustment and trauma. The official line seems to be that this is mainly because they have missed out on ECE and there isn’t enough funding to make up for it all.
Don’t let them tell you that.
When I was growing up, ‘early childhood education’ was unheard of and most people would probably have considered it an oxymoron. I don’t think there was a kindergarten less than an hour’s drive from where we lived. The rare few small children who were not at home with their mothers had nannies or went to home-based daycare. Children climbed trees, jumped in puddles and made mud pies. By the age of five, they could communicate with others, take themselves to the toilet, manage their emotions to a reasonable extent, and had acquired basic knowledge.
In 50 years, not only has ‘early childhood education’ become a thing, it has become near-universal. Daycare centres are as ubiquitous as corner dairies and, until recent years, around 95 per cent of children had been institutionalised before the age of five. The names of the institutions – Head Start, Best Start, Little Wonders – convey a clear suggestion that they are offering to make your children more intelligent and give them a better start in life.
Don’t let them tell you that.
It’s not surprising that the ‘pandemic babies’ are traumatised: we all are. But it was a good ten years ago that a schoolteacher told me five-year-olds now cannot manage themselves, don’t know basic things like colours or numbers, can’t speak clearly and don’t know the traditional nursery rhymes. This is not about immigrants who don’t speak English; these are Kiwi kids who have had all the marvellous benefits of ‘early childhood education’ and who now just don’t know anything. Another phenomenon which I’ve observed myself is New Zealand children who speak with American accents because they have spent their lives watching the Disney Channel.
You know what? We used to have outstanding early childhood education in this country. It was provided by mothers without qualifications, in homes without certification and at a cost to the taxpayer of precisely zip.
Is ECE, and subsequently school, failing now because of inadequate resourcing and funding? Don’t let them tell you that either. Children are failing for lack of mothers. Yes, those insignificant, invisible, unemployed, unqualified, unregulated, uncertified, do-nothing mothers, who thought they had had a busy day if they had hung the washing out and sung “Humpty Dumpty”, turn out to have been the foundation stone of their children’s mental health and successful futures. You can’t do without them! No amount of money and no amount of expertise can replace them.
Shall we despised housewives get together and sing “Humpty Dumpty” while Rome burns? No, let’s not. Let’s find other mothers, younger women, and do what we can to encourage them to be lovers of children and lovers of home. Maybe we’ll be in time to save something really worthwhile.
