By: Sydney Andrulis

Early Childhood education is the career I would like to go into. Early Childhood

education is the teaching of kids in their preschool years before they get to kindergarten. As the

daughter of a preschool teacher I have always loved to go to work and help my mom set up the

classroom and other things. I have learned a lot about preschool teaching from my mom and I am

excited to go to college and major in early childhood education.

As an early childhood educator I would work anywhere that has a preschool program

such as a church, daycare center, or an elementary school. Preschool teachers usually work

during school hours and work the school months then have the summers off. Some schools that

go year round would be in school for let's say about nine weeks and out of school for three

weeks. If I was teaching at a year round school I would work the schedule of nine weeks on and

three weeks off. If I was working in a preschool through a daycare center the hours and how

much I work in a year might look a little different. I might work year round but not work as a

preschool teacher. I might work in the daycare as a childcare provider in months that preschool is

not in session.

The median annual wage of a preschool teacher is around $30,000. About ten percent

earn more than $55,000. Education required for preschool teaching is different for what program

you are going to work through. In the Head Start program, a government run program that gives

lower income families access to early childhood education, you can work with an associate's

degree. Only about fifty percent of the teachers who work through Head Start have a bachelor's

degree in early childhood education. If I wanted a job in a public school I would need a

bachelor’s degree. A common requirement in preschool teaching is to obtain a CDA

certification, and you will also need to obtain a certain number of student teaching hours. For my

mom she also has to go to different training throughout the year such as CPI training, intruder

training, CPR, first aid and other training.

Another organization, besides Head start, is the Great Start Readiness Program, this

program is Michigan's state funded program for kids who might be at risk for education failure.

My mom does the teaching through Great Start and she explained it as “It is for families whose

income can’t pay for a tuition preschool, but income is too high to be eligible for the head start

program.” The National Association for the Education of Young Children or NAEYC, is a

program to honor the most highly recognized preschool programs in the country. To be

considered as a NAEYC educator the preschool centers will get inspected, the staff have to go to

training as well as be evaluated. My Mom works through a preschool center and teaches under

the Great Start Readiness Program, and the center is also certified through NAEYC so you can

be involved in more than just one program.

Social factors of preschool teaching are, you are not a wealthy person and at this job you

are not allowed to share an opinion on politics or religion. As a preschool teacher you are not in

it for the money, you are doing it because you care for the children and like teaching the kids.

While teaching you are not allowed to share an opinion on politics and religion because there is

no one right opinion and you can’t judge the kids or their family. Some psychological factors of

preschool teaching are, you have to be patient, understanding, and willing to learn just as much

as the kids. As a teacher of young kids you have to be able to let little things go and be able to

give the kids time to understand because working with kids things don’t go as planned
sometimes. As a teacher you have to make sure that you are understanding the kids so you have

to learn how they think and learn to make the best of it.

Preschool teaching is a field with employment in every state because children need to

have an education. The employment of preschool teaching is supposed to grow about two

percent from 2019 to 2029. This rate is slower than the average of other jobs. Also I would have

a better chance of getting a job as a preschool teacher if I have experience working with

preschool aged children. Some ways to find jobs is to work as a childcare worker at a center, you

only need a high school diploma and a few training certifications such as CPR, first aid, and a

CDA. If you were working at a center you would already be familiar with the staff when you

reapply as a preschool teacher after you finish college. Also teaching jobs will be posted on

different job finding sites, My mom said “At our center we post jobs on Indeed.”

Job advancement as a preschool teacher may include being moved up to an

administrative role, for example an assistant director. Also workers can be given a raise in pay or

my mom has said “Directors of different centers might give out things such as gift cards for good

attendance or being helpful getting ready for different center events.” She also says directors

might take the staff out for lunch on different occasions. On the staff's anniversary of working at

the center the director may send the staff a card and a box of brownies. In a preschool teaching

job there might not be very many advancements but, if you help out there are a lot of different

perks you can get.

Other occupations like early childhood education include: childcare workers, teaching

kindergarten through twelfth grade, preschool or daycare directors; special education teachers,
and teachers assistants. I would like to do any of these jobs but I think I would be most happy

with preschool teaching.

In conclusion I am very interested in early childhood education and would love to pursue

it as a career. Growing up with a preschool teacher as a mom I have been exposed to a lot of

different aspects of the job. She has taught me a lot about the social and psychological factors of

being a teacher and so many other things. I learned a lot more about how the job looks on paper

with how much I would make and other things, but I still would love to be a preschool teacher.
 Work Cited

“Fact Sheet: Troubling Pay Gap for Early Childhood Teachers.” Fact Sheet: Troubling Pay Gap

for Early Childhood Teachers | U.S. Department of Education, 14 June 2016,

www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/fact-sheet-troubling-pay-gap-early-childhood-teachers​.

“Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP).” Michigan Department of Education,

www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-63533_50451---,00.html#:~:text=The%20Great%20Start

%20Readiness%20Program,at%20risk%20of%20educational%20failure.&text=Funding%20is%

20allocated%20to%20each,to%20administer%20the%20program%20locally​.

NAEYC, ​www.naeyc.org/about-us/people/more-about-us​.

“Preschool Teachers : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.” 1

Sept. 2020, ​www.bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/preschool-teachers.htm​.

“What Is Early Childhood Education?” How to Become a Preschool Teacher How to Become a

Pre K Teacher, ​www.preschoolteacher.org/what-is-early-childhood-education/​.