The Real Choice: A Career in Early Childhood Education

Buxton, Margaret R., Diversity Employers

Stop! Listen! Hear the calling of the little voices. Hear the message loud and clear. Teachers, teachers where are you? Teachers, teachers, to read and write! We want to learn to read and write. We want to use our minds and see the world so bright. Help us in our early years. Help us erase away our fears. Teachers, teachers, where are you? Teachers, teachers, we need you!

An early education for African-American children is more important and necessary than ever before. We need African-American teachers who understand and can relate to the experiences of our children and who will have an impact on their early learning and development. We need enthusiastic, intelligent, and creative individuals to pursue a career in early childhood education.

A career in early childhood education can be both rewarding and challenging: Rewarding because of the responsibility to engage children in a variety of activities that will prepare them from birth to age eight to become life-long learners and productive adults; challenging because early educators must strive to motivate, communicate, and involve children continuously in a variety of learning methods and teaching strategies. These instructional strategies should meet the diverse needs of American-African and other children of color. Are you that person? Can you become that teacher?

Statistics

The need for early educators of color is steadily increasing. The current trend indicates that by the next decade only five percent of the teaching population will be non-white, while students of color will make up 35 percent of the student population. In many cases, in the more urban public school settings these students may represent as much as 90 percent of the student population.

The latest trend in demographic and cultural diversity shows that 1.4 million teachers will be needed by 1997 and 1.5 million to 2.5 million will be needed by the year 2000. There is an ever growing increase in …

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Publication information: Article title: The Real Choice: A Career in Early Childhood Education. Contributors: Buxton, Margaret R. - Author. Magazine title: Diversity Employers. Volume: 24. Issue: 1 Publication date: September-October 1993. Page number: 111+. © 1998 IMDiversity, Inc. COPYRIGHT 1993 Gale Group.

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