February 15, 2022 • 49 mins
Carolina Reyes always wanted to work with children and started the Arco Iris Bilingual Children’s Center so they could get the best possible early education in both English and Spanish. When the pandemic hit, it was harder to keep the center open, but Carolina didn’t waiver and pushed forward to ensure her students could continue learning and her teachers could continue teaching. Now open again, Arco Iris is a safe haven for the youngest of our community to learn how to thrive. Roundtable guests: Model, divemaster, and mother Amanda Pacheco and Dr. Lynette Fraga, CEO of Child Care Aware of America.
Learn more about Arco Iris Bilingual Children’s Center: https://arcoirisbcc.com/about-us/
Learn more about Child Care Aware of America: https://www.childcareaware.org
Episode Transcript: https://app.trint.com/editor/G3zWZskuSp-Xkfx-JGYtJA
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, and Wilmar Valve Drama and I'm m r
Riquel Welcome back to Essential Voices. It's so great to
be back with more stories from essential workers around the country.
And of course I've missed my main man. And you
know you're talking about me, right, you know what? Okay, Okay,
(00:21):
you got me. Of course I was about to say,
I'm like, what are you talking about? What other podcaster
you're talking about over here? Oh well, I missed having
these moments with you as rarely as we have them.
But I am happy to see you, and which is
why I'm stoked to be back today. So what we
got going on this week? So this week we're focusing
(00:44):
on early childhood education, specifically in a bilingual context. You know,
last fall, we had the pleasure of speaking with Essential
worker Garnaas, who's a director at Arcodes Bilingual Children's Center
in Maryland. When the pandemic hit. Like for many other
small businesses working to provide essential services to their communities,
Catarlina Center faced financial challenges on top of working every
(01:06):
day to provide a safe learning environment for young children.
Garlina shared with us how she got creative to teach
her kids about the importance of masking and handwashing, how
she supported her teachers throughout the pandemic, and what makes
my lingal early education so special. After our conversation with Carolina,
will have a round tap of discussion with Dr Lynnette Fraga,
who is an expert in early learning and CEO of
(01:29):
Childcare Aware of America, along with possibly my very guest
ever model I've master, my partner and mother to our
beautiful baby girl, Nicano. Also my hero for making us
a family, Amanda Pacheco. I'm so glad we could finally
bring Amanda into the conversation. It was so incredible for
(01:49):
Amanda and me to have an opportunity to ask Dr
fragg as so many questions. Uh, you know, Grena, We've
been asking ourselves and each other as new parents at
last year. So so thankful for our wisdom. It was
a really great, great conversation. Yeah, it really was, and
it's going to be a great show today, So let's
do it up. Carolina story starts right now. My name
(02:15):
is Carolina Reges. I'm originally from Chile. I emigrated to
the United States twenty three years ago now, and I
am a mother, a wife, a sister, and strong advocate
for early child education for the child care community in
the area what I work with wonderful Carolina, thank you
(02:38):
so much for agreeing to talk to us and having
this conversation with me. I wanted to start with just
you know what inspired you to start this bilingual preschool.
I'm gonna tell you this. When I immigrated to the
United States, my first job was in lingual child kid
in Seattle, and I always work back home in my
country with children, and I wanted to create our coity
(03:00):
is because I love working with children. I that was
my first job in the United States. I always wanted
it to be able to provide early and rich experiences
to the children, and why not to do it with
a little bit of my culture. What do you think
is the biggest challenge as a bilingual early education or
(03:20):
type of provider. There are a few challenges. One of
the things that when people here by lingual preschool, they
have a misconception about who is coming to ardequities. A
lot of people when they see that, they believe that
the majority of the people who come to my school
or Latinos, which is not the case. So one of
(03:43):
the challenges many times says when I received phone calls
for parents. They call and they asked me, I want
you to prepare my child to go to kindergarten, but
I don't want you to speak Spanish to them. And
that to me bring me like the challenge to be
able to let the people understand that by legally location
is so relevant. We if we provide this rich tool
(04:06):
to our children, are gonna be able to achieve so
many things. Right if we start talking about what by
legal education does to your brain, then we're gonna be
here for hours talking about it. But also the challenge
that is still right now is for my teachers. The
teachers who come to my school are immigrants, Latino teachers
who love what they do, and many times there are
(04:29):
newly immigrants who have higher degrees from their countries, but
they don't have English yet. So in this case, even
though we are teaching the children in Spanish, we are
missing the opportunity for these teachers to be able to
acquire the English language. So for me, that's a very
strong challenge because I want, and and that's where I'm
(04:50):
advocating a lot lately, to be able to see if
we can some way provide more opportunities and resources for
those teachers to be able to obtain professional development, coaching
and mentoring on their language. You come at the point
of our conversation. Will we remind ourselves the unfortunate introduction
of a pandemic and how it all changed for educators,
(05:13):
for educational facilities. What was your experience, like you tell
me a little bit about how did it affect you? Know?
What you did for me? One of the big impact
when we heard about the pandemic was the lack of
appreciation and that we were not being seen by our
elected officials. I'm gonna tell you this. And here in Maryland,
(05:33):
when the governor tell everybody we're gonna be closing some schools,
child care was not even mentioned. We were not even
part of anything that particularly give me the power to
start doing something. And I wrote my delegate and I
wrote to her and said, look, the governor haven't even
mentioned what we're gonna do. What is going to happen
(05:55):
to our teachers, How are we gonna pay them, How
are we going to be able to survive? What is
going to happen to those plants who need to go work?
And then we need to close or we don't have
to close, so that I think it was the initiation
of what is happening right now with child kid in
the United States. I think that gave us the power
(06:18):
to start saying that we are the backbone of the economy,
that we are the ones who are taking care of
the future leaders of the United States, and we are
not even mentioned. We were not essential, we were not
never at all. And that's when I think, not just me,
but many many of me in the United States start
saying loudly and clear that we needed to have assistant
(06:39):
we needed to have the resources for us to be
able to continue helping our families. But in addition to that,
it was saddened because I needed to close my school.
I was closed for four months before I reopened again
to be able to serve my families. But with that,
I lost my teachers. And I love my teachers because
(07:00):
is a big reason child kill in the United States.
Like like many other care jobs in the United States,
they don't have good wages, These benefits are lacking. So
think about it, in a worldwide crisis that is suffering
and people are dying, my teachers needed to make this
huge decision of do I go back to work, do
(07:23):
I risk my life. I thought that I tried to
pay as best as I can with a little money
that I get, to be honest with you, to pay
my teachers. But I could understand why they people return
because they were not ready to take this risk. And
right now, that's the crisis that we have in the
United States. People don't want to come to work in
child and many other jobs who don't pay you liberal wages.
(07:45):
Right because why for why I'm risking my life. You
are not showing me appreciation, You are not showing me
that my job is violable. I can go on and
on and talk to you for hours about all the
challenges that we have faith and particularly myself. Unfortunately, the
church where I rent give me the news on December
(08:06):
that they will not be able to have me in
that location anymore. That I needed to move or become
a non profit. So less than half of the enrollment
at my center already which I was already financially almost
going to close. I needed to now find a new
place for me to be able to you know, relocate
(08:28):
my article it is and to really to decide should
I relocate or should I just close this forever? To
make this story short, I just you know, relocated. Today,
I have my final inspection, so I closed that chapter
now and now I am going to just reopen the
doors in a new place, trying to be positive and
(08:51):
stay positive to see if I can continue having the
families coming back. But this coved thing is unfortunately something
that it's not going yet and some families are still
not you know, one comfortable. So as you're going into
a possible reopening of your new place, can you tell
me a little bit about how you pivot, Like how
(09:13):
do you create the safety protocols that probably give the
families a confidence that you know the kids are gonna
be safe and the staff as well, right, because you
need the staff to come back to work too, So
what is that looking like for you? We are following
the guidelines and the protocols. Parents are not allowing to
the building all children must wear masks, and that is
(09:33):
when it comes the viaeuty about child kid and when
you are a preschool teacher, you are able to teach
the little ones how to wear a mask. A lot
of the parents were worried, like, no, they're too little,
but not if you put all into your you're happy.
You shouldn't you tell them, hey, we're gonna be superherous.
That's where a mask we had to talk to them
about COVID. Children need to know what is going on.
(09:55):
Too many times some parents they're like, they don't understand,
but they do. They do understand everything. So when you
make things fun and when you tell and you explain
the children, why do we need to wash your hands
so many times? And why do we need to you know,
sing this song for this long to watch the germs away?
So with all of that, we take temperatures every day
and we had to do throughout the day. And teachers too.
(10:16):
Now all my teachers are vaccinated, so that they some
say that we protected a little bit more. I wonder
if you've noticed that the students are changed after being
kept our home for so long. Yeah, yeah, most definitely,
And in particularly it is understandable. You know, when children
comes to any center, at least my center, we do
have a scheduled. Children come and they have learning experience,
(10:39):
They have different activities and we have a routine and
the routine helps them to go throughout the day. And
sometimes at home when parents needed to work, they didn't
have that. So many of them were mayby cived by
a TV or they were just on their phones or
their devices, and when they come back, transitions are more difficult,
(10:59):
and especially because parts are now we're not able to
come into the classrooms anymore. They were just being dropped
at the door. And the social emotional aspect true, some
of them were more like into themselves, some of them
were more emotional, and some of them really didn't understand
what was going on. And that's when it comes the
(11:19):
beauty about early childl education and for other teachers who
really study that child development is so essential in so
many ways, and that is why you know and ourquities.
We created the routine where we always had the routine,
but we created routine particularly to talk about COVID, particularly
talk about emotions, and that is something that in the
United States sometimes we don't see much. When children started
(11:43):
in kindergarten, we just start focusing on what they need
to learn and we forget about the social emotional aspect
of the development and an oartquities and many of my
college centers we do that. We touch base on how
we feel. How do you ill? Are you sad? Are
you angry? Because many times children have these emotions and
(12:05):
they don't understand what it is, so we need to
be able to give them the tools for them to
be able to identify what's going on. And that's why
and our coins we have a little faiths. So even
if they are two years old are not able to
maybe express themselves with language, yet they're gonna be able
to show me on point of me how they're feeling.
And it's okay. We value that. If you are upset
(12:27):
and mad, it's okay to be mad. And why can
we do when we have that, Yeah, we can step
our food, we can go and maybe it's have a
little scream, and those are emotions are valid. In my opinion,
the pandemic had brought that to attention to the mental
health for all, for the families, you know, for my parents,
for my children, for my teachers, for my own family.
(12:49):
I think it's very very important and relevant to take
care of ourselves in that point, How do you personally
take care of your own mental health? Since I love
what I do, on some times I get very passionate
about it. I had a tendency to be honest with you,
to forget about to take the little break for myself.
But I think I have really learned this past year
(13:10):
that I must do this for myself. I think I
had tried hard and to be able to say no
to certain things, not to try to do everything. And
I'm a very artistic person, so I love to paint
and I love to do things. So I found embroidery
that Yes embroidered to this year, have pill be the
opportunity to just release whatever what's going on and do breathing,
(13:36):
exercise and yoga. I love hiking, so I give myself
to do those lid of things. You know, how can
we as a community support what you're doing and what
messages you want to leave for future early childhood educators.
I strongly believe that all of you out there who
are listening to me today can go out right to
(13:57):
your electrical officials and tell them that we need to
have more financial investment and early childhood location is starting
at birth. Parents need to be able to write to
their lecture officials and let them know too that they
need support to be able to pay for child care,
which is very expensive. We also need for you to
advocate for the childcare teachers who are in the field
(14:20):
as well. There are strong, working, loveling people who invest
their lives even though they have, you know, a salary,
they invest their loves to your children. They're taking care
of the most precious thing that you have in your life.
And we need to somewhere another put ourselves together and
(14:41):
work together to let people know that child care in
the United States is a right that we need investment,
and we need to be able to reinforce better salaries
and benefits for the teachers so we can keep those
wonderful teachers who work in the field right m Advocately
(15:01):
for them as much as you can, and you know,
when you see them, tell them that we appreciate you,
that childcare teachers are relevant, and that we value what
you do. Elina is wonderful. Thank you so much. I
appreciate your time today, no welcome. Thank you for having me,
and you are the one who is doing that already.
You are advocating, helping me to have this opportunity to
(15:23):
talk about childcare. Thank you. I admire Carolina so much,
especially her tenacity and fears advocacy for her teachers and children.
I keep thinking back to her point about these teachers
taking care of the most precious thing in your life
as a parent myself. You know that really resonated. Yeah. Absolutely.
(15:46):
She also pointed out how childcare educators are the backbone
of the economy, which reminded me back way back in
the day when we spoke to Denise Frederick's about the
rights for domestic workers. If those that we love most
aren't getting the care that they need, the rest of
the world literally stops, exactly. And I also love hearing
all the creative ways she teaches the little ones, especially
(16:06):
that beautiful story about mask and superheroes and in a way,
we're all heroes when we wear a mask. Absolutely. When
we get back from the break, we'll have our roundtable
conversation with CEO of child Care Aware of America, Dr.
Lennette Fragga and my Chimmy Jewelry Pacheco. Thank you both
(16:31):
for listening. Mr. How are you, I'm doing great? Wilmer,
how are you? I'm doing awesome. I'm so happy to
be doing this episode, specifically because of how personal it
is to me now in many ways. Um, thank you,
Dr Fraga, and I also want to thank a specially
in my life, Amanda Rhyme Smiths Pacheco. She is my
(16:51):
fiances sont to be wife and also the mother of
my beautiful Nicano. She's the superhero of our life. She
is the everything of my existence. So I am very
proud that she can be here to really humanize our
family in this conversation, knowing the personal experience we're being
having with the topic itself and the dilemmas as we
(17:11):
think about the future of Little Ncandom as well. So
that being said, I'd love to start just off the
bad with your reactions, one of your reactions to Carolina's story,
and let's start with you, miss Amanda. Well, first off,
thanks for that very humble introduction. I was reading blushing.
So I loved listening to her story so much, just
(17:32):
because so much of the things that she was saying
is very relevant to what we're going through right now,
and it definitely resonates. I'm just incredibly inspired by her
entire journey, especially because you know, she was faced basically
at a roadblock, and she could go one of two directions.
She could either continue pursuing what she was so passionate
(17:54):
about and what she loved, or she could have just
given up. In those moments you get over that hurdle.
You know, I really always believe that super magical things happen.
So I absolutely love what she's doing. I love that
her focus in her preschool is bilingual, being Mexican American,
and of course you and our family they are fluent
(18:15):
in Spanish. And she talks about other focuses that she,
you know, focuses on in her preschool, for instance, mental
health care and checking in on her students. So there's
just a lot of things that spoke to me, and
I'm just really looking forward to seeing what doctor has
to uh your feedback on the things that spoke to you,
(18:36):
because this is a very relevant conversation to us. And
Nakano isn't in school right now or is in starting preschool,
but these are all conversations and things that we definitely
are going to be thinking about and talking about very soon.
Dr Frogger, what about you? What came up? What are
your reactions? Oh? My gosh, My first reaction is what
an amazing person who has committed her whole being, frankly
(19:02):
to the service of and the support of children and families.
And it was so clear her passion emanates from every
word she says, and that passion is not only transformed
the lives of probably many many children that have been
in her care, but also her point of advocacy really
came through so strongly for me, And unfortunately, what is
(19:25):
point of inspiration is also a point of frustration because
there are so so many Carolina's all across the United
States who feel just as passionately, who are making so
many amazing changes and unfortunately are facing so many similar
(19:45):
barriers that they are experiencing in their own communities um
as they try to make a change. And I think
that is the opportunity that is before us, definitely. I
mean this has been a thread that we've encountered across
many of the reads that we've recorded, which shows it
across so many different industries. Worker leaders like Catarina are
(20:07):
sharing experiences that demonstrate the toll that essential work has
been taking on folks throughout the last couple of years.
But also, as you just said, there's opportunity within the barriers.
One of these barriers for Caterina is having the community
out large understand that bilingual early childhood education it's not
just for Latin or Latino X families, and moving the
(20:28):
needle to highlight the importance of bilingual education. It's become
actually a desirable framework for child care centers and for
non Latin or Latin X kids to grow up bilingual,
and for me that was an option when I was
a kid. Given that the way that bilingual education has
been publicly viewed or even available, it's really changed a
lot in the last couple of decades, I mean, and
(20:49):
even worse. I mean, to complement what you're saying, right,
when I came to America, I had to do ESL
classes English and second language, right. And it's a really
interesting thing because anybody who is in e s L
classes had this perception they were like worse than in
the eighties when you were in the chess club, like
literally worse. Like you're like, if you couldn't really communicate
(21:11):
to say hi, to carry some type of conversation, you
were you were exactly inferior. You were uneducated, you were
some type of you know, not someone to be commuted with.
Um it. It was really the real thing. That's a
hard thing, and I'm glad you offered that as well. Yeah, totally.
It's beautiful that Garina is operating a bilingual child care center,
(21:32):
which it's thriving and providing essential educational services for a
diverse group of kids. I just totally love hearing about
it and what a different generation, because I really think
that young Latinos are growing up with more of an
interest to be Latino than ever before, and their parents
are now falling into a conversation where they're like, less,
you taught them Spanish early. You know. Well, we also
(21:54):
actually know right now from the science that children who
actually do learn multiple languages have an opportunity to problem
solved differently. You're literally thinking and reacting in different languages,
and this science actually shows how these neurons inside your
brain are going off in a different way. So it's
(22:16):
absolutely opposite of sort of the the is m of
the past writer of the present unfortunately around how language
could really be a detriment. It's actually a complete advantage
to be bilingual. And to your point, Mr, I just
love how she has taken that strength and translated it
(22:37):
into a very special place for children to learn and grow.
That's absolutely spot on, Dr Fraga, Thank you for sharing that.
I couldn't agree more that articos is a blessing to
their local community, and to pivot a little bit and
take some time to acknowledge your incredible expertise within this field.
Dr Fraga. The organization where you work is called Childcare
(22:58):
Aware of America. Can you tell us what you're all about? So,
child Careware of America is a national nonprofit organization of
child care resource and referral agencies and other partners all
across the United States. So these are community based nonprofit
organizations that are focused on making information available to parents
(23:20):
and early care and education providers about quality, affordable, accessible care.
How do providers become providers and how are they supported?
And how do parents find and understand quality care? And
a big part of what we do is advocate and
provide opportunities exactly like the inspiring early care and education
(23:41):
provider we just heard. You know, Carolina's voice is a
very strong one that's raised up. And we we do
research as well. We collect a lot of data about
what's happening in the United States around child care to
to make sure that each and every child in the
United States has access to quality care. Wow, what amazing
work here all do doing. Thanks so much for highlighting
(24:02):
a bit of what's going on behind the scenes for
us and for you, Dr Fraga, What in particular drew
you to child care education and advocacy and what makes
you passionate about this work. It's been an interesting road actually,
so i UM. I also am a proud Latina um
as you all were sharing about earlier. And I'm one
(24:24):
of those individuals who did not learn Spanish as a
young child for many many reasons that probably all of
you could reflect on. And so my commitment has always
been around family and children and communities and how do
we honor identity, um in children's identity and their growth.
(24:44):
And so I'm a mom. I'm a mom as well
of two beautiful sons, single parents for much of both
of their childhoods. And I'm also a military child. So
I lived all over the country. I attended about ten
schools growing up and um all over the country and overseas.
And through my personal experience and my professional experience, social
(25:08):
justice and service really is a part of my soul. Um.
Those experiences growing up really did reflect my commitment around
community and around family. Uh And I found my life's
passion and purpose and children and families and community and
I've really been learning from them ever since. And I
(25:29):
can remember my first experiences in college. I'm also the
first person in my family to go to college. My
first experience in college in education was really working with
older children. I was really working with children with behavior
disorders and or other challenges or special needs. And what
(25:51):
I what I really learned through those experiences is there
was so much more happening around setting experiences and service experiences.
There's a whole ecosystem that surrounded children and families, and
there was a real necessity to try and think about
where does all of this start. And that's where I
(26:12):
went into early childhood and the settings where children were.
You know, we thought about young children where our children
they're in childcare and that's often where we can make
connections in communities for families and particularly working families, is
in childcare settings. Thank you for sharing a little bit
about your trajectory and what's brought us all here today.
(26:35):
And because we have two new parents in the room,
I'd be remiss if I don't turn things over to
both of you, Amanda and Wilmer, and ask you, after
listening to guardina story and being here with Dr Fraga,
do either of you have questions about Nicano's childcare or
early education. For Dr Fraga, Oh my gosh, I have
all the questions. I'll do my best It is pretty
(27:00):
interesting the amount of questions that you have becoming a
new parent, and it makes you realize how little you
know about everything that's going on. UM. You know, you
had mentioned about quality care and um making people more
aware of what that consists of. So what does that
(27:21):
consist of? And like what should we be looking for
when we, you know, come to that step of enrolling
her and things like that. And also I'm curious about
even putting her into child care versus preschool, like do
those go hand in hand? And what are the differences
and are there different qualifications I would assume or accreditations
(27:44):
that preschools have that I would imagine that child care doesn't.
How does that? You know? These are such great questions
a Meanda, such great questions, And first I just want
to say off the top, you are not alone. Me included,
by the way, me included. UM. When I had my
two children, I was just as concerned about not having
(28:06):
the answers written on a sheet of paper that could
help to guide me and parenting this little person that
I cared so much about. So in terms of your
question about you know, what is quality what is quality childcare?
My first response to you is the quality actually is
embodied in the early care and education provider. That's where
(28:27):
quality really emanates from at its source. And I think
you heard that in Carolina's passion and compassion and understanding
not only about child development, which she raised in her comments,
but also about her relationship with the other teachers, the
environment that's provided, and her relationship with parents about what
(28:48):
they cared about and what they're concerned about. So when
I think about quality, the first place I go is
how is the teacher? How is the educator with your child?
And and children are learning from birth, There are all
sorts of amazing things happening from birth that really is
nurtured by the adults in their lives, and the partnership
(29:10):
between parents and that educator is where the magic happens.
So the first thing I would say is is the
relationship is where everything happens for very young children, and
that can happen in all kinds of settings. To your
second question about is it preschool is a childcare? Are
they the same things? Um? Is it a center brick
(29:31):
and mortar center or is it a family child care
in someone else's home? Again, that quality is manifested, not
necessarily only in this setting, but really in the relationship
with the educator. So first, of course, we want our
children to be healthy and safe, right, So making sure
that there are health and safety requirements that are met,
in standards that are met to ensure that the health
(29:53):
and safety is absolutely key for any setting that you choose.
But really it's about what are the needs of families
And I think we're getting closer to that question, um,
even now as we're trying to unpack what a new
child care system and early care and learning system could
look like. But as families are and as parents are
trying to select quality care, thinking about what's most important
(30:16):
to you as a parent. I heard a lot in
this conversation about the importance of language and speaking Spanish
and culture and connection. So having conversations with the early
care and education provider about how can you support that
That provider doesn't necessarily have to be bilingual, but how
are they going to encourage what's important to you as
(30:38):
a parent that's going to extend to how it shows
up in quality care with your child. We'll be right
back after this break. Welcome back to Essential Voices. Yeah,
that's great. It's funny because I remember it takes me
back to my Venezuelan days when I was because I
moved back to Venezuela when I was about three years old,
(31:00):
and I was there in terms about fourteen, and I
was failing all my anger's classes. I mean every English
class I took coom in Asuella was straight up f okay.
So so when I look back at like that faithful
day with my dad said like, we're moving back to America,
I was like what Because I never thought in my
life I would have to learn how to speak English,
(31:22):
you know. So that was a really moment at thirteen,
fourteen years sold to figure out like, oh wow, I
now have to learn how to speak a full language.
Just when I thought that I figure out who I am,
and now I'm thrown into a whole different pond, you know.
But you know, I circled back to what Amanda was saying.
You know, it becomes a chicken before the egg because
(31:43):
my experience is not Nicanos, which is my daughter. Uh.
And my experience is also not Amandou's right, because it
also has a very pretty American Latinos story. You know,
I have a pretty immigrant story, you know, and I
think it's a really interesting thing to bring that up,
but it's a part of the conversation because what are
the values that you do borrow from both sides and
(32:06):
how do you move forward with that? You know, I mean,
I think that if she learns how to speak Spanish
before she's learned to speak English, should be the president
of the United States, no doubt about it. To me.
That's like to me, I mean, that's the secret sauce,
that's the secrets for absolutely everything. You have a child
that's about four years old and how to speak English
and Spanish and then decides to take French just for fun,
(32:29):
that's assumed to be, you know, President United States. And
the reason why it's because with those interests come to
wonder of the people around you, the communities, where the influences,
you know, what those what those languages are attached to you.
You also explore the world in a very different way.
But I'm gonna be asking you so more questions, So
I think I'm gonna skip this personal question because I
(32:50):
have more questions on my my list for you. But
Mr Nakano has to rock star parents. I can definitely
say that, and she's in such carrying hands with you
both I'm really glad that we can carve out some
space for you to ask questions with Dr Frogga here
and bring us back to Gararina for a moment. In
her story, Gararlina calls early childcare educators the backbone of
(33:12):
the economy. And Dr Fraga, what's your take on Garlina's
sentiment there? It's true there the workforce behind the workforce
right absent the ability for early care and education providers
to go to work and to be able to provide care.
We really are in dire straits because families aren't able
(33:33):
to go to work. So what we're really seeing is
the lack and insufficient public investment in childcare really leaves
the challenge of employees of the workforce to figure it out,
and oftentimes families are cobbling together solutions that are really
not in service to children. You know. At the center
(33:55):
of this too, we're balancing two things. We're balancing the
need to support families and families ability to work so
that they can support their families. And we're also talking
about a child development setting right and settings that children
can learn and grow and thrive and nourish themselves, nourish
their social emotional development like Carolina was speaking about, and
(34:16):
nourish their physical development, and both things have to be
part of the equation. So at the high cost of
child care, the high burden we place on the early
care and education workforce, the budgets of families, particularly low
income families. At the same time, those working and childcare
are paid so little it really does undermine their ability
(34:39):
to be able to provide high quality care and make
ends meet on their own. Like Carolina spoke to. She
spoke to the fact that she was at a fork
in the road because she was unable to keep her
small business going, which, by the way, many early care
and education providers are women and oftentime women of color,
small business owners, and they are having to close their
(35:01):
doors and that's a real problem um and they can't
make ends meet for their own families. So truly important
for us to keep in mind how we think about
the essential nature of the work of early care and
education providers. Not only supports the economy and the economics
(35:22):
of communities, it also supports families and children ability to
be able to thrive. And the backbone part of it
is we have to make sure we get it right
for those early care and education providers who are trying
to provide that care. Thank you so much. You've definitely
shed light on what Catarina was saying in her story
and contextualizing the childcare provider perspective. And since we have
(35:44):
our two new parents in the room, I want to
turn it back over to you, Amanda and ask sort
of a bigger question. We're obviously still waiting through the
waters of this pandemic, and Nicana was born during the pandemic,
So what's it been like raising Nicano during the stomach
And you know, especially given what you've heard from both
Garina and Dr Fraga today, does anything that we've covered
(36:06):
affect how you're envisioning Nakano's educational future? So raising Nakano
in a pandemic, that question kind of makes both my
mind and my heart like explode because there has been
so many just different emotions during out this entire period.
Of course, the emotions of just uneasiness and like a
(36:30):
little fearful uncertainty, but also like a little bit of
peace at the same time. Like it's just it's so
chaotic because it's a combination. It's just so many different things,
and it's not the same things. It's just all over
the place. Right at first, when she was born, we
were in the pretty thick of the pandemic, and so
(36:52):
we had like that moment where we weren't seeing friends
and family. It was also the peacefulness of that at
the same time, um, because it really allowed us to
have time, which was something that we without the pandemic
wouldn't have had. It allowed you know, womer to be
(37:12):
home and to have this quality time with the families.
So it's been all over the place. UM, I agree.
I think there was. For a lot of families, it
feels like it was very serendibitest time, and then for
a lot of other families it was a moment of chaos.
It was an unfortunate time for a lot of people
to explore certain comfort zones that were ripped beneath them,
(37:37):
like not being able to send their kids to school
and then having the kids to school full time. I
think much of these conversations is it's objective to the
story and the individual, you know. But I really do
believe that the common threat is if a matter and
I would have looked at us like, whoa, I mean,
we don't have this, We don't have that we can't
(37:57):
trouble here, we can't have that, we can have this,
you know. You know, the more you focus on why
we technically don't have and you know, not investing too
the things that we do have, this pandemic could have
been a very dark time for a relationship and new parents,
and at a time where it's not like she was
going to mommy classes with other people. It's not like
she was really reading books or having friends that actually
(38:19):
gave her any sound advice. You know. Yeah, we definitely
relied on each other the most because, like you said,
we didn't really have these classes that we were attending
or anything like that. That actually brings me to a question,
because we are utilizing more time, I would say, to
do these things more on our own. Um, So like
(38:42):
for you, what does that look like in the future
for this generation who is being taught things subjects in
school by us. So let me first say, Amanda, that
you have a degree in loving your child, so that
I think is the most important degree to have. I
have one of those two. You have one of those two,
(39:05):
absolutely those two, and I think that that is one
of the most important things that your child really learns
and grows from is that love and connection with their
parents and the special special gift. I think where you're
all speaking to Amanda too is the anxiety and the
(39:27):
concern that parents of children of any age frankly UM
have experience through the pandemic, which is what kind of
loss did they experience through the pandemic and what does
the transition look like back into school or a care
setting that is different than their experience to the pandemic,
(39:48):
and and that can create a lot of anxiety and
concern for families. And unfortunately, what we've also seen is
anxiety and concern and early childhood mental health needs for
very young children and UM that is often demonstrated through
a lot of other things like families who experience stress,
(40:09):
families who have experienced the loss of a home or
the loss of employment, families who have experienced a loss
of a loved one through COVID. The kinds of traumas
and experiences that could really be challenging for families is
something that uh the loss of an early care and
education provider, you know, the loss of being in a
(40:32):
care setting and then leaving that trusted provider for some
time and then trying to integrate back into that program.
So there are ways though, because we do have the
opportunity through quality care provision where we are focused on
the social emotional development. Again, back to the brilliance of
Carolina and how she shared about how she spoke with
(40:54):
her children about what was happening in the classroom right,
spoke with her children about them meaning making of masks
and handwashing, the meaning making of what it means to
drop off your child in a COVID reality versus dropping
off the child and transitioning that child outside of a
COVID reality and a COVID reality, that parent transition looks
(41:15):
very different and there's maybe separation, anxiety shows up differently, etcetera.
But when you have a magician, a loving magician like
a Carolina, who really understands child development and understands that
child and understands the relationship with a parent, they can
provide the kind of environment that really helps that child
demonstrate resilience and strong social emotional development. Um Similarly, Amanda,
(41:40):
and all of the experiences I'm sure that you're providing
your daughter, there are magic makers, these amazing brain architects
and supporters of children that are going to welcome your child.
I think what we have to raise up is they
need support to and I think that's the really important triangles.
We're talking about children, we're talking about parents, and we're
(42:01):
talking about the early childhood educator, and that triangle of
a relationship and making sure each of those parts gets
the supports they need, whether it's early intervention for the child,
whether it's parents supports in some form or fashion. Let's say,
in the case that I raised earlier housing or some
other kind of support and supports for the early childhood
educator like Carolina mentioned around professional development and training in
(42:25):
that provider's language as a way of expanding their own
professional development. I think that ecosystem of support gets to
your question, and that's why it's so incredibly important for
us to raise up legislation like the Build Back Better
Act that is putting investment and a tremendous amount of
investment in a system that needs it, because that's the
(42:49):
system that will be holding up that triangle. I have
one last question that I can't forget to ask you,
doctor before we wrap this up, that just popped up
in my mind. Actually going back to the bilingual conversation,
just real quick, kearlin. It said something about people calling
her and asking for her services but saying that they
(43:11):
didn't want them to be taught bilingual. And I'm so curious,
why wouldn't they want their children to be bilingual? Because
both you and Karlena, we're stating that there is so
many advantages, so many opportunities, so much more fun that
could be had. Um, so what can we say to
to make them feel the opposite, to be like yes,
(43:33):
like absolutely, this is definitely even more of an advantage
and perk that we could send our child to a
bilingual child care. So I think that what is really
helpful is providing information. So we have decades of science
of what and how children learn in the earliest years
(43:57):
and the fact that you know so how much brain
development happens in the first three years of life, and
layering on that additional science that we're hearing and learning
about how children acquire knowledge and the impacts and implications
of learning multiple language on children's ability to be able
(44:18):
to problem solve. I think that educating is really important.
And you know, families will make independent and individual choices
for sure, for themselves and for their children, And I
think it's really helpful for us to raise up what
we know about how children learn and develop and the
advantages that we see as a result of that kind
(44:39):
of learning. So by providing information, I think that can
go a long way, not only around things like what
bilingual education may promote and how it can be such
a beautiful opportunity for young children, but also all sorts
of other things and how children learn and what quality
looks like, and the idea of the importance of the
(44:59):
relationship up and how education happens from birth. All of
those things coming together, I think could go a hugely
long way for our communities or national community to really
understand how critically important early learning is. And so there's
I think layers of science and information and data that
can be provided for families to really make these choices.
(45:20):
But we have to talk about um early learning first.
Our children don't start learning in kindergarten. Our children start
learning from birth. And it's absolutely past time for us
to put the importance on children learning from birth, and
this is one way we can do that. So briefly,
Dr Bragg, can you tell us a little bit of
how our community can support what you are doing. One
(45:44):
of the most important things for all of your audience
to do is to raise their voice. To raise their voice,
reach out to their elected officials and share about how
important this issue is to them, to their families, to
their children. We're gonna be releasing a new report demanding change,
repairing our child Care System, and it outlines the child
(46:06):
care system and how it has changed since the beginning
of the pandemic, and how many licensed child care providers,
you know, sixteen thousand or so have permanently closed across
the United States. So, you know, raising our voice and
saying that's not okay. We need early care and education.
We need quality early care and education. We need to
(46:26):
make sure that we think about how we support children
and families differently. Reach out to those elected officials and
let them know there are solutions out there and we
need them. Even though I don't have kids, I do
have little pity most who I adore, and I was
definitely taking notes for my family to pass along. After
hearing all of Dr Faraga's experience, I love those moments
(46:49):
when Amanda brought her own questions to the table as well. Yeah,
we got so much out of the conversation. It was
just such a privilege you have to talk to her
not just about the big picture questions, but the everyday
concerns we face as parents. We talk a lot on
this show about what gives us hope, and knowing that
educators like how Dolina and advocates like Dr Fraga are
(47:11):
out there finding for the next generation gives us just
so much hope here here, And not to be too corny,
but knowing that Nicano has such amazing parents just totally
makes my heart swell. Did that hurt? It sounds like
physically it would hurt. I mean in a good way.
Oh okay, Okay, Well, thank you and my appreciate those
(47:34):
words as there's really sweet and we're certainly trying to
figure out day by day. So next week we'll talk
about Essential Workers Sean Troy about his multigenerational work at
Troy's funeral home in Mullins, South Carolina. Well then follow
the conversation with the round table with the executive director
of Faith Matters Network, one of my favorite people to
(47:55):
talk to, Reverend Jen Bailey and reporter, author, actress and
business woman, also one of my sisters for life Essential
Voices with Wilmer Val drama is produced by me M R.
Raquel Alison Shano and Kevin Rotkowski, with production support from
associate producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer val Drama, Adam Reynolds,
(48:18):
Leo Clem and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was edited by
m R. Riquel and Sean Tracy and features original music
by Will Risotti. Special thanks to this week's Essential Voice,
Garlina Reus and to our thought leaders Dr. Lynette Fraga
from Childcare Aware of America and Amanda Pacheco. Additional thanks
to meg Biala's Jasmine Smith, Emily Kelly, David Carrier, the
(48:42):
team at Childcare Aware of America, and Daniel Reus. This
is a Clamor and w V Entertainment production in partnership
with I Heart Radio's Michael Dura podcast Network. For more
podcasts from I Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hi everyone, and Wilmar Valve Drama and I'm m r
Riquel Welcome back to Essential Voices. It's so great to
be back with more stories from essential workers around the country.
And of course I've missed my main man. And you
know you're talking about me, right, you know what? Okay, Okay,
(00:21):
you got me. Of course I was about to say,
I'm like, what are you talking about? What other podcaster
you're talking about over here? Oh well, I missed having
these moments with you as rarely as we have them.
But I am happy to see you, and which is
why I'm stoked to be back today. So what we
got going on this week? So this week we're focusing
(00:44):
on early childhood education, specifically in a bilingual context. You know,
last fall, we had the pleasure of speaking with Essential
worker Garnaas, who's a director at Arcodes Bilingual Children's Center
in Maryland. When the pandemic hit. Like for many other
small businesses working to provide essential services to their communities,
Catarlina Center faced financial challenges on top of working every
(01:06):
day to provide a safe learning environment for young children.
Garlina shared with us how she got creative to teach
her kids about the importance of masking and handwashing, how
she supported her teachers throughout the pandemic, and what makes
my lingal early education so special. After our conversation with Carolina,
will have a round tap of discussion with Dr Lynnette Fraga,
who is an expert in early learning and CEO of
(01:29):
Childcare Aware of America, along with possibly my very guest
ever model I've master, my partner and mother to our
beautiful baby girl, Nicano. Also my hero for making us
a family, Amanda Pacheco. I'm so glad we could finally
bring Amanda into the conversation. It was so incredible for
(01:49):
Amanda and me to have an opportunity to ask Dr
fragg as so many questions. Uh, you know, Grena, We've
been asking ourselves and each other as new parents at
last year. So so thankful for our wisdom. It was
a really great, great conversation. Yeah, it really was, and
it's going to be a great show today, So let's
do it up. Carolina story starts right now. My name
(02:15):
is Carolina Reges. I'm originally from Chile. I emigrated to
the United States twenty three years ago now, and I
am a mother, a wife, a sister, and strong advocate
for early child education for the child care community in
the area what I work with wonderful Carolina, thank you
(02:38):
so much for agreeing to talk to us and having
this conversation with me. I wanted to start with just
you know what inspired you to start this bilingual preschool.
I'm gonna tell you this. When I immigrated to the
United States, my first job was in lingual child kid
in Seattle, and I always work back home in my
country with children, and I wanted to create our coity
(03:00):
is because I love working with children. I that was
my first job in the United States. I always wanted
it to be able to provide early and rich experiences
to the children, and why not to do it with
a little bit of my culture. What do you think
is the biggest challenge as a bilingual early education or
(03:20):
type of provider. There are a few challenges. One of
the things that when people here by lingual preschool, they
have a misconception about who is coming to ardequities. A
lot of people when they see that, they believe that
the majority of the people who come to my school
or Latinos, which is not the case. So one of
(03:43):
the challenges many times says when I received phone calls
for parents. They call and they asked me, I want
you to prepare my child to go to kindergarten, but
I don't want you to speak Spanish to them. And
that to me bring me like the challenge to be
able to let the people understand that by legally location
is so relevant. We if we provide this rich tool
(04:06):
to our children, are gonna be able to achieve so
many things. Right if we start talking about what by
legal education does to your brain, then we're gonna be
here for hours talking about it. But also the challenge
that is still right now is for my teachers. The
teachers who come to my school are immigrants, Latino teachers
who love what they do, and many times there are
(04:29):
newly immigrants who have higher degrees from their countries, but
they don't have English yet. So in this case, even
though we are teaching the children in Spanish, we are
missing the opportunity for these teachers to be able to
acquire the English language. So for me, that's a very
strong challenge because I want, and and that's where I'm
(04:50):
advocating a lot lately, to be able to see if
we can some way provide more opportunities and resources for
those teachers to be able to obtain professional development, coaching
and mentoring on their language. You come at the point
of our conversation. Will we remind ourselves the unfortunate introduction
of a pandemic and how it all changed for educators,
(05:13):
for educational facilities. What was your experience, like you tell
me a little bit about how did it affect you? Know?
What you did for me? One of the big impact
when we heard about the pandemic was the lack of
appreciation and that we were not being seen by our
elected officials. I'm gonna tell you this. And here in Maryland,
(05:33):
when the governor tell everybody we're gonna be closing some schools,
child care was not even mentioned. We were not even
part of anything that particularly give me the power to
start doing something. And I wrote my delegate and I
wrote to her and said, look, the governor haven't even
mentioned what we're gonna do. What is going to happen
(05:55):
to our teachers, How are we gonna pay them, How
are we going to be able to survive? What is
going to happen to those plants who need to go work?
And then we need to close or we don't have
to close, so that I think it was the initiation
of what is happening right now with child kid in
the United States. I think that gave us the power
(06:18):
to start saying that we are the backbone of the economy,
that we are the ones who are taking care of
the future leaders of the United States, and we are
not even mentioned. We were not essential, we were not
never at all. And that's when I think, not just me,
but many many of me in the United States start
saying loudly and clear that we needed to have assistant
(06:39):
we needed to have the resources for us to be
able to continue helping our families. But in addition to that,
it was saddened because I needed to close my school.
I was closed for four months before I reopened again
to be able to serve my families. But with that,
I lost my teachers. And I love my teachers because
(07:00):
is a big reason child kill in the United States.
Like like many other care jobs in the United States,
they don't have good wages, These benefits are lacking. So
think about it, in a worldwide crisis that is suffering
and people are dying, my teachers needed to make this
huge decision of do I go back to work, do
(07:23):
I risk my life. I thought that I tried to
pay as best as I can with a little money
that I get, to be honest with you, to pay
my teachers. But I could understand why they people return
because they were not ready to take this risk. And
right now, that's the crisis that we have in the
United States. People don't want to come to work in
child and many other jobs who don't pay you liberal wages.
(07:45):
Right because why for why I'm risking my life. You
are not showing me appreciation, You are not showing me
that my job is violable. I can go on and
on and talk to you for hours about all the
challenges that we have faith and particularly myself. Unfortunately, the
church where I rent give me the news on December
(08:06):
that they will not be able to have me in
that location anymore. That I needed to move or become
a non profit. So less than half of the enrollment
at my center already which I was already financially almost
going to close. I needed to now find a new
place for me to be able to you know, relocate
(08:28):
my article it is and to really to decide should
I relocate or should I just close this forever? To
make this story short, I just you know, relocated. Today,
I have my final inspection, so I closed that chapter
now and now I am going to just reopen the
doors in a new place, trying to be positive and
(08:51):
stay positive to see if I can continue having the
families coming back. But this coved thing is unfortunately something
that it's not going yet and some families are still
not you know, one comfortable. So as you're going into
a possible reopening of your new place, can you tell
me a little bit about how you pivot, Like how
(09:13):
do you create the safety protocols that probably give the
families a confidence that you know the kids are gonna
be safe and the staff as well, right, because you
need the staff to come back to work too, So
what is that looking like for you? We are following
the guidelines and the protocols. Parents are not allowing to
the building all children must wear masks, and that is
(09:33):
when it comes the viaeuty about child kid and when
you are a preschool teacher, you are able to teach
the little ones how to wear a mask. A lot
of the parents were worried, like, no, they're too little,
but not if you put all into your you're happy.
You shouldn't you tell them, hey, we're gonna be superherous.
That's where a mask we had to talk to them
about COVID. Children need to know what is going on.
(09:55):
Too many times some parents they're like, they don't understand,
but they do. They do understand everything. So when you
make things fun and when you tell and you explain
the children, why do we need to wash your hands
so many times? And why do we need to you know,
sing this song for this long to watch the germs away?
So with all of that, we take temperatures every day
and we had to do throughout the day. And teachers too.
(10:16):
Now all my teachers are vaccinated, so that they some
say that we protected a little bit more. I wonder
if you've noticed that the students are changed after being
kept our home for so long. Yeah, yeah, most definitely,
And in particularly it is understandable. You know, when children
comes to any center, at least my center, we do
have a scheduled. Children come and they have learning experience,
(10:39):
They have different activities and we have a routine and
the routine helps them to go throughout the day. And
sometimes at home when parents needed to work, they didn't
have that. So many of them were mayby cived by
a TV or they were just on their phones or
their devices, and when they come back, transitions are more difficult,
(10:59):
and especially because parts are now we're not able to
come into the classrooms anymore. They were just being dropped
at the door. And the social emotional aspect true, some
of them were more like into themselves, some of them
were more emotional, and some of them really didn't understand
what was going on. And that's when it comes the
(11:19):
beauty about early childl education and for other teachers who
really study that child development is so essential in so
many ways, and that is why you know and ourquities.
We created the routine where we always had the routine,
but we created routine particularly to talk about COVID, particularly
talk about emotions, and that is something that in the
United States sometimes we don't see much. When children started
(11:43):
in kindergarten, we just start focusing on what they need
to learn and we forget about the social emotional aspect
of the development and an oartquities and many of my
college centers we do that. We touch base on how
we feel. How do you ill? Are you sad? Are
you angry? Because many times children have these emotions and
(12:05):
they don't understand what it is, so we need to
be able to give them the tools for them to
be able to identify what's going on. And that's why
and our coins we have a little faiths. So even
if they are two years old are not able to
maybe express themselves with language, yet they're gonna be able
to show me on point of me how they're feeling.
And it's okay. We value that. If you are upset
(12:27):
and mad, it's okay to be mad. And why can
we do when we have that, Yeah, we can step
our food, we can go and maybe it's have a
little scream, and those are emotions are valid. In my opinion,
the pandemic had brought that to attention to the mental
health for all, for the families, you know, for my parents,
for my children, for my teachers, for my own family.
(12:49):
I think it's very very important and relevant to take
care of ourselves in that point, How do you personally
take care of your own mental health? Since I love
what I do, on some times I get very passionate
about it. I had a tendency to be honest with you,
to forget about to take the little break for myself.
But I think I have really learned this past year
(13:10):
that I must do this for myself. I think I
had tried hard and to be able to say no
to certain things, not to try to do everything. And
I'm a very artistic person, so I love to paint
and I love to do things. So I found embroidery
that Yes embroidered to this year, have pill be the
opportunity to just release whatever what's going on and do breathing,
(13:36):
exercise and yoga. I love hiking, so I give myself
to do those lid of things. You know, how can
we as a community support what you're doing and what
messages you want to leave for future early childhood educators.
I strongly believe that all of you out there who
are listening to me today can go out right to
(13:57):
your electrical officials and tell them that we need to
have more financial investment and early childhood location is starting
at birth. Parents need to be able to write to
their lecture officials and let them know too that they
need support to be able to pay for child care,
which is very expensive. We also need for you to
advocate for the childcare teachers who are in the field
(14:20):
as well. There are strong, working, loveling people who invest
their lives even though they have, you know, a salary,
they invest their loves to your children. They're taking care
of the most precious thing that you have in your life.
And we need to somewhere another put ourselves together and
(14:41):
work together to let people know that child care in
the United States is a right that we need investment,
and we need to be able to reinforce better salaries
and benefits for the teachers so we can keep those
wonderful teachers who work in the field right m Advocately
(15:01):
for them as much as you can, and you know,
when you see them, tell them that we appreciate you,
that childcare teachers are relevant, and that we value what
you do. Elina is wonderful. Thank you so much. I
appreciate your time today, no welcome. Thank you for having me,
and you are the one who is doing that already.
You are advocating, helping me to have this opportunity to
(15:23):
talk about childcare. Thank you. I admire Carolina so much,
especially her tenacity and fears advocacy for her teachers and children.
I keep thinking back to her point about these teachers
taking care of the most precious thing in your life
as a parent myself. You know that really resonated. Yeah. Absolutely.
(15:46):
She also pointed out how childcare educators are the backbone
of the economy, which reminded me back way back in
the day when we spoke to Denise Frederick's about the
rights for domestic workers. If those that we love most
aren't getting the care that they need, the rest of
the world literally stops, exactly. And I also love hearing
all the creative ways she teaches the little ones, especially
(16:06):
that beautiful story about mask and superheroes and in a way,
we're all heroes when we wear a mask. Absolutely. When
we get back from the break, we'll have our roundtable
conversation with CEO of child Care Aware of America, Dr.
Lennette Fragga and my Chimmy Jewelry Pacheco. Thank you both
(16:31):
for listening. Mr. How are you, I'm doing great? Wilmer,
how are you? I'm doing awesome. I'm so happy to
be doing this episode, specifically because of how personal it
is to me now in many ways. Um, thank you,
Dr Fraga, and I also want to thank a specially
in my life, Amanda Rhyme Smiths Pacheco. She is my
(16:51):
fiances sont to be wife and also the mother of
my beautiful Nicano. She's the superhero of our life. She
is the everything of my existence. So I am very
proud that she can be here to really humanize our
family in this conversation, knowing the personal experience we're being
having with the topic itself and the dilemmas as we
(17:11):
think about the future of Little Ncandom as well. So
that being said, I'd love to start just off the
bad with your reactions, one of your reactions to Carolina's story,
and let's start with you, miss Amanda. Well, first off,
thanks for that very humble introduction. I was reading blushing.
So I loved listening to her story so much, just
(17:32):
because so much of the things that she was saying
is very relevant to what we're going through right now,
and it definitely resonates. I'm just incredibly inspired by her
entire journey, especially because you know, she was faced basically
at a roadblock, and she could go one of two directions.
She could either continue pursuing what she was so passionate
(17:54):
about and what she loved, or she could have just
given up. In those moments you get over that hurdle.
You know, I really always believe that super magical things happen.
So I absolutely love what she's doing. I love that
her focus in her preschool is bilingual, being Mexican American,
and of course you and our family they are fluent
(18:15):
in Spanish. And she talks about other focuses that she,
you know, focuses on in her preschool, for instance, mental
health care and checking in on her students. So there's
just a lot of things that spoke to me, and
I'm just really looking forward to seeing what doctor has
to uh your feedback on the things that spoke to you,
(18:36):
because this is a very relevant conversation to us. And
Nakano isn't in school right now or is in starting preschool,
but these are all conversations and things that we definitely
are going to be thinking about and talking about very soon.
Dr Frogger, what about you? What came up? What are
your reactions? Oh? My gosh, My first reaction is what
an amazing person who has committed her whole being, frankly
(19:02):
to the service of and the support of children and families.
And it was so clear her passion emanates from every
word she says, and that passion is not only transformed
the lives of probably many many children that have been
in her care, but also her point of advocacy really
came through so strongly for me, And unfortunately, what is
(19:25):
point of inspiration is also a point of frustration because
there are so so many Carolina's all across the United
States who feel just as passionately, who are making so
many amazing changes and unfortunately are facing so many similar
(19:45):
barriers that they are experiencing in their own communities um
as they try to make a change. And I think
that is the opportunity that is before us, definitely. I
mean this has been a thread that we've encountered across
many of the reads that we've recorded, which shows it
across so many different industries. Worker leaders like Catarina are
(20:07):
sharing experiences that demonstrate the toll that essential work has
been taking on folks throughout the last couple of years.
But also, as you just said, there's opportunity within the barriers.
One of these barriers for Caterina is having the community
out large understand that bilingual early childhood education it's not
just for Latin or Latino X families, and moving the
(20:28):
needle to highlight the importance of bilingual education. It's become
actually a desirable framework for child care centers and for
non Latin or Latin X kids to grow up bilingual,
and for me that was an option when I was
a kid. Given that the way that bilingual education has
been publicly viewed or even available, it's really changed a
lot in the last couple of decades, I mean, and
(20:49):
even worse. I mean, to complement what you're saying, right,
when I came to America, I had to do ESL
classes English and second language, right. And it's a really
interesting thing because anybody who is in e s L
classes had this perception they were like worse than in
the eighties when you were in the chess club, like
literally worse. Like you're like, if you couldn't really communicate
(21:11):
to say hi, to carry some type of conversation, you
were you were exactly inferior. You were uneducated, you were
some type of you know, not someone to be commuted with.
Um it. It was really the real thing. That's a
hard thing, and I'm glad you offered that as well. Yeah, totally.
It's beautiful that Garina is operating a bilingual child care center,
(21:32):
which it's thriving and providing essential educational services for a
diverse group of kids. I just totally love hearing about
it and what a different generation, because I really think
that young Latinos are growing up with more of an
interest to be Latino than ever before, and their parents
are now falling into a conversation where they're like, less,
you taught them Spanish early. You know. Well, we also
(21:54):
actually know right now from the science that children who
actually do learn multiple languages have an opportunity to problem
solved differently. You're literally thinking and reacting in different languages,
and this science actually shows how these neurons inside your
brain are going off in a different way. So it's
(22:16):
absolutely opposite of sort of the the is m of
the past writer of the present unfortunately around how language
could really be a detriment. It's actually a complete advantage
to be bilingual. And to your point, Mr, I just
love how she has taken that strength and translated it
(22:37):
into a very special place for children to learn and grow.
That's absolutely spot on, Dr Fraga, Thank you for sharing that.
I couldn't agree more that articos is a blessing to
their local community, and to pivot a little bit and
take some time to acknowledge your incredible expertise within this field.
Dr Fraga. The organization where you work is called Childcare
(22:58):
Aware of America. Can you tell us what you're all about? So,
child Careware of America is a national nonprofit organization of
child care resource and referral agencies and other partners all
across the United States. So these are community based nonprofit
organizations that are focused on making information available to parents
(23:20):
and early care and education providers about quality, affordable, accessible care.
How do providers become providers and how are they supported?
And how do parents find and understand quality care? And
a big part of what we do is advocate and
provide opportunities exactly like the inspiring early care and education
(23:41):
provider we just heard. You know, Carolina's voice is a
very strong one that's raised up. And we we do
research as well. We collect a lot of data about
what's happening in the United States around child care to
to make sure that each and every child in the
United States has access to quality care. Wow, what amazing
work here all do doing. Thanks so much for highlighting
(24:02):
a bit of what's going on behind the scenes for
us and for you, Dr Fraga, What in particular drew
you to child care education and advocacy and what makes
you passionate about this work. It's been an interesting road actually,
so i UM. I also am a proud Latina um
as you all were sharing about earlier. And I'm one
(24:24):
of those individuals who did not learn Spanish as a
young child for many many reasons that probably all of
you could reflect on. And so my commitment has always
been around family and children and communities and how do
we honor identity, um in children's identity and their growth.
(24:44):
And so I'm a mom. I'm a mom as well
of two beautiful sons, single parents for much of both
of their childhoods. And I'm also a military child. So
I lived all over the country. I attended about ten
schools growing up and um all over the country and overseas.
And through my personal experience and my professional experience, social
(25:08):
justice and service really is a part of my soul. Um.
Those experiences growing up really did reflect my commitment around
community and around family. Uh And I found my life's
passion and purpose and children and families and community and
I've really been learning from them ever since. And I
(25:29):
can remember my first experiences in college. I'm also the
first person in my family to go to college. My
first experience in college in education was really working with
older children. I was really working with children with behavior
disorders and or other challenges or special needs. And what
(25:51):
I what I really learned through those experiences is there
was so much more happening around setting experiences and service experiences.
There's a whole ecosystem that surrounded children and families, and
there was a real necessity to try and think about
where does all of this start. And that's where I
(26:12):
went into early childhood and the settings where children were.
You know, we thought about young children where our children
they're in childcare and that's often where we can make
connections in communities for families and particularly working families, is
in childcare settings. Thank you for sharing a little bit
about your trajectory and what's brought us all here today.
(26:35):
And because we have two new parents in the room,
I'd be remiss if I don't turn things over to
both of you, Amanda and Wilmer, and ask you, after
listening to guardina story and being here with Dr Fraga,
do either of you have questions about Nicano's childcare or
early education. For Dr Fraga, Oh my gosh, I have
all the questions. I'll do my best It is pretty
(27:00):
interesting the amount of questions that you have becoming a
new parent, and it makes you realize how little you
know about everything that's going on. UM. You know, you
had mentioned about quality care and um making people more
aware of what that consists of. So what does that
(27:21):
consist of? And like what should we be looking for
when we, you know, come to that step of enrolling
her and things like that. And also I'm curious about
even putting her into child care versus preschool, like do
those go hand in hand? And what are the differences
and are there different qualifications I would assume or accreditations
(27:44):
that preschools have that I would imagine that child care doesn't.
How does that? You know? These are such great questions
a Meanda, such great questions, And first I just want
to say off the top, you are not alone. Me included,
by the way, me included. UM. When I had my
two children, I was just as concerned about not having
(28:06):
the answers written on a sheet of paper that could
help to guide me and parenting this little person that
I cared so much about. So in terms of your
question about you know, what is quality what is quality childcare?
My first response to you is the quality actually is
embodied in the early care and education provider. That's where
(28:27):
quality really emanates from at its source. And I think
you heard that in Carolina's passion and compassion and understanding
not only about child development, which she raised in her comments,
but also about her relationship with the other teachers, the
environment that's provided, and her relationship with parents about what
(28:48):
they cared about and what they're concerned about. So when
I think about quality, the first place I go is
how is the teacher? How is the educator with your child?
And and children are learning from birth, There are all
sorts of amazing things happening from birth that really is
nurtured by the adults in their lives, and the partnership
(29:10):
between parents and that educator is where the magic happens.
So the first thing I would say is is the
relationship is where everything happens for very young children, and
that can happen in all kinds of settings. To your
second question about is it preschool is a childcare? Are
they the same things? Um? Is it a center brick
(29:31):
and mortar center or is it a family child care
in someone else's home? Again, that quality is manifested, not
necessarily only in this setting, but really in the relationship
with the educator. So first, of course, we want our
children to be healthy and safe, right, So making sure
that there are health and safety requirements that are met,
in standards that are met to ensure that the health
(29:53):
and safety is absolutely key for any setting that you choose.
But really it's about what are the needs of families
And I think we're getting closer to that question, um,
even now as we're trying to unpack what a new
child care system and early care and learning system could
look like. But as families are and as parents are
trying to select quality care, thinking about what's most important
(30:16):
to you as a parent. I heard a lot in
this conversation about the importance of language and speaking Spanish
and culture and connection. So having conversations with the early
care and education provider about how can you support that
That provider doesn't necessarily have to be bilingual, but how
are they going to encourage what's important to you as
(30:38):
a parent that's going to extend to how it shows
up in quality care with your child. We'll be right
back after this break. Welcome back to Essential Voices. Yeah,
that's great. It's funny because I remember it takes me
back to my Venezuelan days when I was because I
moved back to Venezuela when I was about three years old,
(31:00):
and I was there in terms about fourteen, and I
was failing all my anger's classes. I mean every English
class I took coom in Asuella was straight up f okay.
So so when I look back at like that faithful
day with my dad said like, we're moving back to America,
I was like what Because I never thought in my
life I would have to learn how to speak English,
(31:22):
you know. So that was a really moment at thirteen,
fourteen years sold to figure out like, oh wow, I
now have to learn how to speak a full language.
Just when I thought that I figure out who I am,
and now I'm thrown into a whole different pond, you know.
But you know, I circled back to what Amanda was saying.
You know, it becomes a chicken before the egg because
(31:43):
my experience is not Nicanos, which is my daughter. Uh.
And my experience is also not Amandou's right, because it
also has a very pretty American Latinos story. You know,
I have a pretty immigrant story, you know, and I
think it's a really interesting thing to bring that up,
but it's a part of the conversation because what are
the values that you do borrow from both sides and
(32:06):
how do you move forward with that? You know, I mean,
I think that if she learns how to speak Spanish
before she's learned to speak English, should be the president
of the United States, no doubt about it. To me.
That's like to me, I mean, that's the secret sauce,
that's the secrets for absolutely everything. You have a child
that's about four years old and how to speak English
and Spanish and then decides to take French just for fun,
(32:29):
that's assumed to be, you know, President United States. And
the reason why it's because with those interests come to
wonder of the people around you, the communities, where the influences,
you know, what those what those languages are attached to you.
You also explore the world in a very different way.
But I'm gonna be asking you so more questions, So
I think I'm gonna skip this personal question because I
(32:50):
have more questions on my my list for you. But
Mr Nakano has to rock star parents. I can definitely
say that, and she's in such carrying hands with you
both I'm really glad that we can carve out some
space for you to ask questions with Dr Frogga here
and bring us back to Gararina for a moment. In
her story, Gararlina calls early childcare educators the backbone of
(33:12):
the economy. And Dr Fraga, what's your take on Garlina's
sentiment there? It's true there the workforce behind the workforce
right absent the ability for early care and education providers
to go to work and to be able to provide care.
We really are in dire straits because families aren't able
(33:33):
to go to work. So what we're really seeing is
the lack and insufficient public investment in childcare really leaves
the challenge of employees of the workforce to figure it out,
and oftentimes families are cobbling together solutions that are really
not in service to children. You know. At the center
(33:55):
of this too, we're balancing two things. We're balancing the
need to support families and families ability to work so
that they can support their families. And we're also talking
about a child development setting right and settings that children
can learn and grow and thrive and nourish themselves, nourish
their social emotional development like Carolina was speaking about, and
(34:16):
nourish their physical development, and both things have to be
part of the equation. So at the high cost of
child care, the high burden we place on the early
care and education workforce, the budgets of families, particularly low
income families. At the same time, those working and childcare
are paid so little it really does undermine their ability
(34:39):
to be able to provide high quality care and make
ends meet on their own. Like Carolina spoke to. She
spoke to the fact that she was at a fork
in the road because she was unable to keep her
small business going, which, by the way, many early care
and education providers are women and oftentime women of color,
small business owners, and they are having to close their
(35:01):
doors and that's a real problem um and they can't
make ends meet for their own families. So truly important
for us to keep in mind how we think about
the essential nature of the work of early care and
education providers. Not only supports the economy and the economics
(35:22):
of communities, it also supports families and children ability to
be able to thrive. And the backbone part of it
is we have to make sure we get it right
for those early care and education providers who are trying
to provide that care. Thank you so much. You've definitely
shed light on what Catarina was saying in her story
and contextualizing the childcare provider perspective. And since we have
(35:44):
our two new parents in the room, I want to
turn it back over to you, Amanda and ask sort
of a bigger question. We're obviously still waiting through the
waters of this pandemic, and Nicana was born during the pandemic,
So what's it been like raising Nicano during the stomach
And you know, especially given what you've heard from both
Garina and Dr Fraga today, does anything that we've covered
(36:06):
affect how you're envisioning Nakano's educational future? So raising Nakano
in a pandemic, that question kind of makes both my
mind and my heart like explode because there has been
so many just different emotions during out this entire period.
Of course, the emotions of just uneasiness and like a
(36:30):
little fearful uncertainty, but also like a little bit of
peace at the same time. Like it's just it's so
chaotic because it's a combination. It's just so many different things,
and it's not the same things. It's just all over
the place. Right at first, when she was born, we
were in the pretty thick of the pandemic, and so
(36:52):
we had like that moment where we weren't seeing friends
and family. It was also the peacefulness of that at
the same time, um, because it really allowed us to
have time, which was something that we without the pandemic
wouldn't have had. It allowed you know, womer to be
(37:12):
home and to have this quality time with the families.
So it's been all over the place. UM, I agree.
I think there was. For a lot of families, it
feels like it was very serendibitest time, and then for
a lot of other families it was a moment of chaos.
It was an unfortunate time for a lot of people
to explore certain comfort zones that were ripped beneath them,
(37:37):
like not being able to send their kids to school
and then having the kids to school full time. I
think much of these conversations is it's objective to the
story and the individual, you know. But I really do
believe that the common threat is if a matter and
I would have looked at us like, whoa, I mean,
we don't have this, We don't have that we can't
(37:57):
trouble here, we can't have that, we can have this,
you know. You know, the more you focus on why
we technically don't have and you know, not investing too
the things that we do have, this pandemic could have
been a very dark time for a relationship and new parents,
and at a time where it's not like she was
going to mommy classes with other people. It's not like
she was really reading books or having friends that actually
(38:19):
gave her any sound advice. You know. Yeah, we definitely
relied on each other the most because, like you said,
we didn't really have these classes that we were attending
or anything like that. That actually brings me to a question,
because we are utilizing more time, I would say, to
do these things more on our own. Um, So like
(38:42):
for you, what does that look like in the future
for this generation who is being taught things subjects in
school by us. So let me first say, Amanda, that
you have a degree in loving your child, so that
I think is the most important degree to have. I
have one of those two. You have one of those two,
(39:05):
absolutely those two, and I think that that is one
of the most important things that your child really learns
and grows from is that love and connection with their
parents and the special special gift. I think where you're
all speaking to Amanda too is the anxiety and the
(39:27):
concern that parents of children of any age frankly UM
have experience through the pandemic, which is what kind of
loss did they experience through the pandemic and what does
the transition look like back into school or a care
setting that is different than their experience to the pandemic,
(39:48):
and and that can create a lot of anxiety and
concern for families. And unfortunately, what we've also seen is
anxiety and concern and early childhood mental health needs for
very young children and UM that is often demonstrated through
a lot of other things like families who experience stress,
(40:09):
families who have experienced the loss of a home or
the loss of employment, families who have experienced a loss
of a loved one through COVID. The kinds of traumas
and experiences that could really be challenging for families is
something that uh the loss of an early care and
education provider, you know, the loss of being in a
(40:32):
care setting and then leaving that trusted provider for some
time and then trying to integrate back into that program.
So there are ways though, because we do have the
opportunity through quality care provision where we are focused on
the social emotional development. Again, back to the brilliance of
Carolina and how she shared about how she spoke with
(40:54):
her children about what was happening in the classroom right,
spoke with her children about them meaning making of masks
and handwashing, the meaning making of what it means to
drop off your child in a COVID reality versus dropping
off the child and transitioning that child outside of a
COVID reality and a COVID reality, that parent transition looks
(41:15):
very different and there's maybe separation, anxiety shows up differently, etcetera.
But when you have a magician, a loving magician like
a Carolina, who really understands child development and understands that
child and understands the relationship with a parent, they can
provide the kind of environment that really helps that child
demonstrate resilience and strong social emotional development. Um Similarly, Amanda,
(41:40):
and all of the experiences I'm sure that you're providing
your daughter, there are magic makers, these amazing brain architects
and supporters of children that are going to welcome your child.
I think what we have to raise up is they
need support to and I think that's the really important triangles.
We're talking about children, we're talking about parents, and we're
(42:01):
talking about the early childhood educator, and that triangle of
a relationship and making sure each of those parts gets
the supports they need, whether it's early intervention for the child,
whether it's parents supports in some form or fashion. Let's say,
in the case that I raised earlier housing or some
other kind of support and supports for the early childhood
educator like Carolina mentioned around professional development and training in
(42:25):
that provider's language as a way of expanding their own
professional development. I think that ecosystem of support gets to
your question, and that's why it's so incredibly important for
us to raise up legislation like the Build Back Better
Act that is putting investment and a tremendous amount of
investment in a system that needs it, because that's the
(42:49):
system that will be holding up that triangle. I have
one last question that I can't forget to ask you,
doctor before we wrap this up, that just popped up
in my mind. Actually going back to the bilingual conversation,
just real quick, kearlin. It said something about people calling
her and asking for her services but saying that they
(43:11):
didn't want them to be taught bilingual. And I'm so curious,
why wouldn't they want their children to be bilingual? Because
both you and Karlena, we're stating that there is so
many advantages, so many opportunities, so much more fun that
could be had. Um, so what can we say to
to make them feel the opposite, to be like yes,
(43:33):
like absolutely, this is definitely even more of an advantage
and perk that we could send our child to a
bilingual child care. So I think that what is really
helpful is providing information. So we have decades of science
of what and how children learn in the earliest years
(43:57):
and the fact that you know so how much brain
development happens in the first three years of life, and
layering on that additional science that we're hearing and learning
about how children acquire knowledge and the impacts and implications
of learning multiple language on children's ability to be able
(44:18):
to problem solve. I think that educating is really important.
And you know, families will make independent and individual choices
for sure, for themselves and for their children, And I
think it's really helpful for us to raise up what
we know about how children learn and develop and the
advantages that we see as a result of that kind
(44:39):
of learning. So by providing information, I think that can
go a long way, not only around things like what
bilingual education may promote and how it can be such
a beautiful opportunity for young children, but also all sorts
of other things and how children learn and what quality
looks like, and the idea of the importance of the
(44:59):
relationship up and how education happens from birth. All of
those things coming together, I think could go a hugely
long way for our communities or national community to really
understand how critically important early learning is. And so there's
I think layers of science and information and data that
can be provided for families to really make these choices.
(45:20):
But we have to talk about um early learning first.
Our children don't start learning in kindergarten. Our children start
learning from birth. And it's absolutely past time for us
to put the importance on children learning from birth, and
this is one way we can do that. So briefly,
Dr Bragg, can you tell us a little bit of
how our community can support what you are doing. One
(45:44):
of the most important things for all of your audience
to do is to raise their voice. To raise their voice,
reach out to their elected officials and share about how
important this issue is to them, to their families, to
their children. We're gonna be releasing a new report demanding change,
repairing our child Care System, and it outlines the child
(46:06):
care system and how it has changed since the beginning
of the pandemic, and how many licensed child care providers,
you know, sixteen thousand or so have permanently closed across
the United States. So, you know, raising our voice and
saying that's not okay. We need early care and education.
We need quality early care and education. We need to
(46:26):
make sure that we think about how we support children
and families differently. Reach out to those elected officials and
let them know there are solutions out there and we
need them. Even though I don't have kids, I do
have little pity most who I adore, and I was
definitely taking notes for my family to pass along. After
hearing all of Dr Faraga's experience, I love those moments
(46:49):
when Amanda brought her own questions to the table as well. Yeah,
we got so much out of the conversation. It was
just such a privilege you have to talk to her
not just about the big picture questions, but the everyday
concerns we face as parents. We talk a lot on
this show about what gives us hope, and knowing that
educators like how Dolina and advocates like Dr Fraga are
(47:11):
out there finding for the next generation gives us just
so much hope here here, And not to be too corny,
but knowing that Nicano has such amazing parents just totally
makes my heart swell. Did that hurt? It sounds like
physically it would hurt. I mean in a good way.
Oh okay, Okay, Well, thank you and my appreciate those
(47:34):
words as there's really sweet and we're certainly trying to
figure out day by day. So next week we'll talk
about Essential Workers Sean Troy about his multigenerational work at
Troy's funeral home in Mullins, South Carolina. Well then follow
the conversation with the round table with the executive director
of Faith Matters Network, one of my favorite people to
(47:55):
talk to, Reverend Jen Bailey and reporter, author, actress and
business woman, also one of my sisters for life Essential
Voices with Wilmer Val drama is produced by me M R.
Raquel Alison Shano and Kevin Rotkowski, with production support from
associate producer Lillian Holman. Executive producers Wilmer val Drama, Adam Reynolds,
(48:18):
Leo Clem and Aaron Hilliard. This episode was edited by
m R. Riquel and Sean Tracy and features original music
by Will Risotti. Special thanks to this week's Essential Voice,
Garlina Reus and to our thought leaders Dr. Lynette Fraga
from Childcare Aware of America and Amanda Pacheco. Additional thanks
to meg Biala's Jasmine Smith, Emily Kelly, David Carrier, the
(48:42):
team at Childcare Aware of America, and Daniel Reus. This
is a Clamor and w V Entertainment production in partnership
with I Heart Radio's Michael Dura podcast Network. For more
podcasts from I Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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