Getting Schooled in Early Childhood Family Education

This past week I had a few opportunities to volunteer at some of the early childhood family education (ECFE) programs in Northfield, as well as participating in Fairbault’s Mondays’ in the Park. I believe my participation within these programs and discussing early childhood programming with Professor Gross and Gina have given me a beginning sense of the programming differences and struggles between Northfield and Fairbault.

Lesson 1: ECFE programs should not be uniform across different cities and there should be diverse ECFE programs within a city.

At a glance, it seems as though the ECFE programs in Northfield have been better able to reach parents and children across Northfield, as opposed to the ECFE programs in Fairbault. However, it is important for me to say that I have limited knowledge on the ECFE programs in Fairbault. In house discussions, some of the interns who serve in Fairbault have noted a disconnect between various populations in Fairbault. In talking with Professor Gross, much of Fairbault’s Somali population have not been reached by ECFE programs because it has not been publicized that certain aspects of the ECFE programs can benefit the parents as well as children, such as practicing English or networking.  

Lesson 2: For ECFE programs to be successful, there needs to be a beneficial aspect that parents can gain by attending.

In volunteering at the Baby & Me class at Northfield’s NCRC, one problematic area that Gina and I observed was that the majority of the ECFE programming occurs during the workday. Thus, limiting the accessibility of the programs to parents who work from home, are stay-at-home parents, or are unemployed.  

Lesson 3: You can’t help families if you can’t help them be there.