In A Bizarro World for Infants and Toddlers and Their Teachers, published in the October 2019 edition of the Bank Street Occasional Paper Series, Dr. Marcy Whitebook envisions a world in which infant-toddler teachers are revered for their knowledge of early child development and their skills in creating an environment where all children thrive and learn.
These educators are paid wages equivalent to teachers of older children. Dr. Whitebook contrasts this idyllic scenario with the stark reality of inequitable pay and low status that exists today for the educators of our youngest children. Dr. Whitebook asserts that a new reality “requires an organized collective voice of early educators” demanding that ECE leaders, fellow citizens, and policymakers face the urgency of our early educator crisis.
