Over the last few years, I have had the pleasure to work in a toddler, preschool, junior kindergarten (half-day program) and grade one classroom as a placement student.  Being in my fourth and final year of Early Childhood Studies, I have come to realize that ECEs are an asset that the school board should be taking advantage of.  

 

        Introducing an ECE into primary classes would be beneficial for all parties: teachers, students and ECE professionals.  The teachers would benefit from having an extra hand in the classroom to help manage behavior and allow students who need it to receive one-on-one attention while doing seat work.  ECE could also help to provide an early childhood perspective on students learning such as developmental and emotional aspects opposed to just the educational aspect.  ECEs can also contribute to planning learning activities and experiences that may be more interactive with their background typically in play-based learning.  Of course ECEs will also benefit on this relationship by having more experience with a wider age-range of students, and of course this would open up more job opportunities within school boards.  These exact reasons are why ECEs are apart of the Full-Day Kindergarten program.  "Early Childhood" 

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        Of course this does have the potential to fail should the ECE and teacher not work well together, but this was a big risk with FDK as well.  However, when the teacher and ECE professional work together, the program has been found to be a great success.  FDK beings together both the educational side of teaching with the emotional and developmental view of the ECE.

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        Early Childhood is the time from birth to eight years old.  "It is a time when children learn the most that they will ever learn.  It is the foundation of all future learning - physical, social, emotional, communicative, and cognitive.  Children embrace learning enthusiastically, creatively and full of joy and vigor" (Crowther, 2005, p. 2).  In this important time we should do everything possible to provide children with the best and most advantageous education we can within schools.

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References:

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Crowther, I. (2005). Introduction to early childhood education: a Canadian perspective. Toronto: Thomson Nelson.