The transition from what we’ve known as EDUCATE to what I now call EnDUCATE™ has been developed over my 25 years of hands-on involvement in childcare, as the owner of several childcare centers. I have discovered that the children of the past two decades have been so significantly inundated with technology, entertainment and its accompanying distractions, that it has all but made them unable and sometimes unwilling to learn without a sizeable dose of technology and entertainment blended into any presentation of material they digest. We need only turn to our churches, schools and virtually every medium that engages our children to see that this observation is a fact of their life in America.

I’m aware that there may be a number of studies that would contradict my observations, however, I submit that after directly encountering thousands of children (i.e., first hand, not by survey, polls and/or structured research) in the past 25 years, I feel comfortable with my position. I have struggled for years in my efforts to overcome this challenge, and in Feb. 2007 I formed a company dedicated to doing just that—creating a program/curriculum to address this very issue.

In my pursuit of excellence I have dedicated one of my childcare centers to the research and further development of my quest to EnDUCATE™ our most precious resource.

This particular childcare [research] center is a Florida GOLD SEAL, Nationally Accredited APPLE center that already meets the highest of standards for childcare. I will invite a number of academics and industry research professionals to evaluate my EnDUCATE™ approach to childcare and development.

My concerns cover a wide array of areas as it regards childcare and what works—however, one of the most troubling of ALL is the industry’s “one-size-fits-all” approach. The “approach” to dealing with child behavior and the development of social skills has been, for too long, grossly ignored and undervalued, generally for the sake of expediency, i.e., with emphasis on the management of broken and under-funded systems nationally, and the continued use of methods that require major overhauling in order for today’s child to successfully excel in all areas of child development.

Those of us who have toiled in the trenches know what is taking place, yet most of us are without the resources and/or public support to do much about it—certainly not beyond our immediate centers.

More and more studies are starting to confirm that the urgent need for our children [ages 3-5 in particular] to be introduced to a structured academic program is fast loosing support. We’re overtaxing our preschool age children and perhaps some of the children may show some academic achievement, but much to the detriment of the child’s social and emotional development.

Research shows that it is vital for preschool aged children to be afforded the opportunity to develop social and emotional skills without being inundated with academics. Research will also show that when children are limited in their opportunities for social and emotional development and the emphasis has been placed on academics, children tend to be deficient in the areas of social and emotional development, which then leads to academic burn out.

My “FUN” approach to teaching a child is something I have found to work and get results, i.e., the children want more and do in fact learn more. So, before we all throw up our hands and start to debate who’s right and who’s wrong, let’s remember the one thing we can all agree upon — THEY ARE CHILDREN. Precious little children, who rely upon us to make the right decisions in their best interest.