#5SmartReads is a Webby-honored weekly news digest that amplifies underreported news and underrepresented perspectives. My goal is to help you stay informed without being overwhelmed, and to embrace nuance and reflection over picking a side.
A solution to the child care shortage is hiding in plain sight (Vox) “Programs are starving for qualified personnel. Looking only at one half of the population is a mistake.” When we talk about the gender divide in the workforce, we’re often talking about the C-suite, degrees earned, or raising outside capital. It’s almost never in relation to early childhood education, where only 3% of preschool teachers and 6% of childcare workers are men. I think about modern boyhood all the time. All of the factors - emotional regulation, screen time, the role of sports, changes in socialization, social dynamics, big feelings, Minecraft - are pieces that I’m constantly turning over and flipping around, trying to connect them into a cohesive picture that makes some sense. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I didn’t think about this until I came across this article, and that the concerns from these educators (facing their own gender expectations, parental suspicion, stigma) are so rarely addressed that we’ve all but closed off this pipeline. Encouraging more men to enter early childhood education makes logical sense (it immediately expands the available labor pool), but even more from a developmental lens. Not only are kids exposed to different approaches of play and learning, it also normalizes men being nurturers and caregivers. ... Keep reading with a 7-day free trialSubscribe to hitha to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. A subscription gets you:
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things we shouldn’t be scared of
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