Rockridge Little School Founder Calls For Change To Break The Bias Against Community-Based Preschool

Community-based preschools are a time-honored approach that has deep roots in child development theory. However, despite their long-standing presence, preschool educators face significant challenges in gaining the recognition and respect they deserve. Holly Gold, founder of Rockridge Little School, and advocate for early childhood education, draws from many pedagogies with the premise that children learn by doing, in an environment where children feel inspired. To ensure this age-old approach can continue to shape developing minds, she advocates for a future where these educators have an active role in policy reform.

Holly Gold Founder of Rockridge Little School

The leaders who establish and run community-based preschools are frequently dismissed when it comes to developing policies that affect early childhood education. This can make it difficult for early childhood educators who run preschools to support and gain trust on a policy level. "Mistakenly, many argue that the field of early childhood education lacks its own methodology, and therefore can be replicated easily in a public school classroom with no early childhood education infrastructure" Holly explains.

In fact, early childhood education settings follow well-established pedagogical principles. For instance, the Montessori method, developed by Maria Montessori over a century ago, emphasizes hands-on learning and self-directed activity within a prepared environment. Similarly, the Reggio-Emilia approach, modeled after a community in Italy, emphasizes projected-based learning based on listening to children on a very engaged level. And, Erikson's developmental model is a lens through which every single lesson and interaction is informed.

Despite these sound pedagogical foundations, early childhood educators are often overlooked as valuable resources, while researchers, public school administrators, and politicians are setting policies that are counterproductive to the shared goal of increasing accessibility to early childhood education. This is compounded by the regulatory environment, which can be particularly burdensome. Overregulation, driven by a fear of potential risks, has created a landscape where opening and maintaining preschools is almost impossible.

Regulatory barriers are a significant challenge for those wishing to maintain and create new preschools. Licensing requirements, zoning laws, and safety regulations, while well-intentioned, are often irrelevant to the reality of child safety. These regulations often fail to account for the unique needs and approaches of preschool environment models. For example, the detailed requirements for teacher certifications often don't match the needs of the job. Facility standards are based on worst-case scenarios that don't exist. These misaligned requirements are impossible to meet, especially for community-based preschools that don't have the resources of a large corporation.

Holly Gold, founder of Rockridge Little School, a veteran educator and advocate for early childhood education, recounts the struggles faced by a local nonprofit program. Holly sadly shares, "The amazing program started in the 1980s by a group of passionate parents, thrived for decades, providing invaluable services to low-income families. Over the years the program faced increased regulatory demands, increased licensing reviews, and contract regulations. It became so complex that when the founder of 40 years wanted to retire, finding a replacement who could navigate the waters was almost impossible." 

Historically, many preschools and early childhood education centers have been founded and run by women. These institutions represent not only educational ventures but also significant entrepreneurial achievements. Yet, the regulatory framework often dismisses the expertise of these women, excluding them from decision-making processes and stifling their innovative potential.

Women like Holly Gold and many of her peers are the backbone of early childhood education. The professionals who run early childhood education programs must be invited to engage actively in policy-making processes. We must remember that while parents, community leaders, and sympathetic policymakers, are extremely invested, the experts in providing it are the professionals who run the programs.  By joining in their shared goal of expanding the accessibility of cost-effective preschool, these groups can push for realistic regulatory reforms that recognize and accommodate the unique needs of early childhood education environments. 

Further, these misconceptions about preschool education can be addressed through raising public awareness. These campaigns need to emphasize the benefits of early childhood education in a community-based setting, rather than the myth that it can be simply replicated in a classroom in a public school setting. 

Building strong relationships with the local community can further bolster support for preschool. Community engagement can take many forms, from visiting preschools and having conversations with the administrators, to ensuring policies are developed by professionals who actually work with young children, as opposed to researchers, politicians, or elementary school educators. 

"As we look to the future, the goal should be to create a global network of early childhood educators who can share best practices and support one another in overcoming regulatory and systemic barriers. This collaborative approach ensures that every child has access to early childhood education that respects their individuality and nurtures their potential," states Holly.

The widespread support for early childhood education is strong. By recognizing the need to put early childhood educators (who actually run preschools) at the center of preschool policy decisions, we can create a more accessible early childhood education landscape. This requires a concerted effort to elevate the voices of early childhood educators who have been at the forefront of this movement for centuries.

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