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- NewsEdSurge14 Jul 2026
We Talk About Whole Children. What About Whole Educators?
This article argues that early childhood educators are often overlooked as whole people, despite being the engineers who design and build every learning experience for young children. Using the story of a teacher named Lindsay, it shows how systemic support—such as flexible scheduling and credentialing assistance—enabled her to grow from a novice to a program coordinator. The piece calls for the field to truly see educators as individuals with needs and potential, not just employees.
Original abstract
<p>In 2010, a young woman walked into my office at the childcare center I directed in Arizona. She was nervous. She didn’t have experience in early childhood education. She just needed a job.</p><p>In most centers, that’s where the story would end. Instead, I offered her a working interview — two observational hours in an infant classroom. When she came back into my office, she was beaming. “I love this,” she told me. “Just give me a chance. I’ll learn.”</p><p>Her name is Lindsay. Fifteen years later, she’s still teaching.</p><h4>Seeing the Educator</h4><p>Lindsay’s story isn’t just about passion or perseverance; it’s about support. We made a deliberate choice — over and over again — to see her as a whole person first and an employee second. We figured out scheduling so she could get her Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. We found coverage when she needed practicum hours elsewhere. I wasn’t there for every step of Lindsay’s journey that followed, but she and I have stayed in touch throughout all these years. She earned her associate’s degree and then her bachelor’s degree; she grew from part-time infant teacher to lead teacher to program coordinator.</p><p>Lindsay’s story shows us what happens when an educator is truly seen — something our field has yet to get right. What gets overlooked most in conversations about the quality of early childhood education is that educators are engineers. Every learning opportunity a young child experiences is designed, built and brought to life by a teacher. There is no curriculum three-year-olds activate for themselves. Every moment of discovery, every language-rich exchange and every carefully scaffolded small group experience is built by someone. A teacher looks at a group of children, weighs their individual needs, considers the family’s hopes, aligns these needs and hopes to learning objectives and makes a decision about what to put in front of those kids at that moment. And they do this all day long.</p><p>These edu