Dodge Nature Center Post IV

When we went around the group and highlighted some conflicts we'd encountered at our sites I couldn't come up with anything at all. While having no real issues should come as a comfort, I felt uneasy, as though there was something I was overlooking. I'm still thinking this through.

Working at Dodge Nature Center has been an amazing experience. The Preschool is highly organized, the director has hired an amazing staff, the student teachers are bright and eager to learn, and the kids have access to SO many learning tools. From nature walks to holding newborn chicks, these kids have it all. The curriculum is well developed, with a good balance of kid-directed free play both indoors and out and structured learning. This place has not ceased to astound me.

Perhaps there in lies my issue - this small group of children have the privilege of attending a highly specialized and exceptional preschool - what about all the other 4-year-olds in the Twin Cities? Families pay a hefty tuition to enroll their 3-5 year olds in Dodge Preschool, this was evident from the first moment I set foot inside. Money, it always seems to come back around to money. So should I feel bad for spending my community engagement hours helping out at a specialty preschool? Would my time be better spent elsewhere? A place where I could perhaps play a role in designing environmental curriculum, or work towards granting low-income kids access to woods, farms and wildlife. That said, what about the kids at Dodge? They're great little people - intelligent, inquisitive, imaginative and hilarious- and it's not their fault that their families happen to be able to afford this school

Kids are kids are kids. Everywhere you go, they're always going to be wild energetic curious little ragamuffins. They will always need our support, our guidance, an education and strong adult role models. As I learned from the Search Institute, it's not just low income youth who encounter deficits in their developmental environments, all children are coming up short in some realm or the other, so perhaps my observations concerning Dodge and the preschoolers are too narrow.