If you go to Mundelein then you’ve probably seen people walking around with fake babies for their childcare and development class. You’ve also probably heard about how annoying they are for the people taking care of them but not all high schoolers have to deal with these fake babies.
Students at many local schools including Libertyville, Stevenson, and Vernon Hills have a different way of going about their childcare and development class, preschool.
Rather than having a class that runs like every other class through notes and tests, schools like Libertyville and Stevenson have a different way of teaching their students about child development. They offer a preschool program for real young children.
This offers experience with real kids which is a harsh contrast from what Mundelein offers. If you know anything about the class here at MHS you probably know about the fake babies that all students are required to take home and take care of for a weekend. These students do get experience with a child albeit a fake one but there are a lot of consequences that come with the babies.
The fake babies are known for their ability to cry at any hour of the day. Students enrolled in the class have just five minutes to figure out what the baby wants and take care of it before points are knocked off their grades. The issue with this lies in the fact that sometimes these babies will cry throughout the entire night which takes away from the real, living, student’s sleep.
Another issue presented with these babies is that students only have them for around two days before handing them back to their teacher. That doesn’t really give a lot of time to learn how to care for the child. This issue could be solved by having a preschool instead.
Stevenson student Emily Shan reflected on why seeing the kids almost everyday is beneficial saying, “ Real kids act differently all the time, video’s only show a part of their day and the children react differently to each student who is trying to teach them. You also get to interact with the children face to face and learn more about them.”
Offering a preschool for the childcare and development students to help with has many potential benefits.
There are many advantages to offering preschool over the current way Mundelein’s childcare and development class runs. First, teachers and parents in the community can sign their young children up to be in that preschool class which takes a weight off trying to figure out where to put their kids during the day while also allowing students to learn about how a child’s mind functions.
Local resident Emily Skinner put her daughter in the Libertyville preschool program last semester and reflected on it saying, “The convenience can’t be beat. Personally, living in Mundelein, it would have been even better to have this option at Mundelein High School. My daughter will eventually go to MHS so getting that early exposure and involvement in her own community would have been nice.”
Second, students wouldn’t have to lose any sleep. Teachers and administrators at Mundelein are always talking about how important it is to get at least seven hours of sleep every single night. These fake babies don’t allow for that to happen. The babies take away from the student’s sleep because they cry so much. The students taking care of the babies always, without fail, show up after their weekend with the baby with bags under their eyes and feeling drained.
Third, students would get more hands-on experience. Offering preschool a couple of days a week it would allow students to get more experience. With the current curriculum, the students only get two days of hands-on experience. Having real kids in the classroom would offer far more opportunities and experiences for them. They could see how real children grow and learn and further understand how their brains work.
The official website for the Vernon Hills preschool program, the “Cougar Cubs” calls the class, “A truly excellent experience for both our high school students and our preschool students.”
Of course there are disadvantages that are present in other programs like the one proposed. Skinner said,“My only wish was that the program ran all school year and not just for the first semester.”
All in all, a change for Mundelein’s childcare and development class could offer many benefits and positive opportunities for both the local children and the high school students.
