It made sense to me when Attorney General Steven Rowe was talking about the lack of quality early childcare education in the state.
     When I came home from my first college in Missouri in 2002 I needed a job, quick. So I looked into availability at local daycare centers.
    One interview and a background check later, I was hired to work with five and six-year-olds. The kids were dropped off at the center after morning kindergarten and stayed until 6 p.m.
     I and two other workers each had 10 kids to watch over. I had absolutely no experience with children and while I tried to come up with educational activities to keep them stimulated, I often turned to coloring sheets and endless trips to the playground to keep them busy.
     That wasn’t exactly fostering healthy brain activity, but it was what I had to work with. I had no special training or a budget to buy materials that would help them learn and any activity planning was done outside of work, when I wasn’t getting paid.
     It was also the lowest paying job I have ever had in Maine. I found it peculiar that I got paid so little because at times I and the other women I was working with felt like we were raising these children.
     They went to school in the morning, they came to us for the biggest chunk of their day, and then went home, probably had dinner and went to bed.
     At this particular facility there seemed to be several troubled children. The kids had a number of behavioral and emotional issues and just seemed so disconnected from their families.
     One boy threatened to be violent with his new baby brother. He was always causing trouble and I hate to say it, but we all rejoiced on days he didn’t come to daycare. However, this is also the boy who out of the blue one day turned to me in all seriousness and said, “sometimes I think you wish you were my mother.” My heart ached.
     I worked with these kids for a school year and often went home disappointed that I couldn’t do more to help them.
     Maybe if we had had the tools to do more we could have  made more of a difference. Maybe if daycare workers got paid more there would be less turnover in the field, which is much better for the kids in the long run.
     I wouldn’t begin to know how to change those things around but I’m convinced it’s worth looking into.