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20 March
NO 1276
Care workers
Few would dispute the fact that the majority of children in group care in the United States are cared for and have their most salient relationships with child and youth workers who are chronically overstressed, undersupported, and grossly undervalued. Those who care for animals in the zoo are usually better paid than those who care for our children and the elderly. Furthermore, it is extremely doubtful that the resultant stream of "burning out" workers passing through a child's life can adequately achieve the primary goals of child care, namely to cultivate the psychological well-being and to promote the all-important interpersonal competencies. While one can argue about how damaging such relationships are, few would argue that they can be positive for the developing children entrusted to our care.
Caring for children is difficult under the best of circumstances and is all but precluded in far too many of our children's programs, which are ill-conceived, irrationally organized, and unresponsive to the needs of developing children and their families. The difficulty of our task was driven home to me by a teenager who shared with me his astute observations that we child care workers typically came in energetic, happy, and enjoying the work, while the kids came in angry, depressed, strung out on drugs and in and out of jail or foster homes, etc. After a few years, the kids left feeling better about themselves and life in general, while the child care workers often left drinking heavily, wrecking their cars, flunking out of school, getting divorces, etc.
The prolonged and intimate relationship prerequisite for positive child care is an inherently threatening and exhausting task, rarely accomplished in programs that are specifically structured to support child care work.
RODERICK DURKIN
Durkin, Roderick. Competency, relevance and empowerment: A case for the restructuring of children's programs. Readings in Child and Youth Care for South African Students. Cape Town. National Association of Child Care Workers.
