By Chris Craddock
If you don’t like children, don’t apply. But for those who love children and love watching kids’ faces light up when learning takes place, a career in early childhood might be just the perfect fit. And there’s no better place to take early childhood courses than Kilgore College.
The Child Development and Education program is fortunate to have the KC Early Childhood Center which provides a training laboratory for students preparing for a career in the field of early childhood, while providing affordable services to young children and their families.
It provides a nurturing environment and a curriculum that develops the whole child physically, emotionally, socially and cognitively. The ECC has also maintained national accreditation through National Association for the Education of Young Children ( NAEYC) for the past 20 years.
“The students are both traditional and non-traditional college students,” said Virginia Booker, program coordinator. “Usually, if a student enjoyed school, he/she will enjoy being a teacher, but a love of children is only the beginning.”
Booker said that qualified students should be organized, but flexible; patient, but firm; kind and understanding; have a good sense of humor and willing to be a lifelong learner.
It is a myth that a degree in early childhood means graduates are only qualified for jobs in a child care center. In fact, 85 percent of students who take courses in early childhood at KC transfer to four-year universities to continue their studies in teacher preparation to be certified to teach 4-year-olds through sixth grade.
Graduates of the program receive either certificates or a degree that leads them to jobs such as teachers or aides, family day home providers, program directors or owners and caseworkers.
Early childhood professionals are also found in settings such as childcare or Head Start classrooms, public schools, church schools, private schools and in various human service organizations.
For more information about the ECC, please contact Lara Pauley at (903) 988-3793.
A RICH HISTORY
Candice Bowers, the first Child Development/Early Childhood department chair, established the department in 1985. She felt very strongly about college students having the opportunity to observe “exemplary teaching of young children,” so she began her efforts to plan and design the Early Childhood Center. In many respects, she was a visionary as she established the department and the ECC which serves as a lab school for the department.
KC’s Early Childhood Center opened in 1987 under the guidance of Mary Ann Kraemer who was the ECC’s first director from 1987-93. The building that houses the center was built in 1953, originally the home of Roy (Jr.) and Mary Laird. It was sold to KC in 1973, and housed the Fashion Merchandising Department until becoming the ECC in 1987.
The center, staffed with six full-time employees, two part-time employees and two work study students, enrolls approximately 35 students per year, ages 18 months to 5 years old.
