Well that seems quite odd. Most developed countries have standards for childcare settings, including defining minimums for activity and incident logging.
Finding regulations was difficult, but it seems that Belgium just has lower quality childcare than even the US, according to the UN. https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/where-do-rich-countries-stand-childcare
Color me surprised. I kind of assumed if we had standards that anyone else would have similar or better standards.
The only thing such laws do is make the care taker more of a replaceable robot, imo. In either case, you want someone that cares, and doesn’t see a kid as a long to do list within an app.
No amount of laws can force someone to care. The reverse is often true, in my opinion. “Teach for the test” style.
Yeah, standards for care isn’t “teaching for the test”. You don’t overfocus on “don’t change diapers in the food prep area” or “tell the parents if you use the first aid kit” and somehow end up neglecting care.
I take my kids to a legal daycare. That means I know people who work there and are nearby have been certified in pediatric CPR and first aid within the past year. That they do fire drills. That they have a policy for when sick kids need to go home and when they can come back.
It’s not about a law forcing people to care, it’s about establishing a baseline. If a caregiver I haven’t met swaps in for one I know I don’t have to learn their standards on the spot.
The baseline more than often becomes the goal, that’s my issue. Oh so many people just go through the motions devoid of thinking and intent :) Now they also can go: I followed the flowchart what more do you want
Good news is it sounds like we both got exactly what we want!
I think the difference might be that you’re thinking of standards that say “if you do A and B and C then you’re a good ___”. Happens with prescriptive education standards that are tied tightly with budget.
I’m thinking of standards like “failure to A or B or C, or doing X or Y or Z makes you an unacceptable ___”. It’s what you see in restaurants and hospital hygiene standards. Any restaurant “cleaning to the test” and only going down the food safety list and correcting any issue is both the type that would just be filthy without those standards, and also would end up serving safe food. Same for doctors and hand washing. We would rather all doctors be deeply committed to hygiene, but we have real world data that mandating hygiene minimums and doing things to enforce them has measurable increases in patient well-being. Same for building safety standards and such.
people just go through the motions devoid of thinking and intent :) Now they also can go: I followed the flowchart what more do you want
In a system with the standard, those people are providing better care than they would be without them.
I’ve seen goodhart’s law in effect too often. In practice the latter, “failure to A or B or C, …” always turns into the first, “just do A, B and C”. Devoid of thinking why A, B and C need to happen. The same thinking that would lead people to also do E and F, and realize that sometimes A is not necessary.
I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one ;)
Belgium. There’s no laws whatsoever that mandate notifications. They’ll just tell you if something important happens
Well that seems quite odd. Most developed countries have standards for childcare settings, including defining minimums for activity and incident logging.
Finding regulations was difficult, but it seems that Belgium just has lower quality childcare than even the US, according to the UN. https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/where-do-rich-countries-stand-childcare
Color me surprised. I kind of assumed if we had standards that anyone else would have similar or better standards.
The only thing such laws do is make the care taker more of a replaceable robot, imo. In either case, you want someone that cares, and doesn’t see a kid as a long to do list within an app.
No amount of laws can force someone to care. The reverse is often true, in my opinion. “Teach for the test” style.
Yeah, standards for care isn’t “teaching for the test”. You don’t overfocus on “don’t change diapers in the food prep area” or “tell the parents if you use the first aid kit” and somehow end up neglecting care.
I take my kids to a legal daycare. That means I know people who work there and are nearby have been certified in pediatric CPR and first aid within the past year. That they do fire drills. That they have a policy for when sick kids need to go home and when they can come back.
It’s not about a law forcing people to care, it’s about establishing a baseline. If a caregiver I haven’t met swaps in for one I know I don’t have to learn their standards on the spot.
It’s odd to be opposed to standards.
The baseline more than often becomes the goal, that’s my issue. Oh so many people just go through the motions devoid of thinking and intent :) Now they also can go: I followed the flowchart what more do you want
Good news is it sounds like we both got exactly what we want!
I think the difference might be that you’re thinking of standards that say “if you do A and B and C then you’re a good ___”. Happens with prescriptive education standards that are tied tightly with budget.
I’m thinking of standards like “failure to A or B or C, or doing X or Y or Z makes you an unacceptable ___”. It’s what you see in restaurants and hospital hygiene standards. Any restaurant “cleaning to the test” and only going down the food safety list and correcting any issue is both the type that would just be filthy without those standards, and also would end up serving safe food. Same for doctors and hand washing. We would rather all doctors be deeply committed to hygiene, but we have real world data that mandating hygiene minimums and doing things to enforce them has measurable increases in patient well-being. Same for building safety standards and such.
In a system with the standard, those people are providing better care than they would be without them.
I’ve seen goodhart’s law in effect too often. In practice the latter, “failure to A or B or C, …” always turns into the first, “just do A, B and C”. Devoid of thinking why A, B and C need to happen. The same thinking that would lead people to also do E and F, and realize that sometimes A is not necessary.
I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one ;)