You're listening to Voices of Your Village, and today we're going behind the scenes with two powerhouse early childhood educators who are working to shift school culture from the inside out. Kiley Linnell is the assistant director at one of Little Sprouts’ newest schools, and Alexandra Loos oversees systems-wide implementation across 41 programs. Together, we talk about what it really looks like to support teachers in real time—not just with one-off trainings, but with ongoing coaching and real tools that meet them in the moment.

We explore how to help educators regulate their own nervous systems so they can show up for kids with patience and connection, and what happens when programs ac...

 00:00:00    Alyssa

You're listening to Voices of Your Village, this is episode 227. In this episode I get to hang out with the CEO of Wonderschool, Chris Bennett. Chris and I got to dive into how Wonderschool is changing childcare systems. Ya'll know I am not here for a Band-aid on a bullet hole. I love really taking a million steps back and looking at the whole picture, getting that bird's eye view and saying, how do we create systems change? Change that supports Early Childhood educators, that's best for families and for kids. What does this really look like and how do we afford to do it? What does it look like logistically? Wonderschool is a huge piece of that puzzle in doing this wo...

The statistics are staggering. On average, preschool teachers are paid half of what kindergarten teachers are paid. The wage gap is more extreme for educators of color, who make up 40% of the ECE workforce. 20% of the early childhood workforce turns over every year.

As one of the wealthiest nations in the world, how did we get to a place where early childhood educators are so undersupported that they’re leaving the field entirely?

 
Our childcare system began in space where it was primarily stay at home parents. During WWII, more women began to enter the workforce and the childcare landscape began to shift. People came together to help each other, and a lot of family care programs popped up...