RAISING A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO
An article on the Early Childhood Education Program
By Andrea Ykema
“I’ll be with you in a minute,” Gwen Reese says from her desk, and I move back into the hall to wait for her current meeting to end. She’s talking with one of her students about the young lady’s plans for the summer, and I can’t help but eavesdrop. There’s talk of an orphanage in Thailand and possibilities in church ministry – but this particular student is feeling drawn to overseas missions. Gwen thinks with the student, focusing on developing a way to accomplish all of the student’s goals – professional education, spiritual ministry and overseas missions.
Aren’t I here to interview the Director of the Early Childhood Education program? I wonder. The woman inside this office doesn’t sound like some cliché soft-spoken kindergarten teacher; she sounds like a visionary, a logistical thinker, and a motivator. She sounds like she thinks outside of the everyday box…
My first question for Gwen Reese, Director of the ECE program here at Columbia Bible College, is an obvious one. Why offer a government-standardized ECE program at a Bible college? Reese responds carefully, “The entire faculty that teaches the program is Christian, which is unique, but the text books are not Christian; the psychology book is the same psychology book that is used at local Universities…” Reese later explained that CBC’s ECE students have two-times the standardization to live up to; not only does the government provide standards of training for all Basic and Post-Basic Level ECE professionals, but a private institution carries its own additional stipulations regarding conduct and class requirements.
Reese commented that the apparent contradiction of teaching a government-directed program at a Bible college was not only a stretch on the secular side – it was also a mental bridge to be crossed by those within the CBC community. “The question often comes, why would a Bible college offer Early Childhood Education – are you condoning new mothers going to work? That question was addressed a lot. If children are going to be in a daycare anyway, or a preschool, then why not have a Christian teacher? Whether or not the teacher is allowed to pray, or teach a Bible story – more that they are allowed to live a life, or an example. I would say that probably seventy-five percent of our students do work in Christian settings, just because there is so much growth of Christian preschools and daycares. But many of them are working in government centers – centers associated with universities in the province, or not run as Christian centres. But they can work anywhere. The training is approved so they can work wherever. And then there are a percentage of them that go overseas…”
It is this spark of creativity and passion for the immediate community and beyond that gives CBC’s ECE program its flair. Take, for example, the ECE “Christmas party.” The students went to the top floor of a high rise in Abbotsford and sung Christmas carols to the elderly. They later have a Christmas dinner where all the students are encouraged to offer what they can to a fund of money that is sent to an orphanage in Thailand. Or consider ECE’s involvement with Vancouver’s annual Missions Fest. Here CBC’s ECE students operate numerous missions-oriented preschool activities throughout the weekend for the children of the attending parents, simultaneously gaining invaluable work experience.
It is with excitement and anticipation that Gwen Reese sends her students out into the work force, because she know how soundly their well-rounded education has prepared them. “Parents seek out centers with Christian teachers because they like how the teachers respond,” Gwen remarks. “How those students demonstrate what’s living in them, and to have that recognized is probably one of the best honors we can get.”
