What kinds of jobs are there and where could you work in early child care?

Child care assistants or aides usually have at least a high school education and some experience with young children from baby-sitting, being an older brother or sister, or helping out with their church's nursery school or some other program with little ones. Many go to a community college to take classes in early childhood education and development. Often, assistants and aides also go to parenting skills workshops and seminars.

Preschool teachers today often have a bachelor's degree in teaching or an area of early childhood development or instruction. Some do not have college degrees and have worked themselves up from being an aide or assistant to the teaching role. Teachers spend most of their time with children; however, they also meet with parents and guardians, are in charge of keeping daily and cumulative records on each child, and attend meetings or conferences. Some teachers also wear an administration hat and deal with program planning, curriculum development, and even fund-raising efforts. Early childhood administrators may have a bachelor's degree in teaching or another related field; some may actually have a master's degree in education administration.

Early childhood programs can be found in private homes, at a company or business, at a hospital for long-term patients, in a school, at a church, or many run their own private or publicly held companies. So, you have options to work in many different settings and under quite different expectations and conditions.

Some of Sally's personal history we found elsewhere

Sally was nominated for the honor of Ann Arbor News Citizen of the Year for 1998. The following are excerpts from Don Faber's Faber's World column on her at that time.

Sally serves on the governing boards for the Washtenaw Camp Placement Association—which sends youths from low-income, single-parent families to summer camp; for the SOS Crisis Center; and for the Interfaith Hospitality Network—which organizes local congregations providing short-term housing, food, and transportation for homeless families.

She and her husband Burt have both gone overseas with Volunteers in Mission on church-sponsored work missions in Belize, Mexico, and Russia. "We've gone three times to Russia," says Sally, "working in a Russian Orthodox monastery, in an orphanage, and building houses on a collective farm."

Sally juggled motherhood [she has three grown children] with part-time jobs at the Ann Arbor Recreation Department and as a lunchroom supervisor at an elementary school. For 13 years, she served as teacher-director of a co-op nursery school before becoming interim supervisor of preschool education for Ann Arbor Public Schools.

In 1995, she was honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Albion College. If you're looking for a life philosophy from Sally Lamkin, you might find it in this bit of advice she offers: "God opens doors you shouldn't close until you at least peek in."