Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/the-top-10-priorities-for-center-success/5022475/
In honor of Dave Letterman’s retirement from late night television, a Top 10 for Early Care and Education only seems appropriate. Dave, I hope you approve.
10. Incentivize Everything
Human behavior is learned. As ECE experts, we know that children learn or are conditioned through rewards. We are all born with a DNA structure that might dictate our full intellectual and physical boundaries, but we are not born with math skills, anger, kindness, or aggression. Somewhere in life’s path, we saw or witnessed behavior that in some form or fashion was rewarded and became acquired behavior.
The point here is not to give a lesson on B. F. Skinner, but to simply reinforce the idea that if we can incentivize our staff, parents, and children in the behaviors we know will improve our centers, why would we not make use of the basics of human behavior. If we want parents to pay their tuition in a timely fashion, why would we not reward that behavior with "early bird" rewards, contests, or letters of personal thanks from the director? If we want certain actions performed by our teachers, let's catch them in the act of doing it right and compliment the action. We ...