The Road to Becoming A Daycare Director

Elaine Rexdale

The daycare center director is a like the captain of a ship. If you’ve been on a cruise ship and watched it dock you have observed the skill and precision work it takes to handle that enormous ship. If the ship moves too quickly it ends up on the dock rather than being at the dock. If it moves too slowly the passengers and crew begin to wonder if the captain really knows what he’s doing. If he turns the ship too quickly the shifting weight makes the ship bobble in the water. If he doesn’t turn it at all, he never gets where he’s going. Good daycare directors, like talented captains, make their work appear easy, effortless, and fun. You want to be around them.

When I had my first opportunity to be a director, I was fresh out of the toddler classroom. I was filled with the idea that I had experience, enthusiasm and the ability to fix all the errors I had seen my child care managers make. I was a bit like the teenager recognizing how little her parents knew. These thoughts had been validated because, I reasoned, I’d just undergone a rigorous interviewing process and been selected the victor. I was going to be the new director.

In reality, I had no idea how to travel the long road ahead to becoming a truly effective director. I had no idea of the detours and potholes that lay ahead. I didn’t realize the ambush possibilities that inevitably happened on a beautiful sunny day when all was going well. The only tools I had were my teacher training, enthusiasm and a willingness to try. My only enemy, I was to discover, was myself.

My Plan: Change things quickly and thereby right any perceived wrongs; make sure these corrections were done correctly. I had no understanding that I would not be able to accomplish my goals without the support of the people I was working with and the people I was serving. I had no understanding that the way I was trying to put my very good intentions into practice were the ways I was alienating the very people I needed to help me be successful.

That basic misunderstanding proved to be a big ball and chain my first year. The more I tried to impose my ideas on others the more resistance I met. I was confused. As a teacher I had been very successful. I was loved and adored by families and administrators. I was allowed and encouraged to be creative and push for all those ideals I believed in. I was my own classroom heroine and no one disputed it.

Now, as a director, I was learning the reality of being at the center of powerful forces known as: the board of directors, the parents, the staff, the children, the city and state regulatory agencies, the unions, the newspapers, risk management department, and the community board. I was suddenly not especially loved or adored by anyone. And I was definitely not the heroine of anywhere. I discovered that being a director was far more public than being a classroom teacher. The director had many more opportunities to fail or succeed than the classroom teacher. And these potential failures or successes were on a grander scale. In order to make it as director I was going to have to learn how to interface with these many different groups.

Perhaps it sounds strange, but eventually I realized that I didn’t have to go it alone to prove I was a good leader. I could be strong enough to ask the crew for their advice; to listen to their perspectives, and to jointly forge a plan. I could give others the opportunities I had been given as a teacher (without realizing it) to put forth their invaluable suggestions. I eventually learned that we was much better than me. That epiphany marked a red letter day professionally.

Now I didn’t have to have every answer to every question on the spot and I didn’t have to be perfect. I could allow myself the luxury of reaching out to other colleagues and other resources to see what had worked for them in similar situations. No one thought less of me but rather thought more of me. I was sharing my insight with them as well. I was helping my center become an invaluable part of the child care community. I was beginning to enjoy my work more.

Each year I traveled the director’s road I learned new things. One year it was how to handle the death of a teacher’s husband. Another year it was how to publicly handle a false accusation filed with child protective services. Another year it was diplomatically and legally handling a threat from a parent. Another year it was tackling the upgrading of staff training for members who had not graduated from high school. Each year, often each week or day, brought a new challenge. Learning how to unashamedly reach out for peer mentoring was critical.

Having the courage to try and be wrong, or try and be right, can be a humbling experience. Experience can be like that. Having the courage to let go of the reins of authority while still being able to guide the program is not easy. It’s not easy but it is doable. It’s not easy but it is preferable. It’s not easy but it creates the potential to create really great daycare center programs.

Article source: http://www.articledestination.com

Elaine S. Rexdale has been an early childhood educator and administrator for the past 30 years. She earned her BA in Elementary Education from Augustana College in Rock Island, IL and her MA in Early Childhood Education from Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, NY. She has worked in public and private schools in Illinois, Louisiana, and New York. She is the founder of Rexdale Publishing Company currently located in Boynton Beach, FL.