By Erik Squire

The Early Childhood Education Department began in 1992 when Terry Petnov, along with Maggie Fergard, started the Children’s Center. The model they used for the program is based on the principals of National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

There’s a combination of children that the childcare center serves, some of them are children of SMCC students, some are children of the facility and staff, but about half or more are from the community. They have a very diverse population, they’re licensed, and they serve about 21 children per day.

The Beacon staff checked, and the childcare center is not free for faculty or students. As Terry Petnov points out “childcare is a costly venture, and people who work in childcare need to be paid a worthy wage. Students can use their financial aid, but it is not free to anyone, including myself,” she said with a laugh, “I have my own son here.”
The program was, and still is, intended as a combined program, so the Children’s Center which is a childcare center, doubles as a lab school (a laboratory setting for the academic program). Some of the students do their practical work with children there, and some simply use it as an observation tool. This is possible due to the fact that the Children’s Center has quite the sophisticated observation booth.

That’s just one element. One of the definitions of a lab school is that it must be utilized as a training ground for an interdisciplinary approach. For example, they have Nursing students that use the facility to learn about children, as well as, Fire Science students, Diet Tech students, Horticulture students, and numbers of other students from various programs on campus.

They are the only program in the state that has a Children’s Center as an actually part of the college. Other community colleges’ programs may collaborate with different entities in the community, but SMCC’s is the only one where the teachers for the Children’s Center are also part of our staff and part of our community. Because of this, Terry Petnov believes that the kind of network that exists between the coursework and the quality of the teaching staff makes for a better learning experience for students. As Professor Petnov confidently states: They (Students) learn what’s called best practice, which isn’t perfect, it just means that we work towards a set of standards that meets a higher quality than most programs in America. We’re an accredited program by NAEYC, any childcare facility can be licensed but they don’t necessarily offer the same level of education, curriculum, guidance, technique, or any number of things that we offer.

SMCC students who complete the program have many options available afterward. Form the program they can go directly into the field and become an infant, toddler, preschool, or before-school/afterschool teacher. However, if they want to go on to be a pre-K or kindergarten teacher then they must first complete their bachelor’s degree.
Along that line, SMCC works in collaboration with University ME at Farmington that benefits the graduates from our Early Childhood Education Program. Once students apply to Farmington and upon acceptance, Farmington will drive their full time faculty down here and offer their Early Childhood courses so that students can get a bachelor’s degree without moving to Western Maine.

Special thanks to Terry Petnov, Head of the Education Department, for answering the Beacon’s inquiries.