Who Is the American Child Today?
The historical image of the child as white, middle-class, and from a nuclear family with two working parents does not represent the American population at large today (Kids Count, 2011). This is especially important because white female teachers continue to be overrepresented as compared with the changing populations of the classrooms in which they teach (Frankenberg, 2009; Han, West-Olatunji, & Thomas, 2010; Loewus, 2017). Consequently many children come to care or preschool without the opportunity to interact with adults who look like them and perhaps share common experiential knowledge about culture, language, and sociocultural traditions.
Children in Context
Demographic data about young children and their families are continually collected, analyzed, and reported by many different groups, agencies, and individuals for a variety of purposes, including:
- Federal, state, and international funding for programs that support families and children
- The development of goals, standards, and accountability measures for programs, schools, and services
- Continual development and improvement of teacher education programs to best prepare teachers and caregivers to work in the “real world”
Statistical profiles that describe groups by income, ethnicity, religion, family structure, and so on provide early childhood professionals with a clear picture of the characteristics of children and their families. The imaginary class presented in the opening vignette closely parallels the demographic statistics of the nation as a whole. While it is unlikely that a class you teach will mirror this breakdown exactly, it is important for you as a teacher to represent the rich diversity of both the children and families in your class and the country as a whole in respectful ways.
Demographics
Data from the U.S. census, which is taken every ten years, provide comprehensive information about ethnicity, economic status, and other individual and family characteristics of the U.S. population. Table 3.2 offers a snapshot of the statistics that describe children under the age of 18 in America today.
In 2011, the overall percentage of children living with two married parents was 65 percent, a figure that decreased from 85 percent in 1970 but that has been relatively stable since the late 1990s.