“The biggest misconception people get from the course is that it’s only for girls,” said Child Development teacher, Patricia Green. “Anybody can take this course. It is mostly girls, but it is for both.”

Another little-known fact is that if students want to use the course to begin a childcare career, they can take three years of courses which set them up for a career. Students can earn a SIDS training certificate, CPR certification, and dual credit for Triton College at River grove, IL.

Each of the courses is a year long so that students can learn as much knowledge as possible; so to take all three courses, students should start sophomore year.

Green has had hundreds of students and was able to learn what some of her students have done after the courses and graduation. She said, “I have had a student where she was in the child development courses and later moved on into a job within the field. When I took a class to the PLCC Child Development Center for a field trip, I ran into her. She had just started out with her own class there.”

The sequence of courses is Child Development first year, then continue to the second and third years of Early Childhood I and II.

Once students get interested in the course, they will learn to understand the different stages of childcare from pregnancy through the toddler years, and then how to put that knowledge into use.

Junior Jocelyn Nambo, an Early Childhood student, talked about her experience. She said, “I thought it would be a fun class about babies and taking care of the baby simulator, but in reality it was more than that. It was learning theories and the different stages from pregnancy to toddler years, how to put them in use, identify them. How to handle different situations with different problems, what to expect, what a lot of people don’t know.”

Although Nambo chose the course, she didn’t fully know what was going into the course which changed her perspective. She had favorite projects and difficult projects.

“My favorite project was the real-care baby because it really taught me an idea of how it would be to take care of a real one. I wasn’t prepared for it but it really helped with the future plans I had.”

“But the most challenging one was the pregnancy and toddler meal plan. There’s so much that actually goes into it; and making it something different that they need for their body was a little hard but it was beneficial.”

From her experiences she learned and gave a piece of advice: “I would recommend it even if you don’t think you would do good at it. You learn a lot and get a very good idea; it changes your perspective and gives you many opportunities out there.”

Going back to Green, she talked about the benefits of the course and the opportunities a student could get. She said, “It is very beneficial if you ever want to have a family in the future with kids. Even without wanting kids, if you’re around kids within your family it helps you get a better understanding.”

Having many years of experience, Green has developed a way to introduce each stage to the students. “I try to start from the beginning and have projects within each stage to have students have a better understanding of what each one is like. With all the notes, activities, and projects, students put in practice what they learn.”

“It is a lot that goes into it but we try to give them a view as accurate as possible because nothing really prepares you for when starting a family… is like, but you have an idea of the different stages, what the parents go through and the infants.”

Neela Hill, a senior in Child Development, talked about how she got involved in this opportunity. “I heard about Child Development when choosing my courses. I chose it because I want to go into a profession where I’m working with children. So learning more about it would definitely be beneficial, getting to actually learn more in depth about the development of kids and how they grow.”

All these different perspectives give students a better idea of what the course is like, what they learn and whether it would be worth it. The three year-long courses gives students opportunities they can use at home with young family members or take into the world to pursue a career within the field.