MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. — While our generation finds items like slate tablets or the abacus to be teaching tools of the past, the next generation may start to find our chalk boards and audiotapes primitive.
The Child Development Center aboard Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow held an open house Jan. 24, to all employees of the base to showcase many programs the CDC has to offer.
The event proved to be a night filled with valuable information given to base employees, families and friends who attended the open house.
The CDC is open to all active-duty personnel, Department of Defense civilian employees, and DoD contractors who have children between the ages of six weeks to five years. The purpose of the open house was to highlight its incorporation of technology to the children’s curriculum and answer any questions the guests had about the CDC.
“We wanted to let the parents of the kids here know what their kids were doing, how they were learning, and what tools they were using to learn,” explained Carey Carr, director of the CDC.
“We also used it to inform them of our accreditation through NAEYC [National Association for the Education of Young Children],” she added.
NAEYC is the world’s largest organization working for children’s education. The program was founded in 1926 and has more than eighty thousand members.
“DoD policy states we need to have our center accredited through NAEYC and we let the guests here tonight know this,” Carr said.
“It’s good for them to know what our standards are and where they come from,” she added.
Some of the parents in attendance were impressed with the CDC’s focus for high standards.
“It was good to learn about the standards they have to meet being a part of NAEYC,” said Jessica Cochran, a mother of one of the children at the CDC. “I’m glad my kid is at a place that has to meet higher standards than others.”
During the open house, employees of the CDC explained to their guests the importance the role of using new pieces of technology with their classes played in the children’s educational development. Taylor Cardoza, a program assistant with the CDC, told the attendees about some of the capabilities their equipment holds.
Cardoza described one piece of technology they’ve recently began using; the smart board. Cardoza showed the parents how the board works as a dry-erase board but doubles as a large and interactive computer screen by allowing the children to actively use it while the adults observed.
The incorporation of technology not available to the parents during their time in grade school left guests impressed.
“I really like the idea of them using the smart boards and computers for class,” said David Cochran, a heavy mobile equipment mechanic at Maintenance Center Barstow aboard the base.
“It keeps things up-to-date with what the kids are being taught and it shows new ways for the kids to learn while having fun,” he said.
The open house left a lasting impression on its guests. Those parents with children already enrolled in the CDC programs left having no doubt their kids were in good hands.
It looks like a great program for the kids to get ready for kindergarten,” Mr. Cochran said. He explained that he has nieces and nephews at the CDC as well, and all his friends with children there have said nothing but good things about it.
“It’s good to know how well things are going there,” he concluded.