We all know that childcare centres have been gradually opening up and until yesterday, staff were able to interact normally with the children in their care. 
As of today, September 1, 2020, it has magically been mandated that we must wear both a mask and a shield/goggles. This is excessive, considering that a lot of hospital staff aren’t even required this much PPE. 
Imagine being a small child attending daycare for the first time, what is supposed to be a warm, welcoming, nurturing, inclusive environment that fosters a sense of belonging that we all strive to provide, has now been turned into a hospital/clinical/institution like setting. Child need to see our faces in order to gauge/process emotion, and develop important language and social referencing skills, something they are not able to properly access when they can only see a small portion of our faces.

Here is a link to an article that discusses the potential detriment to our children’s emotional and social well being should this be allowed to continue.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7271348/coronavirus-teacher-face-mask-impact-childs-learning/

I think we can all agree that this latest mandate has been put in place as a means to appease, and does nothing to represent the best interests of children or their educators. It goes against the very values we were taught, and in no way reflects what Early Childhood Education should look like! You may not think as an individual, you can do anything about this, but together, we have a voice!  Children don’t deserve to be deprived of language and communication. Please take a moment to read, sign, and share!