Q&A With...Barbara Hamlin

Dr. Barbara Hamlin started the State-Funded Director's Forum in the 1970s and opened the Children's Center in New Milford. Today, the State-Funded Director's Forum still thrives and meets on a regular basis to discuss issues that impact the state-funded early childhood centers.

Q: What interested you in the field of early care and education?

A: “ When I went to Connecticut College, [I met] the teacher who was head of the early childhood department, which was a very stimulating program. Then the war [WWII] happened and I got married and became an Army wife. I left school in the middle of my junior year. My husband died in the war. After he died, I went overseas with the Red Cross. I came back here and met someone, married in 1946 and had four children. They grew up, I went back to Connecticut College 30 years after I left [1970s] and got my BA in early childhood education. I worked at Head Start for three summers in New Milford. When Head Start funding dried up, we still had the families, so we opened the Children's Center.”

Hamlin attended Bank Street in New York City for her Master's in Early Childhood Education after the Children's Center opened and at age 65, went back to school at Nova University in Florida for her Doctorate in Early Education. She would work at the center in New Milford, then fly to Florida every other week. It took three years to complete her degree.

Q: Tell me about the State-Funded Director's Forum. How/why did you get that started?

A: “Because we were all desperate – we all felt we were out on a limb by ourselves. We needed a gathering where we could air our problems. All the directors came – and a lot of the problems were the same. It was a terrific support system. We talked about ways others have solved issues. We just decided it was needed. Anytime people gather and exchange ideas, it's good. You've got a lot of people in that group that are old-timers and that's good. Their wealth of experience is wonderful [for younger people] to learn and not be intimidated by the state.”

Q: What have been some of the accomplishments of the forum?

A: “We developed a camaraderie and strength we couldn't have done individually. We've been a thorn in the side of the state. We went to all the yearly budget hearings with everyone else trying to get funding. I wish we were a bigger thorn – we needed the money. [As for Children's Center,] we were the first accredited center in Connecticut by NAEYC. The center opened in 1971 and a few years later, we were accredited.”

Q: Tell me about the Early Childhood Council you started in New Milford. When and why did it start?

A: “There were other private nursery schools [in town] and we wanted to be part of a community that cared about kids. We tried to cross the bridge between daycare and private nursery school and we found we shared mutual concerns, coming from different angles. We shared our concerns and were advocates for children in the community. [This occurred] a few years after the center opened.”

Q: Looking back at the history of ECE from when you first started...what do you see different now?

A: “Sadly, I think the problems remain. I don't know where the fix can be, but it needs to [involve] business, community and government, with a strong commitment to provide the best for children. Since government wants labor and people have to work, you have to look at what is happening to children. The focus has been getting the mother to work, not on what is best for the children. We go back to the example that it can be done – go back to the people that developed the [day care] centers for Kaiser [Shipyards]. To have lost the model, it's sad. I don't know why they didn't use it as an example after the war was over. The [educator] pay scale is [also] upside down. Pay more at the bottom [for the early years] and less at the top [for higher education].”

NOTE: The day care centers that Hamlin spoke of were from the WWII generation, when the Kaiser Shipyards needed both parents to be able to work and offered excellent child care services, by combining government resources, educational expertise and business. They were able to provide care round-the-clock. The best-educated teachers and the best minds designed the programs and offered the parents and children family visitations by sharing meals together. The partnership unfortunately ended, and the successful program went down the drain.

Q: Do you think state-funded centers are properly funded?

A: “Are you kidding?”

NOTE: In speaking with Kathy Queen, Co-Chair of the Director's Forum, it appears funding shifts approximately every 10 years, whether it's a state-funded salary schedule, fee schedule, minor rate increases or local control over the spending of funds, but it's never enough to fill the hole.

Q: When did you retire?

A: “[I retired] from the Children's Center in 1996. I happily turned it over to Mary Burnham, a fellow advocate. I hired her. We had a terrific beginning, but to keep that interest up and keep something going is sometimes the hardest thing in the world. And Mary has done it.”

Q: How are you spending your retirement? Are you still active in early childhood issues?

A: “I'm busy. I'm still on the board of the CT Junior Republic, I'm taking piano lessons, I'm an avid gardener. But I'm still an advocate for children and still disappointed in the lack of support for early childhood programs.”

Some other information Barbara passed on during her interview:

Hamlin took part in a team of six from Connecticut collecting data for the 1995 “Cost, Quality and Child Outcomes in Child Care Centers” study conducted by the University of Colorado at Denver, University of California at Los Angeles, University of North Carolina and Yale University's Bush Center of Child Development. The study was the first national study conducted on the quality and cost of early care and education to determine how as a nation, we can provide affordable, quality early childhood care and education and at what cost. The study found that while child care varies from state to state, most is mediocre in quality and poor to interfere with the emotional and intellectual development of a child, and there are few economic incentives for centers to improve quality. The report recommends that the nation commit to improving quality and ensure all children and their families have access to good programs.

Hamlin also discussed the dignity of work for a child care worker. Oftentimes, she said, early care is seen as a “stepping stone” to school-based positions and staff turnover is high because of it. “It all comes down to money,” she said. “When I was working, [centers] looked for women who had husbands as breadwinners and had access to health care so they could get paid less [at the child care center]. We know what to do and research verifies the needs and we still do not give proper attention or money to the children of this country.”