Tales of Toys and Toddlers
Marilynn Yates must be, by far, our most distant Association member, living as she does in
California. That distance has not kept her, however, from contributing two memories (below)
from her College days, both involving new initiatives that have remained a successful part of
SLC. There must be other such stories out there, showing the creativity and collaboration that
we remember from the early years. How about it, retirees? Time to share.
Origin of the Toy Lending Library
Toy commercials flood the airwaves during the Christmas season. Children want what they see,
but are often disappointed with the toys if they do receive them. This familiar pattern was in
evidence when Marilynn was teaching in the Early Childhood Education (ECE) program on
Kingston Campus. One result of this annual ritual was unfortunate costs – for parents, places
such as child care centres, and even College ECE students who purchased toys for their
assignments. What was needed was some way of “trying out” toys before they were purchased.
With that in mind, Marilynn mentioned to Sherwin Raichman, head of the Learning Resource
Centre, that two second year ECE classes would be working together to establish a toy lending
library section in the Resource Centre. Sherwin was less than enthused. As Marilynn recalls, he
said, “Over my dead body!! This is an adult College Centre!!!”
Nonetheless, work commenced on the project. Toys were purchased thanks to grants and local
community organizations; students made red toy bags that were numbered; photos were taken
of each toy; and two sets of plastic-encased pages were prepared for each toy, showing the
photo, age range, and suggested use of the toy – one for the Learning Resource Centre and the
other for the person checking out the toy.
A date was set. Students came into the Centre with toys, bags, binders, buckets (they would
faithfully washed the toys every week), detergent, disinfectant, stacks of towels (for drying the
toys), and numbered bins for storage. Toys would be added or replaced on a regular basis. And
guess what? Sherwin was there when the students arrived that first day. They gave an excellent
presentation and he agreed to do it! Everyone cheered and was thrilled including the wonderful
front desk staff. The response from the community was reflected in many letters and phone
calls of appreciation.
Marilynn added that Toy Lending Libraries became an international organization (see
http://www.itla-toylibraries.org/pages/home/) and that she gave a paper about SLC’s toy
library at one of the international conferences. I was pleased to inform Marilynn that the SLC
toy library is still in operation.
Origins of the ECE Correspondence Courses
In the late 1970s, Marilynn had an eventful chat with SLC employee Pauline Saulnier, who
wanted to know what could be done for home child care providers. She pointed out that they
couldn’t bring five infants or toddlers to day time classes and they would be far too tired to
attend night classes.
As she pondered Pauline’s question, Marilynn wondered if it would be possible to compile
pages of class information that could be mailed out each week, with an accompanying
assignment, to allow students to complete courses that way. She also thought of all the items
available for free from the Ontario Government, including excellent children’s booklets and
materials about child care. Perhaps a few of these items could be sent out each week, along
with class notes and an assignment. George McMillan, whose responsibilities included the mail
room, was contacted and was willing to give the weekly mailings a try.
Marilynn wrote the introductory material for the Home Child Care Certificate in 1978 and she
and Pauline tested it out in the regular classroom. As the new materials were developed, they
were fine-tuned with the help of the day students. Colleagues at other colleges watched with
skepticism, maintaining that students needed to come to class. But the correspondence course
was very well received – across Canada, and then internationally to the U.S., Europe, and Africa.
By the following year, colleagues at a provincial conference were asking Marilynn if they could
use this course too. Gradually the entire Home Child Care Certificate was made available
through correspondence and students could register at any time and not have to adhere to
beginning of semester dates.
With the success of this Certificate program, Ontario’s Community and Social Service Ministry
provided large grants (some for $250,000) to SLC to develop correspondence programs for the
Home Day Care Certificate, School Age Child Care Certificate, Infant and Toddler Care
Certificate, and the ECE Diploma Program. These programs drew hundreds of students from
across Canada and many other countries. These correspondence courses (now called on-line
courses) can still be found at SLC at http://www.stlawrencecollege.ca/programs-andcourses/oce/early-childhood-education/.