Early childhood teachers are suffering from a collective identity crisis. For years, we've been standing in defense, trying to justify our profession by borrowing language and imagery that is not our own. We've been trying to align with K-12 teachers, and while doing so, we have reached outside of our field to use someone else's language, imagery, and practice in attempt to show that we are "real" teachers.
16 Comments
Faith Laboy
5/21/2021 03:54:20 am
Thank you!!
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Kathleen Miller Green
5/21/2021 07:08:39 am
Amen!
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Cherilee
5/24/2021 03:30:34 am
Beautifully articulated!
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kari way
5/26/2021 07:52:58 am
I taught kinder for 3 years and never once did the calendar. I understand child development. There were more authentic ways to teach numbers and patterning. I cringe when I walk into a preschool room with a calendar hanging (plus preschoolers don't understand return sweep either).
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Mariam
5/30/2021 08:18:07 am
What about if we all realized/ learned how the brain develops and how social/ emotional+ gross motor have to be in place, before the brain can absorb more cognitive tasks? That doing so prematurely is not only pouring into a colander, but wasting precious time to properly wire the brain to be able to learn what seems more complex.
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Wendy Fink
5/31/2021 04:53:42 pm
This is a game changer for me! I'm making copies for everyone at my work and reading this at the next meeting
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Francis Wardle
7/8/2022 05:39:37 pm
There are some people in our field who have never accepted this view that ECE can only be legitimized through a K-12 comparison. I was raised in a Froebel kindergarten, and I have throughout my career fought against the calendar activity. I think we need to be clear that the use of the calendar activity is more about a total misunderstanding of how ECE works, than an attempt to legitimize our field. Many politicians and commercial programs use this to give our field credit, but many in the field have ALWAYS understood that this activity made no sense!
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Leann Fuller
7/13/2022 08:11:45 am
Boss loves calendar, I put it up so she can see it. I may do it every now and than. But I'm a play base classroom, my kids always outshine the other classes. Happy, know their stuff and we are always playing together. 😂.
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Virginia
7/10/2022 07:12:20 am
I gave up the calendar and all that about one year ago. Children learn so much more by the way we interact with them. I’ve watched this within my family child care group. Even though the calendar is gone they are still learning through interaction with each other. The kindness that is shared each day when exploring nature and the world they live.
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Cathy Burton
7/10/2022 09:35:21 pm
I just retired after 42 years in the early childhood field and this article puts in such clear terms the struggle early childhood professionals face every single day in our calling to stand up for our most vulnerable population!
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Shar
7/15/2022 07:00:59 pm
I agree some. As a mother of two children on the autism spectrum, calendars, numbers, charts, etc have been essential to their learning since they were very young. They love calendars. It’s a form of reading to understand a calendar. It takes about 30 seconds of my classroom time. I think we need to remember that all children learn differently. My ASD kids are very visual and it’s one of the best ways they learn. Other children I have taught need more hands in activities. I try to provide a broad variety of activities that incorporate all the senses.
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Pam
7/16/2022 07:53:07 pm
Great points! I agree
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Jenny
7/28/2022 06:58:18 am
Thank you.
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10/6/2022 10:22:53 pm
Your piece traditional do good certainly foreign. Suffer affect there.
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Carol Garboden Murray, M.Ed.Archives
July 2022
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