DUH! – We know that the foundation for a good early learning program curriculum, is the Evidence of all the common sense theories on basic child development and that of all of the reliable past studies and all of the findings of all the latest research on learning and the human brain. ALL of them say the same thing. (For many experienced practitioners in our field, there is a similar reaction to reading the newest studies on child development and learning. It is a shaking of the head and the shouting of a big fat “DUH!” We’ve been saying, shouting, writing, singing, and preaching this for years.

Here is what we know from the best in the business: Optimum Learning takes place in an Environment of Physical, Emotional, and Educational Safety.

Young children learn best when they are healthy, well fed, and free from physical harm. DUH!

Young children learn best when they have daily realistic affirmation of their self-esteem and when they feel comfortable in a close-knit connected community of learners. DUH!

Young children learn best when they can actively manipulate materials in an environment where there is a professional well-trained staff, an appropriate physical setting, and an organized system of education. DUH!

When I say ‘safety’ I do not mean coddled, protected, and helicoptered over. Brain research also tells us that learning happens during times of challenge and risk and that both overprotectiveness on the teacher’s part and lack of independence on the child’s part inhibit learning. I am talking about creating an environment in which the basic physical, emotional, and educational safety nets are in place.

Don’t Just take My Word for It – Ask the neuroscientists at Cornell and Harvard. Take a look at the best early education curricula like High Scope, Bank Street, and Creative Curriculum. Read the work of Montessori and Malaguzzi.

Look at the best days in your own classrooms. You will find that your children’s brains work best when their bodies are well, their hearts are happy, and their heads and hands are busy with learning experiences that allow them to move; use their senses to explore; manipulate age appropriate “stuff”; construct and build; imagine and imitate through role play; and express themselves through language and the arts.

So? – The questions then, become:

#1. How do we, as teachers who understand and believe in Developmentally Appropriate Practice, (DAP) convince parents, administrators, legislators, well-meaning rich folk (talking to you, Bill Gates) and those making vast amounts of money from the creation, sale, and evaluation of our children’s learning through standardized tests, that the provision of realistic age appropriate SAFETY is what determines the quality of learning for children under eight?

We must stay strong in our beliefs and share them as often as possible with the parents of our students. We must invite them into our classrooms and educate them. We must respect them and include them in all we are doing now and we must support them when they leave us to go to “big school” so that they demand these things for their children from kindergarten through at least second grade:

• physical safety by assuring them protection from harm, opportunities for recess, access to breakfast if they need it, and relaxed lunch experiences
• emotional safety by lessening the pressure of proving their personal worth by their scores on unending inappropriate tests, and worse, being held responsible by their errors on those tests, for the status of their teachers’ jobs and salaries or funding for their schools
• educational safety by guaranteeing that each child is given daily opportunities to learn through purposeful play experiences within an organized and appropriate curricular setting offered by teachers who fully understand and believe in the exclusive use of Developmentally Appropriate Practice

#2. How do we assure that the children in our classrooms are awarded physical, emotional, and educational safety right now? As they say at the end of many of your favorite tv shows, “Coming up next on Survivor, The Bachelor, or Law & Order SVU. . .”

Next Blog: Send ‘Em Home Alive – Providing Physical Safety