We Are Family – Google “research on family connections and learning” and you will find hundreds of references to the connection between quality early learning and teacher-parent partnerships. It is an obvious and proven fact that good relationships between parents (and families) and teachers make the early education experience more positive and the learning of greater value.

Teachers must make every effort to create positive and continuous connections with the families of the children and to assure that parents are treated as respected members of the community of learners.  

Right From the Start – Making these connections and using them in your work with the children, throughout the learning process includes sharing the Evidence of child development; setting the learning goals and Expectations; creating and maintaining the Environment of Safety physically, emotionally, and educationally; designing the Experiences and determining how they will be Executed; and especially in total involvement in the Evaluation or assessment of each child’s strengths and needs, and planning for further progress makes the work easier, efficient, and excellent.

Teachers must connect with families by:

• Communicating and informing openly on a regular and ongoing basis
• Giving parents open access to classrooms
• Including parents in program-wide decision-making
• Notifying parents in a timely way of problems/situations that may affect their children
• Including parents in all aspects of work with their children including ongoing progress – no surprises!
• Including parents in formal planning during the Evaluation or assessment process
• Including families in individual, classroom, and program projects
• Displaying photos of families and dictated stories about families representing each child
• Keeping parent and family information in complete confidence

So Much Stuff! – I know how difficult it can be to assure these connections are made. But with the ease of technological communication these days, there is little excuse for parents to be uninformed. I am finding these days that there is a fine line between too little and too much communication. Some parents tell me their programs send out so many emails, tweets, newsletters, calendars, reminders, Facebook, Shutterfly, and Instagram notifications, that they get turned off and ignore it.  Know your parent and family “audience”, and measure the need.

Orientation – From the beginning of each term or school year, hold a LIVE and IN PERSON ALL PARENT Orientation Meeting so that parents can meet each other as well as visit classrooms and teachers. Ask them what type of communication they prefer (and how much and how often).

Some directors really hate a mandatory all-parent meeting, but it is a great way to start the year with all forms signed, all info given, and it sometimes makes for a “no excuses” statement later on, when a parent says, “I didn’t know that” or “I never heard that”.  If you have a signed statement about your most important issues – safety, health, nutrition, and discipline – you can show it to a parent when problems with these issues arrive.

 Directors! if you aren’t comfortable speaking to a large group, get another staff person to conduct this meeting. Yes, it’s a lot of trouble and yes, they don’t or can’t all come, but this is why you get paid the big bucks and, as we say when all the reds are gone on popsicle day, “I’m sorry. Life is not always easy, is it?”

Parents in the Room –Parents should have access to their children at all times even if it causes a problem. Very often children (and teachers!!) behave differently when a parent is present. If a particular parent’s presence disrupts the learning process for the community of learners, talk privately with that parent and see if arrangements can be made him/her to view his/her child without the disruption. There are many reasons parents ‘over visit’. Most often the parent “misses” the child or is having separation anxiety and being a little “helicopterish”.  Some parents are very frightened of their child being bullied, sometimes a parent knows his/her child may exhibit some ugly behaviors and wants to make sure he is not hurting others, and sometimes a parent may have had a bad experience in another program and wants to make sure it does not recur.  Most parents want to be there so they can be an integral part of the early ed experience and there is nothing wrong with this at all! Use that Parent Orientation meeting to talk to parents about classroom visits. Redirect parents who hang out too much to see if they will volunteer their time to office work, subbing in another class, or working on some of your teacher ‘busy’work at home.

Take My Word – I’ve had mommies park in the school parking lot for hours watching for their child to come to the playground; grandmas who stayed all day with children helping them eat or use the potty; and parents who were at their offices, but sent their secretaries over to check on children. On the other hand, I have had parents who NEVER set foot in the classroom or on the campus except on enrollment day; daddies who had to be given GPS navigational locations to find the school when their children needed to be picked up; and a mom who said, “This is my fourth kid here, so I’m good with whatever you do – and I don’t need any more stuff on my refrigerator door!” (“stuff’ being my word, not hers). There is a happy medium on parent communication and visitation – find it.

Next Blog: Parent Involvement

 

 

Check Your Space – Look first at your physical environment.  Use non-stereotypical pictures, posters, books, puzzles, dolls, toys and materials that show a variety of cultures as they appear today.  Avoid things like Native Americans in feathered headdresses, Dutch children in wooden shoes, and similar items.  Appropriate materials include artwork and articles from existing cultures like fabrics, wall hangings, picture collages, musical instruments, paintings, post cards, photographs, and current travel posters. 

Make sure there is great variety in materials and equipment. I insist that ALL learning centers have pertinent and relevant books in them. If possible, include some books written/published in countries other than the US. Put maracas, kimbas, bongos, gongs, gourds, rattles, and conch shells in the music center; terrariums, gardens, texture collages, and animal photos in the science center as well as grains, rice, beans, corn, and grits in the water table; multiethnic foods, utensils, and menus in the home or role play center as well as non-specific and non-stereotypical materials for the children to create their own costumes; (not just Disney Princess dresses)and dolls and family figures of all ethnicities and abilities in the home center and put all kinds of homes and environments in the social studies (blocks) center like desert, mountain, tropical, arctic, rural, and urban settings.

Check Your Plans – Look at your experience plans and make sure to use themes and units that offer information that is fact-based and relevant. Avoid units entitled ‘Chinese New Year’ in which you gather chopsticks and fortune cookies as props and bring in coolie hats and kimonos. Avoid celebrating Cinco de Mayo by serving tacos for snack. These are misrepresentations of Asian and Mexican culture that is a conglomeration of stereotypical and non-factual information. It serves no purpose but to confuse the children and encourage stereotyping.  Keep your AE units broad and relevant.

Instead, use a more general unit like, “Places Far Away” in which your kids can see photos of modern children from distant places. Your children can compare games, make and eat food, see and recreate artwork, read stories from chosen countries and even “write” letters to children in the places around the world.  Not every theme in a ME/AE curriculum is based on teaching about “foreign countries”.  The point of is to let the children have a factual picture of the real world around them and to begin to lessen the fear of “difference”. I kind of flip-flopped on my blog order here – check out the concepts and suggested themes in the earlier blog!

Check Yourself – Look at your personal feelings about teaching, sharing, communicating, and creating a classroom environment of peace and safety and look at your methods to ensure they are conducive to accepting and respecting each and every child.

Speaking From My Heart – I had a daddy in my Presbyterian preschool program who was a member of a more fundamental faith. He became angry when books and materials at school depicted families of various ethnicities and compositions different from his own. He wrote letters to my Board demanding a change and insisting that he had chosen our program because of his interpretation of our faith-based philosophy and he did not want his children exposed to “foreign” influences. He left the program. I did not. It is my fondest wish that we, as early educators, stand strong in the faces of those who see authentic education and inclusiveness as a political encroachment rather than a method of assisting each child in our care to reach wholeness through understanding and respect for all.

For some more information and resources on ME, look at:

• The Early Childhood Research Institute on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services identifies, evaluates, and promotes effective and appropriate early intervention practices and preschool practices that are sensitive and respectful to children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. http://clas.uiuc.edu
• The National Association for Bilingual Education is devoted to representing bilingual learners and bilin­gual education professionals. http://www.nabe.org
• The National Association for Multicultural Educa­tion fosters respect for and appreciation of cultural diversity, promotes the development of culturally responsible and responsive curricula, and facilitates the acquisition of the attitudes, skills, and knowledge to function in various cultures. http://www.nameorg.org
• The National Task Force on Early Childhood for Hispanics endeavors to enhance educational achieve­ment and opportunities for children of Hispanic de­scent and to influence education policy decisions that most affect this population. http://www.ecehispanic.org
• The National Black Child Development Institute aims to improve and advance the quality of life for Black children and their families through advocacy and education. http://www.nbcdi.org
• http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200811/BTJRaceClassConversations.pdf
• https://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200511/DermanSparksBTJ1105.pd

Next Blog:  Strong Connections with Families

AGH!! – Some faith-based programs are nervous, even fearful about adding Multicultural Education (ME), or as I call it, Authentic Education (AE) aspects to their curriculum

Here are some FAQ’s that might help dispel that hesitance.

Aren’t preschool children too young for this?  No.  Children begin to see differences in people, objects, textures, etc., before they are two years of age.  Sometimes children fear things that are new to them.  If we begin early enough to show them that “different” doesn’t mean “bad”, we can alleviate the fear and any misconceptions and increase knowledge and encourage feelings of community.

Doesn’t celebrating diversity and pointing out differences encourage prejudice rather than reduce it?  No.  Although there is a normal human fear or hesitancy to immediately accept people who appear different from them, children learn overt prejudice from the reactions, actions, and words of adults who have either ‘inherited’ their feelings from others or have had unfortunate experiences which have engendered their feelings.  Showing differences in a positive light and introducing children to persons, objects, and expressions that differ from their own life experience without judgment creates tolerance and reduces prejudice.

Won’t some parent disapprove of this?  Yes. It may happen that parents who do not have a full understanding of the benefits of ME/AE to their child’s intelligence and social development may be hesitant to accept it.  Teachers need to educate parents, be clear in communicating the need for ME/AE and must be careful to developmentally and openly present FACTS about similarities and differences.

Isn’t this a politically liberal fad in early childhood education that undermines the belief in traditional family values?  No.  ME may have begun in response to the idea that early childhood education was not as inclusive as it should be for minority children, but after many years of study by educators it has been found that an ME/AE aspect added to any already valuable program only strengthens that program and strengthens the cognitive, social, and emotional skills of its children.

Doesn’t it cost a lot in time, effort and money?  No.  If a program is already meeting all other licensing standards, all that needs to be done is to train parents and teachers, use family input in creating appropriate experiences, review materials and classroom displays to assure the creation of a natural and real life view of the world, and possibly purchase, borrow, or create appropriate materials from existing resources.

So. . .

Me Like ME! – To me, your author, ME/AE is just plain right.  It encourages the values of pride, self-respect, respect for others, community, kindness, open-mindedness, empathy, fairness, and peace. As you can see by the last blog, the emphasis in the concepts is not on ethnicity and faith, but on authenticity. I like the children I teach to be prepared for the world as it is. No surprises!

Next Blog: How to Add ME/AE to your Learning Community