I’d like to talk a bit about the positive and negative nature of some of the philosophies and practices I’m reading about these days in ECE blogs and articles.

Many years ago, I met Fred Rogers – the real, in-the-flesh Mr. Rogers – and asked him if we early educators needed to upgrade our methods or systems because of the great changes in our world since the 1940’s, when most babies and toddlers stayed home and ‘school’ started at kindergarten for 5 year olds.

Mr. Rogers said, “NO!”

He said that although technology, social issues, communication, and knowledge about the brain and learning may have changed, child development has not and will not change in our lifetimes and beyond. Human beings still grow the same way and small children (birth to 8) still learn by ACTIVE EXPERIENCES with nature, manmade objects, and ‘friends’, both adult and young. We may use different words to describe what we do to assist that development and make sure it is healthy, but the bottom line is that we teachers must accept the truth – the evidence – of child development and never waver from the fact that children must be active to learn.

Saying that, I also must say that in ECE, there is really nothing “new” in philosophy, but there are there are some terms that are treated as if they are new, like “Play”, “Loose Parts”, “Reggio-Inspired”, and “Inquiry-Based”.

Play – There is an outstanding push recently (a push back, actually – against the loss of recess in public schools and the very damaging use of standardized tests to determine a child’s worth as a learner) for play-based curricula. Play is not new. Good ECE teachers have ALWAYS used play as the basis of learning. This is what DAP is all about.

Play consists of Movement, Sensory Operations, Manipulation, Construction (and Destruction), Role Play, and Expression (every kind of expression). Play is most purposeful if it is child-chosen and child-directed but the learning gained through play is of the highest quality when there is a human adult available to keep the play safe and to ‘nudge’ it with the right kinds of questions WITHOUT CHANGING THE CHILD’S PLAN FOR PLAY. So – Play? YES! Play without safe nudging? Not always.

Loose Parts – Come on, Teachers. We’ve been collecting what other people call ‘junk’ for 50 years. Learning can happen when your children play with potty paper tubes, masking tape, twigs, leaves, rocks, pots and pans from the kitchen, or any safe, raw, open-ended objects. You do not need to buy cute pre-made gee-gaws from the craft store. So – Loose Parts? Yes! Cutie Pie wooden cutouts expressly made and advertised to be ‘Loose Parts’? No. Legos, Lincoln Logs, Duplo Blocks, Manipulative Math builders and counters are all loose parts.

Reggio-Inspired – The Reggio Emilia Curriculum is one of the most wonderful and developmentally appropriate systems of early learning ever created and I would urge all ECE teachers to study it and use as much of it as is relatable to their learning communities as possible. The idea of the ‘100 Languages of Children’ and the use of the environment  as a teacher in the process are the essence of excellent early learning. Creating Provocations (displays that inspire, invite, and interest the children to participate) is a lovely idea, but many American teachers do not grasp the idea that the provocation must appeal to the CHILDREN and not to the teacher and the followers of Pinterest. So – Reggio? YES! Pinterest-beautiful with fairy lights and lace? – Not unless all your students are 35-year-old ladies.

Inquiry-Based – This is a great way to teach (designing experiences based on the children’s interests and questions). It gives the children ownership of the learning process by assuring that you are offering experiences that are relevant to them. The only difficult part of this system is that some teachers are reluctant to let go of that ownership and some have difficulty seeing the value of the learning gained from it. So – Inquiry-Based? Yes! and Yes! Just look at your program’s educational objectives (I call them Strengths) and see where they match up with the wonderful things your kids are learning from working on projects and solving problems that intrigue THEM!

Just sayin’.