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| Cary Larson-McKay |
Through the Smoke and Haze
Our work with young children would be considerably more utopian if we could spend our time “educating” our children in the ways and knowledge of the world in the idealistic parameters offered up by leaders and academics. Imagine young children calm and ready to learn. Imagine children with enough sleep every night. Imagine children well fed and healthy. Imagine children trusting enough to be curious and secure enough in their ability to freely explore the world around them. Our jobs would be significantly different than the current reality. In contrast we spend much of our time patching them up, rebuilding their lives and calming their fears.
Instead of relying on our imaginations to create and expand, we resolutely continue to care for and teach the youngest children while fighting against the tide of stress, deprivation and frequent violence that permeates their awareness.
Our reaction to these terrors, and the limitations they cause, demands that we be aware of each child’s level of exposure to risk factors and limitations. However, nothing can substitute for looking, really looking, into the eyes of a child, or listening with our full attention and responding to what we see and hear with our heads and our hearts. Beyond this direct response to a child, those who do not work directly with children end up looking into the pleading panicked faces of those who do. The required response is similar to that with children--to look and listen with our heads and our hearts.
I have great admiration for early childhood professionals. We are an amazing collection of diverse and talented individuals dedicated to the children and their futures.
As our year comes to an end on our Gregorian calendar year, calendars of other traditions are also ending, giving prime opportunities for reflection and renewal. We have much to celebrate and much to mourn. More people are recognizing and supporting the fundamental values of high-quality learning experiences in early childhood. This is manifested in decisions to fund programs, increase research and support teacher education. There is an increased focus on providing developmentally appropriate learning experiences including play-based learning, increased exposure to nature, project focused teaching that foster creative and critical thinking, and building social interaction skills.
In contrast, we have wide-spread and deeply-felt stressors coming at the children, their families and teachers. This includes things like violence-centric media exposure, social and economic inequality, issues of diversity valuing, family stress and a culture of fear.
We must pick our way through the stresses. We must choose the best and most effective ways to interact with the children and their families. We must come together to help each other with the work to be done in spite of enormous obstacles. We must keep our passion and vision of a bright and positive future alive for each child. We must not allow ourselves to be distracted by the highly visible, highly emotional and highly damaging world around us. We must keep our passion and vision of a bright and positive future alive for each child. We must! All of us--you and me.
For the children.
Cary Larson-McKay, PhD