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| Cary Larson-McKay |
Maps to Learning, Roads to Development, Embracing Change
Each and every one of us is a hitch-hiker. Thumbs out. Moving along the road, moment by moment, flagging down those things that we believe will move us forward. Stopping, sometimes by choice, sometimes by chance, or possibly by luck (good or bad). We look around trying to get our bearings, find something that will let us see around the corners.
The decision to take the next step, is critical. NAEYC has asked us to take the next step—to reorganize our functional relationships between NAEYC, CAEYC and the Local Affiliates. How will that look? What will that mean for our members? What do we have to do? CAEYC has been working on just these questions and the answers are becoming more visible and are beginning to feel more attainable.
This moment in time is precisely the time to use our ability to use a developmental lens to set the direction and method of our work. As we gather our forces to engage the journey we recognize that member support, providing professional development for those already teaching, providing training for others, reinforcement for those working directly with children, and care for families is central to the restructure.
Taking a developmental perspective and using a developmental approach when interacting with each other is not (as is sometimes believed) taking away from our ability to learn and change. It is giving us a set of tools that place us in a more holistic frame within which to work. That framework allows us to be with the learners as they change, as they move along life’s road, as they learn. If we are aware of their changes, we can offer more than just a bus stop. We can offer a map. That is exactly what CAEYC is trying to do as we lead the adaptation to the curves in the road, the new organization of our association. You are central to making this work to our advantage.
Dewey (1933) defined a learning environment as being skilled in adapting to the learner’s needs, interests and developmental levels while moving toward desired goals. The simplistic statement that “development is change over time,” holds an essential truth for members of CAEYC. We are in a phase of change. And we are in a time of deep learning and development.
Our outreach to members in concert with the changes required by NAEYC and CAEYC must embrace the dynamics defining the member’s journey. CAEYC must understand and adapt; and the only way that can happen is if you are able to tell me, to tell CAEYC what it is that you need and want from your professional association. The only way we can make the needed strides is if you can help us pay attention to the knowledge and beliefs that you and other members bring to our learning task, to the changes that happen when we develop.
The essential fact is that we must create a value system for CAEYC’s work that is developmental in nature and can support positive change that has the members’ and the field of Early Childhood at its heart. This is a message that I am trying to send to each and every member. You are important to CAEYC, you are essential to the well-being of the children in California.
As we design our goals for CAEYC and the Local Affiliates I expect that each aspect of it is examined for its strong developmental status. Our organization has stopped with us so very briefly before we get back on the bus and continue our journey. We must believe in the effectiveness of this approach, model it for all our members, and support each mode of transportation to move us into the new structure. This is our adventure and our future.
The health of CAEYC and our Local Affiliate Communities are at stake, and the future of CAEYC is at the heart of this proposal. For the sake of the learning and changing organizations, and the members that populate them, we must continue to step forward and take responsibility for leadership to ensure that we create developmentally appropriate learning/teaching environments for ourselves and our association as we move through this unknown future with exciting possibilities right around the corner. We are paused at an intersection. Our goal is that CAEYC will lead all our Local Affiliates to a signpost that reads “this way to health, to happiness, to heart for each AEYC member.”
Contact me with your ideas – I would like to hear from you.
Cary Larson-McKay, CAEYC President