My Resignation Letter to Beach CIties AEYC

December 16, 2012

Dear BCAEYC Board, BCAEYC Members, and ECE Colleagues and Friends,

During the past 4 years, my term as BCAEYC President has been both personally and professionally fulfilling. Working alongside phenomenal colleagues and professionals has been incredibly rewarding and I am extremely proud of what we have accomplished. It is with much thought and consideration, that I submit my resignation from BCAEYC and renounce my membership. As many of you know, I have struggled over the past two years or so with many of NAEYC's decisions and revised policy statements. Continuing to serve in this organization implies that I agree with and support their new stands on technology and media involvement for young children and their blatant disregard of developmentally appropriate practices for young children.

I joined NAEYC as a young student just starting out in the field, some 22 years ago. I felt welcomed and felt like a true professional being a part of this leadership organization. I learned about the importance of developmentally appropriate practices and play in the lives of young children. NAEYC helped me develop a voice to advocate for young children and educate families and colleagues about this most important issue. I joined the Board approximately 12 years ago and have served continuously until now. I have presented dozens of workshops at the local, state and national level. I have helped organize multiple workshops, school tours and helped with logistics and various planning committees at state level conferences. Along the way, I have networked and met a variety of amazing people.

I, along with fellow Board Members and colleagues have openly voiced my opposition to NAEYC's Technology Policy. I attended the open session at the NAEYC Annual Conference in 2010 in Anaheim, CA. In a packed room, hundreds of us questioned where this new stance was coming from and why NAEYC had reversed it's previous opinions and was now ignoring the recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics that clearly state, "Television and other entertainment media should be avoided for infants and children under age 2." http://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/Pages/Media-and-Children.aspx.  Attendees were thanked for providing feedback and said that this version "was only a draft" and our feedback would be considered as NAEYC continued working on it. Months later, the position statement was released as is. It made the cover of Young Children and prominently featured Hatch, a software company throughout the journal. http://www.naeyc.org/yc/files/yc/file/201205/McManis_YC0512.pdf Hatch, a corporation, is also now a major sponsor of AEYC conferences.

The BCAEYC Board drafted a list of grievances and demanded a meeting with members of the NAEYC governing board. http://eealeague.blogspot.com/2012/08/statement-of-grievances.html This telephone meeting eventually did occur and we were able to voice our concerns, but still, nothing has changed.

 In 2012, dozens of workshop proposals for the annual NAEYC conference promoting play and limiting or eliminating technology in accordance with American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines were rejected, yet multiple workshops promoting technology use for young children were accepted and highlighted. I learned that others in this field were also shocked and dismayed by NAEYC's practices. ECE professionals from all over the United States started contacting me about BCAEYC's letter of opposition to the NAEYC Technology Statement and our letter of grievances. Several were leaders that I had followed and admired for years. I was amazed that they were contacting ME and thanking BCAEYC for taking a stand. I was invited to sign onto a letter that was sent to NAEYC in July 2012. 

http://eealeague.blogspot.com/2012/12/i-have-been-waiting-and-waiting-to.html. NAEYC responded months later with some generalized statement about their "many workshops on play", yet never addressed why or how a technology workshop for infants is now considered appropriate to them.

NAEYC's values are no longer my values. In my opinion, NAEYC has sold out. I am choosing to no longer support this organization and will continue to actively oppose their position statements that I disagree with and feel are wrong and inappropriate. Many have suggested that I stay put and continue fighting from within. I have struggled with this, but believe that my continued membership and service may be viewed as an implicit endorsement of their agenda. I no longer have any confidence in NAEYC and cannot and will not stand by and support this organization with their biased and unethical decisions.  

I hereby resign as the President of Beach Cities Association for the Education of Young Children and renounce my membership.

Sincerely,

Stacey J. Smith-Clark, MA

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I'm Not the Only One Who's Annoyed

I have been waiting and waiting to share this letter on the EEAL blog. At first, we waited 30, then 60 days to allow the NAEYC Governing Board time to respond. Shortly before the annual NAEYC conference, a brief response stating that NAEYC "still supports play" was issued. Shortly after that a statement was released that NAEYC Executive Director, Dr. Jerlean Daniel was retiring. http://www.naeyc.org/newsroom/pressreleases/special_announcement

My hope is that the next Executive Director will be open to hearing the concerns of colleagues and will reverse it's position on the new NAEYC Technology statement that ignores the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics that clearly state, "Television and other entertainment media should be avoided for infants and children under age 2." http://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/Pages/Media-and-Children.aspx.

Without further adieu, the letter:

Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin 

Defending the Early Years 

119 Meadow Hill Road 

Newburgh, NY 12550 

617.850.5471 

deyproject.org 

geralynbywater@gmail.com 

July 31, 2012 

Governing Board 

National Association for the Education of Young Children 

Gera Jacobs, President 

1313 L Street, NW, Suite 500 

Washington, DC 20005 

Dear NAEYC Board Members: 

We are writing because of our deep concern that proposals for sessions expressing certain viewpoints, which seem to diverge from the mainstream NAEYC views, were rejected for the November 2012 Conference. Some of the rejected sessions were offered by well-known leaders in the field. They include published NAEYC authors, past keynote speakers at NAEYC and state AEYC conferences, and respected researchers. The only reason we can imagine for the rejection of these sessions is that the topics do not align well with NAEYC's current thinking. We are especially concerned about rejected sessions that offered a critical analysis of the role of the Common Core Standards in early education today and/or the role of digital technology in early childhood programs. 

One example that illustrates our concern is that 2 proposals, “Fostering Kindergartners' Logico-Mathematical Thinking: A Better Approach to Mathematics Than That of the Common Core State Standards” and “Hearing Voices: What Teachers Say About the Current State of Early Childhood Education in America” were rejected. On the other hand, “Developmentally Appropriate Practice and Early Learning Standards: Creating Co-existence, Not Resistance” was accepted. 

Another example is the fact that at the conference there will be twenty sessions on the topic of technology and young children, including titles such as “Developmentally Appropriate Technology with Infants and Toddlers.” We wonder why this particular session was accepted when there is no evidence that the use of digital technology with infants and toddlers is beneficial or developmentally appropriate and there is some evidence that screen time may be harmful. Meanwhile, a session looking at the rise of technology and the demise of play—grounded in extensive research—was rejected. Furthermore, a vital concern about screen technologies is that they are often a vehicle for commercial marketing, yet a session exploring the impact of commercialism on children’s creativity was also rejected. 

Over the years, NAEYC has played a valuable role fostering serious conversation and debate on issues in our field. This has allowed a deepening of viewpoints within an atmosphere of respect and intellectual vigor. This approach is also in keeping with NAEYC's Statement of Philosophy and Values, which asserts that its mission is dependent on “valuing and respecting individuals with diverse viewpoints and perspectives who share a commitment to the education and development of young children.” 

We realize that there are many pressures in today's world—financial and political—that can come in conflict with this vital role. Nonetheless, we think it is of great importance for the early childhood movement and for NAEYC's own future that this statement of philosophy and values be in the forefront of all your actions. We would like to support NAEYC's efforts to stay focused on its mission by discussing with members of the Governing Board the need for greater diversity of views and perspectives on issues such as how NAEYC addresses the impact of the Common Core Standards in early education and the role of digital technology in early education. We would like to send a small delegation to the next NAEYC Board meeting to discuss these matters, and we would also welcome a conversation with Executive Director Jerlean Daniel and other senior staff. 

We look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Sincerely, 

Defending the Early Years 

Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin, Director 

Nancy Carlsson-Paige, Senior Advisor 

Diane Levin, Senior Advisor 

Alliance for Childhood 

Joan Almon, Director of Programs 

Linda L. Rhoads, Executive Director 

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood 

Susan Linn, Director 

Josh Golin, Associate Director 

Beach Cities AEYC 

Stacey Smith-Clark, President 

cc: Jerlean Daniel, NAEYC Executive Director 

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