Will You Watch the Debate Tonight?

I am very eager to tune in for tonight's debate, although I know I will likely become very frustrated and agitated. As much as I say that I dislike politics, it is necessary to get involved and stay informed if you're going to advocate for children and education reform. 

I have been doing some research and cannot locate anything or any time that Mitt Romney has mentioned early education. In fact when he speaks about education, he often refers to statistics in Finland and how the US should emulate that system. He has also gone on record and said, "Everyone should get as much education as they can afford.”  Most of his other statements about public education validate this philosophy. For example, instead of ensuring that every child has access to quality early childhood education, Mitt Romney’s solution is “private” model. The Finns themselves have learned from this mistake—before becoming number one, fewer than 40 percent of children were enrolled in early childhood education. Now, as the world leader, approximately 95 percent of children have access to early childhood education. Certainly poverty does affect a child’s education, but the key is in ensuring it doesn’t limit it. This is the lesson we should learn from Finland, and it seems to be entirely lost on Mitt Romney. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/what-was-romney-talking-about-at-education-nation/2012/09/27/f65ca47c-091c-11e2-a10c-fa5a255a9258_blog.html  

On the other side, President Barack Obama promises change, and child care centers and preschool programs across the country are in dire need of it. Obama has made it clear throughout his last campaign and throughout his term that he is committed to education—to reforming No Child Left Behind; to rewarding and retaining teachers; to preparing high school students for college; to helping parents and students afford college; and, arguably most importantly, to investing in the education of our young children.

Research has consistently shown that investing in childcare and pre-k programs pays off. “For every $1 we invest in these programs, we get $10 back in reduced welfare rolls, fewer health care costs, and less crime,” Obama said in a 2007 speech in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Obama’s Zero to Five plan is to invest $10 billion a year to support young children and their parents. Here’s what the plan looks like:

• Early Learning Challenge Grants

 These grants will provide states funding to support child care, early education, and other “zero to five” efforts. States will be required to match federal funds and will be given flexibility in how they choose to expand their programs.

• Support for Head Start

 The plan is to quadruple the number of eligible children for Early Head Start, increase Head Start funding, and improve quality for both.

• Universal Pre-School

 Obama’s plan will provide funding and will encourage all states to adopt voluntary, universal pre-school for all.

• Child Care Development Block Grant Program (CCDBG)

 This program provides critical support to low-income families to pay for child care. Obama’s plan will ensure that CCDBG remains adequately funded to account for cost-per-child increases.

• Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit

 Obama’s plan will reform the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit by making it refundable and allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for child care expenses.

• Presidential Early Learning Council

 This initiative will increase collaboration and program coordination across federal, state, and local levels.

I will be paying attention tonight to see if education is mentioned and if so, what the plan is. Before I sign off, I must ask if you are you registered to vote. If so, has any of your information (address, name, etc.) changed since the last election? If you're in CA., follow this link to register and/or update your information: https://rtv.sos.ca.gov/elections/register-to-vote  

If you're not in CA., follow this link: http://www.eac.gov/voter_resources/register_to_vote.aspx 

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MUD KIT

This post is my vow to update and post on the EEAL blog regularly. Not a day goes by that I don't rant about something related to early childhood education and how we need to rally for action. I need to become more organized and put that rant online! If you have read my other posts, you have seen that EEAL likes to get dirty, especially in MUD! We have recently partnered with our local AEYC (Association for the Education of Young Children) affiliate, Beach Cities AEYC and Lakeshore Learning to create a Mud Kit to accompany our Position Statement on Mud. I have uploaded a couple photos and welcome your feedback. Our goal is to distribute these with the position statement to agencies, city council members and ECE stakeholders. Do you have any ideas on other items that we should add to the kit?

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Position Statement on Mud

DRAFT OF A POSITION STATEMENT ON MUD

Revised DRAFT:  Beach Cities Association for the Education of Young Children

Early Education Action League Committee Recommendation: Position Statement

Early Care and Education – The Integration of Mud into the Curriculum

May 9, 2012

Introduction:  The Early Education Action League Committee arose from the concerns of Beach Cities Association for the Education of Young Children (BCAEYC) that critical early childhood experiences were rapidly vanishing from the landscape as programs sought to become increasingly responsive to the often inappropriate demands of policy-makers, parents, the business and technology world, and K-12 educators.  In this new landscape, early childhood experiences with unstructured play, the natural world and the outdoors became less valued.  This reduction in the “currency” of such essential elements as sand, water and mud play, easel painting, exposure to tools, reasonable risk, big body play and more has not been lost upon the children – who have in turn become increasingly enamored with technology, crafts, and adult-directed play options.
The Early Education Action League (EEAL) Committee of BCAEYC has committed itself to serve as an outspoken and assertive advocate for children.

The Position:  Mud is a magnificent medium for exploration that merits inclusion in the early care and education program on a daily basis.  For the purposes of this Position Paper, “Mud” shall be considered to include sand, dirt, clay, cement, and other sensory rich experiences utilizing “naturally” occurring materials in the presence of moisture or water such that children can engage in rich sensory experiences with or without intention or adult contrived learning outcomes.

The History and Human Uses of Mud:  Mud can be justified as a learning material in a number of ways.  Docia Zavitkovsky, one of the great play advocates of our time wrote about mud in her 1996 article, Docia Shares a Story: Developmentally Appropriate Experiences.  Historians, bloggers,and alternative health adherents support the use of Mud.

• Mud has been used since ancient times as a “remedial” agent for health issues.  Today, “Mud Therapy” has been practiced by alternative medicine adherents for muscle relaxation and skin care.  Some researchers have even concluded that exposure to bacteria and viruses through Mud support the development of a healthy immune system and can even “activate the neurons that produce serotonin – a key chemical in many bodily functions…” (Discovery Children’s Centre,  n.d.).
• Mud has been used by children as a dramatic play activity for generations.  Children, imitating their parents, have made “pies”, built “houses”, and created settings for dramatic play.  Mud and clay pre-dated play dough as a medium for creating representations of real and imagined objects.
• Using “earth” or dirt to build homes goes back to prehistory.  In the form of “adobe”, mud has been a choice for building for centuries.  Adobe and mudbrick structures are durable and make up some of the oldest manmade structures in the world (U.S. Department of the Interior/Natural Park Service, n.d.).
• Mud has been used as an art medium in cultures from around the world (Denver Art Museum, n.d.).
• Today Mud Day is celebrated by early care and education colleagues around the world on International Mud Day (World Forum Foundation, n.d.).

Recommendations:  Mud has widespread relevance to young children.  Its value includes both instructional and free-experiential contexts.  Mud has been an important part of the human work and play experience throughout history.  As such, our recommendation is that Mud be an integral and daily component of all early education programs as either a choice during free play and experience, during direct instructional time, or as an intentional medium for exploring social, sensory, scientific, mathematical, literacy, social science, or anthropological/cultural contexts and experiences.

• Mud shall be offered in the form of sand and water play both in indoor and outdoor sensory experiences.
• Mud shall be offered regularly in the form of clay as an option to play dough.
• Mud shall be offered in the form of free-choice experiential forms to children in unstructured outdoor settings.
• Mud shall be included as a construction material, just as blocks and other materials.  Towards this purpose, appropriate tools such as molds, and hand-tools shall be made available.  Additional tools such as an oven or other method of “baking” the Mud or clay shall be considered.
• Books, photos and other literacy supports shall be provided that depict mud in various use for work, play or exploration.
• Parents shall be informed of the value of Mud.
• Teachers shall receive professional development that supports and encourages the inclusion of Mud in the curriculum.

Final Thoughts:
According to Richard Louv, even adults suffer from nature deficit disorder.   As our world changes ever more rapidly in response to technological advances, we grow ever more removed from nature.  Mud is elemental.  Mud has been an important part of human experience throughout our existence.  Children benefit from Mud in myriad ways, from health and biochemistry to sensory integration to social-emotional development to cognitive development.  Mud belongs in early care and education programs.  It belongs in the hands and between the toes and in the sensory table, and the science area.  It belongs in the arts and crafts area, the construction area and the quiet area.
Years ago, in the Advocacy Center at CAEYC’s Annual Conference, a huge block of clay lay at the ready for conference goers to engage with.  Alas, it is apparent that we have lost our sense of wonder.  That marvelous, wonderful block of clay – that piece of Mud – was touched cautiously and rarely.  The fear of getting messy has infiltrated even our profession.
And so it is with passion and urgency that we submit this Position Statement on our ancient friend – Mud.


Sources:
Children’s Discovery Center.  n.d.  The Mud Book
Denver Art Museum.  n.d.  Marvelous Mud: Clay from Around the World, retrieved fromhttp://exhibits.denverartmuseum.org on May 9, 2012
Gill, Tim.  n.d.  Rethinking Childhood.  http://rethinkingchildhood.com
Keeler, R.  2011.  Marvelous mud
Louv, R.  2011.  the Nature Principle
Palmer, Sue.  n.d.  Sue’s Blog.  www.suepalmer.com
U.S. Department of the Interior/Natural Park Service. n.d.  Preservation of Historic Adobe Buildings, retrieved from www.nps.gov on May 9, 2012
World Forum Foundation.  n.d.  Celebrate World Forum International Mud Day, retrieved fromhttp://worldforumfoundation.org on May 9, 2012
Zavitkovsky, D.  1996.  Docia Shares a Story: Developmentally Appropriate Experiences

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Statement of Grievances

EEAL was created by a group of like minded individuals that grew increasingly dissatisfied with NAEYC. Instead of sitting back and complaining, we took action and became involved with a local AEYC affiliate. Despite our best efforts and active participation, we felt powerless as decisions were made that did not seem to take into account the best interests of children and the professionals that care for them. We spent many years "fighting the good fight" and encouraging our collegaues to hang in there. In early 2012 we decided that we were done playing nice and we drafted a formal letter to NAEYC stating our grievances. When we did not hear back from them for several months, EEAL was born. Check out our Statement of Grievances and let me know what you think.

Statement of Grievances

By the Board of the Beach Cities Association for the Education of Young Children (BCAEYC)

April 25, 2012

After much deliberation, the Board of BCAEYC has determined that it is in the best interest of the profession and the members of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for the Board of BCAEYC to publicly state our grievances with NAEYC.

This Statement is made without malice, in the hopes that NAEYC will survey its membership and consider the opinions of the membership in regard to a number of significant matters of concern and appropriately address these concerns.

NAEYC, having failed to this point to appropriately address such matters has compromised the integrity of the association and its members.  The Board of BCAEYC is therefore committed to making these concerns public and is hereby requesting that NAEYC respond in kind.

A Brief History:

NAEYC has a wonderful history of being a professional association that was driven by ECE practitioners and was responsive to the needs and input of the membership.  This value system resulted in an association that once proudly counted more than 100,000 members worldwide.  The association, through no fault of its own, has seen these numbers fall as the Economic Crisis has rippled across the country.  However, we believe that NAEYC has contributed to this loss of support by way of some misguided actions and policies.  NAEYC is not alone in this trend.  Programs and Initiatives across the country, in their efforts to secure funding and political support, have endured “vision drift”.  The Board of BCAEYC has determined that it will not acquiesce to vision drift and will hold both the association leadership and its membership responsible.

In addition, NAEYC has engaged in a number of decisions that indicate its intent to move away from the grass-roots culture of an association driven by the needs and input of its membership in favor of a corporate and institutional culture.  It has made important decisions without adequate consideration of the capacity, needs, and input of the members and member-affiliates.  Such decisions include but are not limited to:

·         Re-affiliation

·         Accreditation

·         Position Statement on Technology and Young Children

Vision Drift:

Like the more commonly discussed “mission drift” in which an agency or association alters its mission in an effort to secure support and funding – NAEYC has suffered “vision drift”.  The young child and the ECE professional were once central to the vision of NAEYC.  Below is NAEYC’s Vision Statement.

Vision Statement

NAEYC's efforts are designed to achieve these ends:

• All children have access to a safe and accessible, high quality early childhood education that includes a developmentally appropriate curriculum; knowledgeable and well-trained program staff and educators; and comprehensive services that support their health, nutrition, and social well-being, in an environment that respects and supports diversity.
• All early childhood professionals are supported as professionals with a career ladder, ongoing professional development opportunities, and compensation that attracts and retains high quality educators.
• All families have access to early childhood education programs that are affordable and of high quality and actively participate in their children's education as respected reciprocal partners.
• All communities, states, and the nation work together to ensure accountable systems of high-quality early childhood education for all children.

The Board of BCAEYC believes strongly that NAEYC has lost sight of this stated vision in a number of ways:

·         Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum:  We believe that the new Position Statement on Technology and Young Children contradicts best practice as suggested by many of NAEYC’s member leaders.  In addition, highly respected entities such as the Academy of American Pediatrics oppose screen time for children under two years of age.  The Board of BCAEYC submitted a letter of opposition to this newly revised position statement during the period in which public feedback was invited.  We have received absolutely no response to our concerns from anyone at NAEYC.  At the same time, we have received a significant amount of feedback from other members and colleagues in support of our opposition.  We have received virtually no feedback requesting that we withdraw our opposition.

·         Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum:  The NAEYC Accreditation All Criteria Document, 2012, consists of 86 pages of measures.  The very volume of these measures has resulted in an oppressive amount of work and reflection that is required of a program.  This labor intensive effort often times effectively acts to reduce the developmentally appropriate practice of a program as it drains the attention and energy of candidate program staff away from the children.  This phenomenon is also seen in State and Federally-funded programs and the membership of NAEYC has long been critical of this unintended consequence.  However, instead of streamlining Accreditation in response to such concerns, NAEYC has redoubled the complication of Accreditation – adding expense and increased time commitments once dedicated to the children.  This notion of adding quality by subtracting resources is driven by those that have lost touch with direct services for children and their families.

·         Supports Diversity:  Criteria 6.A.05a calls for at least 75% of teachers to have a minimum of a baccalaureate degree or equivalent by 2020.  Whitebook, et al, 2006, identified that teacher language and cultural diversity in inversely related to educational attainment.  In other words, it becomes increasingly unlikely that an NAEYC Accredited program can support the linguistic and cultural diversity of the community which it serves.  Whitebook et al, 2006, also discovered that highly qualified teachers were well-represented in private programs – yet this group least reflected the cultural and linguistic demographics of California.  This would seem to indicate that accredited programs are more common to affluent communities than to communities at risk.

·         High Quality:  As indicated above, Accreditation requirements may have the unintended consequence of reducing the cultural and linguistic diversity of a program.  However, the presence of teachers that reflect the language and culture of a community is an indicator of quality (Kagan, S, 2009)

·         Support as professionals with a career ladder…ongoing professional development opportunities…:  NAEYC has, through its insistence that California AEYC, dismantle its highly successful State-Section-Chapter model in favor of a State Affiliate-Local Affiliate model, reduced the opportunities for ongoing professional development.  The Section structure in California was an important step in developing leadership.  Since the Section model was discarded, it has been increasingly difficult to find leaders that are interested in making the leap from a leadership position at the local level to a State leadership role. 

·         Supports Diversity/Support as professionals with a career ladder…ongoing professional development opportunities…:   NAEYC’s decision to charge registration fees to presenters at the National Conference has likewise reduced professional development opportunities for its members.  Where innovative, emerging leaders in ECE once submitted workshop proposals to NAEYC in the hopes of having their conference experience partially “subsidized” by a complementary registration – today’s conferences are dominated by sessions by seasoned and well positioned leaders, those employed by well-funded programs, or those with services or products to sell.   The diversity of the real world ECE delivery system is silenced by this current practice.  The sole criteria for workshop proposals needs to be the content of the workshop – and not the ability of the presenter to afford the trip.

Note:  These are significant compromises to the vision of NAEYC and as such must be examined seriously rather than being dismissed as a matter of nuisance by a renegade Affiliate Board.  The Board of BCAEYC is a high quality, diverse, dedicated group of leaders that represents a cross-section of the ECE delivery system and includes representatives from colleges, family child care, private programs, state-funded programs, consultants, and ECE students.

Customer Service:  As mentioned before, the history of AEYC is that of a membership driven, grass-roots association.  Affiliate leadership was, and is, an act of volunteerism and dedication.   When the National Office fails to provide the necessary and expected quality of support, it strains the nature of the National-Local Affiliate relationship.  BCAEYC has experienced a number of customer service challenges.

·         NAEYC has made repeated requests of our Treasurer to submit the same documents for electronic deposit of monies to our Affiliate account.

·         NAEYC has misplaced paperwork submitted by BCAEYC related to educational awards.

·         NAEYC has failed to respond to our letter in opposition to the Technology and Young Children position statement with any invitation for dialogue.

·         NAEYC has increased the Affiliate share of expenses for insurance, etc, without increasing the quality of its customer service.

·         NAEYC has failed to respond to repeated calls from the field to address the onerous nature of Accreditation with any invitation for true and meaningful dialogue.

These failures contributed directly to BCAEYC Board members making the deliberate decision to decline NAEYC’s recent invitation for a dialogue in Santa Monica.  Given its history, this invitation appeared to be disingenuous. 

BCAEYC has committed its energies this upcoming year to holding NAEYC accountable to its membership.  We will continue to advocate and encourage our colleagues to do the same.  We not only look forward to your response – we expect a well-considered response that invites greater collaboration between the National and the local affiliates.

This day, April 25, 2012, the members of the Board of BCAEYC,

Stacey Smith-Clark

Michelle Moen

Linh Terry

Angela Beck

Gregory Uba

Catherine Scott

Jenn Palma

Jessica Cardenas

Jocelyn Tucker

Lindsey Evans

Carol Minami

Lori Davidson

Serena Sun

Morma  Arambula

Ronnie Silverstone

Sources:

Kagan, Sharon L, 2009, American Early Childhood Education: Preventing or Perpetuating Inequity?

NAEYC, 2012, All Criteria Document

Whitebook, M. et al, 2006, California Early Care and Education Workforce Study, 2006

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Shame on Scholastic!

Shame on Scholastic! As the Director of a Child Development Center and Preschool, I recently booked Scholastic to have a book fair at my Center to promote family literacy. I specifically requested that any commercialized products be excluded, as I am sick and tired of the "subtle" product placement corporations are marketing to our children. According to consumerism and economics expert Juliet Schor (The Overspent American), the average 10-year-old has memorized about 400 brands, the average kindergartner can identify some 300 logos and from as early as age two kids are "bonded to brands." Some may call it brainwashing, others say it's genius; regardless of how you see it, the approach is the same: target young kids directly and consistently, appeal to them and not the adults in their lives and get your product name in their heads from as early an age as possible. Why are their children's preschool picture books based on PG-13 rated movies?  I have emailed Scholastic's representative and completed an online survey expressing my dissatisfaction. I will also no longer be considering Scholastic as a developmentally appropriate purveyor of children's literature. 

  

The Campaign For Commercial Free Childhood has an online petition that educators can sign about this very topic:  http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=1852 I encourage you to sign and take action and let Scholastic know that we want families to have access to buy low-cost, quality books without being influenced by advertising products that have no educational value.

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An Invitation to Outrage

Greetings, fellow free-thinkers,
I am - to borrow from the beautifully understated words of George Jackson - "positively displeased" with what is happening to our profession. Never have I been this ambivalent about the work that I do. Childhood as we once knew it is rapidly vanishing, and the voices of our leadership have been oh so quiet. In our rush to embrace "research-based", "data driven", "accountable" programs for children - we have been absolutely blind to the landslide of unintended consequences that has already arrived at the callous-free feet of our children. Obesity, sedentary lifestyles, diabetes, shortened life expectancies, diminishing creativity, behavioral changes, media addiction and critical thinking deficits are here now. Repetitive motion injuries, other realted s...keletal-muscular problems, vision problems, consumer addiction, language acquisition issues are at the threshold.

I will not be colonized - even by my much loved professional association. I will push back. I will be angry when I must. Every child that wanders a playground bored, every child that falls asleep crying beside hours of homework, every teacher that fills in bubbles on assessments when they should be filling up the spirits of children demands that I speak up.

I don't have anger management issues. I have managed my anger too long. It's time to be outraged.

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EEAL Manifesto

EEAL is your Early Education Action League.

If you are ready to: 

Fly above typical professional development...

Leap beyond the boundaries that define our practice...

Smash preconceptions about who we are and what we do...

Vanquish those that exploit children through marketing...

If you are tired of playing nice...

If you are ready to kick butt and take names 

on behalf of children and childhood...

If Action is your middle name...

Then join our crusade!

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