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Aug 2003 Through the Eyes of a Child |
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This is a transcript of the keynote presentation delivered by Deb Curtis and Margie Carter's to the ECA biennale national conference hosted by ECA Tasmania in July 2003.
We bring you greetings from the northwest coast of the United States where we live and work. And we've also brought you some messages from the children in Deb's early childhood program where she works full time as a child care teacher, having left her college teaching to get to the heart of this work.
As we've thought about what we could bring to our work this month in Australia, not knowing a great deal about your particular contexts, it seemed what we might share and enjoy discussing together is how to study and understand the world from a child's point of view. The early care and education profession in the U.S. has been developing a body of research, resources and professional standards with influences from around the world, including your fine country. With all the variations, new educational developments and thrusts, what piques our interest and engages our minds the most is trying to preserve the time of life called childhood and try to uses the eyes and ears of a child to guide our thinking and practice.
When we were in graduate school together at Pacific Oaks College we studied the human life cycle from many perspectives and were particular drawn to the medicine wheel of the Sioux culture, one of our first nation people who live in the western part of our country. The Sioux tradition represents the life cycle in a circle, different than the linear development set of stages developed by developmental theorist Erik Erikson. Their belief suggests the idea that each stage of life has a valuable perspective to offer, and that wherever you are on the life cycle wheel, you have much to learn from the other stations on the wheel. This notion resonated deeply with us because our own experience working in the early childhood field for the last few decades has been profoundly enriched by how much we have learned children.
In recent years we have been particularly inspired by the educators of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy who challenge us to consider all the ways we can honor children's perspectives and make them visible. They even had the children develop a guide to their city, subsequently published as Reggio Tutta, a remarkable window into how children experience their town.
Images of Children and Childhood
When we value children and their perspectives in ways such as this, everything shifts. We are challenged to re-examine the cultural messages and ideas that influence how we see children, the role they play in our lives, and specifically in our communities. As we look at the images in the U.S., we are struck by how limited and distorted they portray children's lives and the experience of childhood. As we show you these images, consider how children are viewed here in your country.
In the U.S. children are typically portrayed as cute, especially when they are unable to take care of themselves and things around them in any basic ways. When you see children with food all over their faces, you may think of them as messy, irritating, or perhaps laughable. These images may indeed make us laugh, but is that because of our delight in their experience, or because we find them objects for our entertainment? This is an important distinction for us to recognize in ourselves.
Are children in Australia often seen as vulnerable or needy? In the U.S., child advocates usually raise the banner of the needs of children. Our colleagues in Reggio use, instead, the notion of the rights of children, a phrase many other countries give lip service to, especially with the U.N. declaration on children's rights. Yes, children have needs, but if we think more in terms of their rights and what they deserve, we get a different image of them. Our, practice shifts from trying to just protect them to trying to provide them with relationships, experiences, and an education that are full of joy, wonder, and intellectual stimulation.
Sometimes children are seen as angry, troubled, or willful. Children, indeed, have a full range of emotions that they don't censor and deserve to be able to express fully. Does this make them less of a human being? To the contrary, they remind us of the full spectrum of what it means to be human.
Children are often used for commercial purposes and of course, as immediate and future consumers. Commercial images typically portray children as mini-adults, often with a seductive air. Is this true in your country, or have you managed to escape this trend?
The cover of the widely read, highly regarded American magazine The New Yorker, recently portrayed babies in front of computers, smoking cigarettes and carrying briefcases. At first glance this seems humorous, but the implications of the underlying attitudes here about childhood are truly alarming. Childhood is primarily viewed as a time to get ready; children are to be pushed past their limitations, and their emotions “fixed” to prepare them to become a contributor to an advancing economy. In the U.S. the widespread use of what we call “high stakes testing” and assessment of even the youngest children, reflects this view. The notion of play is now seen as a distraction from the needed skills and knowledge that leads to academic success, rather than the right and foundation of every child's life.
These misguided images and resulting educational policies threaten what will really prepare children to be successful in life and ignore the idea that childhood should be regarded as an important stage of life in and of itself. Children deserve to be treasured in the here and now, instead of always focusing on who they will become. Shifting to this attitude not only gives children the respect they have a right to, but also offers adults the possibility of a fuller humanity.
Finding Our Stories to Shape New Images
Those of us who devote ourselves to the lives of children have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to bring forward images and stories of children that counter these more limited, if not damaging viewpoints and portrayals.
For instance, consider the story of these two identical twins born prematurely and immediately placed in separate incubators. Within a few days one of them was in danger of dying, until a nurse suggested that they be put together in the same incubator. This picture reminds us of how we underestimate who children are and what they are capable of. Common viewpoints say that young children are ego centric and incapable of empathy. If we look closely, we see the incredible capacity human beings are born with.
When you see children as capable you offer them choices and respect their efforts to solve problems. You notice their endeavors and you appreciate all of their experiences.
An important component of all our professional development work must be the sharpening of our observation skills and our disposition to value the thoughts and actions of children. As teacher educators we are continually seeking out resources to help us get further insight into the perspectives of children. Vivian Paley, a long time American kindergarten teacher has written many books that can deepen our understandings, as has one of our mentors, Elizabeth Jones. Pediatrician Daniel Sterns offers us a wonderful resource in his book, The Diary of a Baby in which he describes ordinary events from the point of view of a child. Two recent discoveries are books by fathers, Marc Parent who wrote Believing it All, and Paolo Ferrucci whose book What Our Children Teach Us, we want to read a story from, to give you a taste of how we as adults can open our minds and hearts to a child's perspective. Here is a story of his three-year-old son.
One of Emilio's many passions is riding on the motorized horsy at the supermarket: one dollar for two minutes. As soon as the horse starts to move, Emilio is carried away to a fairy-land, his face transformed by amazement. At one point he has an idea: he puts the coin in the slot, but does not mount—he just wants to watch the horse while it gallops. “Emilio, you are wasting the money. The horse is galloping by itself and you are not having fun!” In vain. He only wants to observe. People pass by and give us puzzled looks. I feel uneasy. Emilio is satisfied by studying the situation from a distance. Finally, seeing a little girl walking by and casting and interested look at the horse, he offers her his last coin so she may have a ride.
A fine lesson for me. My mind was traveling along conventional grooves: insert the money, ride the horse, go home. Emilio's mind has a wider range and different quirks. Having fun, entering a magical world, is only a small part of his activity. He wants to study the up-and-down movement of the horse. Perhaps he wants to understand what it is that gives him the pleasure of galloping. The little girl chances by, and he includes her in the event. These are actions characteristic of a lively mind: to look at the world from a new perspective and to include unforeseen events in whatever one may be thinking or doing.
Children's thought is often divergent. It does not choose the available route, but rather takes the freedom to go where it wants. It does not necessarily use an object or an instrument according to its function, but looks for other ways…the creative mind does not focus merely on what everyone can see, but is curious about the detail that most regard as irrelevant. Children work this way.
As we cultivate ourselves as teachers who value and seek out children's perspectives, what stories of our own might emerge? Deb's early years of returning to work with preschool age children provide an example. Trying to practice the emergent curriculum approach she noticed a small group of children's interest in a book about snakes. Every day this group of children visited the book area and poured over the images of snakes and their behaviors. The children were particularly fascinated with poisonous snakes and the picture of a boa constrictor consuming a large wild boar.
Having been discussing acquiring a classroom pet, Deb decided to call the group together for a meeting to discuss the idea of getting a snake for a classroom pet. The discussion had barely begun when a little girl said, “We don't need to go to the pet store to get a snake. I've seen them in our play yard and we could catch one.” The children were immediately energized by this idea. “Yeah, we could do that.” Knowing that there weren't really snakes in the schoolyard, Deb immediately tried to get them to re-focus on the idea of visiting the pet store. They would have none of it, and immediately began proposing that they make snake catchers. They left the group meeting and went excitedly to an area in the room called the “Creation Station” with a variety of open-ended loose parts to build snake catchers. Each snake catcher that was created reflected a remarkable set of ideas about who snakes are and what might lure them into a trap. Their inventions were delightful and ingenious and included far more discussion of understandings and questions about snakes and their habits than would have occurred from a trip to the pet store.
Using Children's Perspectives to Influence Our Teaching Practices
Seeing ourselves as guardians of childhood rather than just preparing children for the future suggests we rethink many of our approaches to early childhood education. We want to spend our last bit of time with you now showing your some images and telling you a few stories of how our colleagues across the U.S. are trying to make this shift. We'll go more deeply into this during our seminar, but for now, let these examples whet your appetite.
Planning Cozy, Comfortable Places for Relationships to Grow
If relationships are the heart of development and learning for young children then we must create relaxing home-like places for them to develop. If we want parents and other family members to be a part of our programs then our environments must convey that they are designed for them as well as the children.
Keeping Children Connected to Their Families
The early childhood profession has much research and literature available to us to help children separate from their families when they come to our programs. There is much concern about “separation anxiety.” Yet these strong reactions are a normal and critical part of the young child and her parent's lives. To be deeply connected and form a bond with an adult is critical for children's survival as well as learning and development. Our programs should be focusing on strengthening that bond and connecting children to their families while they are with us rather than on separating them.
Offering Meaningful Materials and Curriculum Experiences
The children's natural interests, their family life and the local neighborhood and surrounding community are rich sources of meaningful curriculum experiences. Rather than choosing activities from curriculum books, that have no context for children's lives we should be researchers, finding the unfolding stories around us and making those stories visible for living and learning together.
Let's end with Anita Olds' beautiful words reminding us of the importance of the work we do and what can happen when we see the world through the eyes of a child.
Children are miracles.
Believing that every child is a miracle can transform the way we
design for children's care.
When we invite a miracle into our lives we prepare ourselves
and the environment around us.
We may set out flowers or special offerings.
We may cleanse ourselves, the space, or our thoughts
of everything but the love inside us.
We make it our job to create, with reverence and gratitude, a space that is worthy of a miracle!
Action follows thought.
We can choose to change.
We can choose to design spaces for miracles,
not minimums.
Anita Olds
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 27 September 2005 )
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