Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/not-just-anywhere-making-child-care-centers-into-particular-places/5007805/
When you enter a school for young children, you get an instant feeling about the children and the teachers. Their voices, their clothes, their motions all carry messages about who they are. But all too seldom does the physical environment carry these same kinds of messages. From one preschool to the next, from one child care center to another, you see similar kinds of activity centers, familiar educational materials, the same toys, and the same decorations on the walls - be it Santa Claus, Smurfs, or fall leaves. In other words, even though we may value individuality in children and adults, we rarely build environments which have personality.One of the greatest challenges in designing institutions is to transform a physical plant into a human environment. One part of this transformation has to do with discovering ways to make impersonal rooms and hallways reflect the lives of the children and adults who spend so many active hours in that space. Who are they as people? What are their lives like outside of this building? What are their daily experiences? What are their homes like? What do they bring to a center from ...