Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/a-manner-of-speaking/5023792/
This issue we celebrate Janet Gonzalez-Mena's gifts to the field of Early Care and Education. Janet has touched so many of our lives, provoking our thinking, inspiring our work, and focusing our attention. Exchange Leadership Initiative honors Janet Gonzalez-Mena as Doyen to our field. We've asked a few of Janet's close peers to share stories of Janet in action, as they know her.
One of my favorite all-time memories is of a presentation with Jim Greenman, Anne Stonehouse, and Janet at NAEYC. We called it "Exposing Ourselves" and we talked about our struggles to share our voices in writing and speaking, where ideas come from and the crazy systems we created for collecting them; we shared our precious feel-good moments and stories of pulling ourselves up from our failures. We made ourselves vulnerable to questions and honest answers. But the best part was that when attendees were seated, we walked out of the room before anything was said. And then we returned in raincoats and sunglasses, and 'exposed ourselves' to begin the session. We thought we were hysterical, and the camaraderie of our team and the atmosphere of safety that was created among all of us is a memory I treasure. I ...