Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/consider-this-language-matters-early-childhood-educators-deserve-respect/5026288/
Loris Malaguzzi, in his book “The Hundred Languages of Children,” describes the infinite ways that children can express, explore, and connect their thoughts, feelings, and imaginations. He writes that languages are symbolic and open children’s endless potential.
In the field of early care and education, we have our own “hundred languages” to describe the field: educator, care provider, child care worker, child-minder, play supervisor, babysitter; the list is lengthy. And just as Malaguzzi says children’s language is symbolic, the many “languages” used to describe ECE are symbolic.
The language used to describe early childhood educators and the field itself is symbolic of the fact that early care and education are not seen as a part of the education continuum. The language is symbolic of the fact that this field is—and has been—primarily composed of women and women of color. Language used to describe our field is symbolic of the fact that early education and the availability and access to quality programs is a privilege for those with financial means, and a struggle for those families without the economic means to pay for quality early childhood experiences. The language is symbolic of the fact that many of those individuals working in the field do ...