Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/in-loving-memory-of-elizabeth-prescott-and-edna-ranck/5025774/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
Environments as a Place to Thrive: The Passing of Elizabeth “Liz” Prescott
by John Nimmo, Elizabeth Jones and Roger Neugebauer
On the recent passing of Elizabeth Prescott at age 94, I (John) reached out to Betty Jones and Roger Neugebauer to share remembrances of a gentle giant in our thinking about environments. Along with Betty, Liz was the draw for me in travelling from Australia to Pacific Oaks College in 1986 to complete my master’s degree. As a teacher I had written an article inspired by Liz’s research on conceptualizing child care spaces, and inevitably I was drawn to her model of environmental dimensions (such as softness/hardness) to frame my thesis on children’s privacy-seeking. Liz implored us to think in different ways about childcare:
“Suppose that all day care had as its goal the provision of the experiences found in behavior settings called homes? Almost all adults have experience with homes and how they work. If centers concentrated on making their environment more homelike and staff were encouraged to act like homemakers instead of teachers, caregivers would have a much more familiar experience as a guideline for decision making (Prescott, 1978, p.18).”
Betty reminisces, “I ...