Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/of-culture-and-a-sense-of-place/5010136/
"A construction is a new organization of the world and life." - Mircea Eliade"That's just the way we do things here," said the director. Good child care centers, like any good organization, have cultures that shape how members think, feel, and behave. Just like the culture we are born into, we enter a world of shared beliefs and values, behavioral norms, and attitudes. In programs with strong cultures, one can go to two programs and see very similar people, yet one program feels relaxed and fun-loving, accepting and creative; the other, efficient and business-like, formal and industrious.
In some centers, everyone and everything is managed to the edge of regimentation; in others, spontaneity and discovery rule, flirting with chaos. One program may have a drive for excellence; another is just getting by. Programs vary greatly in the way people treat each other - whether relations are respectful and caring or not, formal or informal, collegial or distant.
Some centers have no real program culture. Individual teachers set the tone in their rooms. One room feels very different from another and changes as the people change. Or the overall tone is set by ...