An Effective Alliance Between Children and Adults

08/17/2022

An Effective Alliance Between Children and Adults

We are in this together — working for a world where every child is protected and honored, exactly as they are.
Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards, Anti-bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves

In response to our recent ExchangeEveryDay about infant memory, Ursula Costin, Washington, DC, writes:

"Articles such as this inspire and encourage me! From Teaching to Thinking is a beautiful homage to the connections children create. They thrive in relationship and interaction with their peers, with adults, with ideas, with objects, and with real and imaginary events of intercommunicating worlds. Excellent programs put into practice the fundamental aspects of the work of Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky, Maria Montessori, Loris Malaguzzi, and others. This structure invites collaboration among children, teachers, and parents.

At the heart of strong early childhood programs (and good parenting) are powerful images of children. Observant adults regard children as full of potential, competent and capable of building their own theories. Teachers and parents as collaborators recognize the right of children to realize and expand their potential, placing immense value on their ability to socialize, and to satisfy their need and desire to learn. Children are reassured and emboldened by an effective alliance between the adults in their lives, those who are always ready to help, who place higher value on the search for constructive strategies of thought and action than on the direct transmission of knowledge and skills. These constructive strategies contribute the formation of creative intelligence, free thought, and individuality that is sensitive and aware, through an ongoing process of differentiation and integration with other people and other experiences. The fact that rights of children are recognized as the rights of all children is the sign of a more accomplished humanity."

Thank you, Ursula, for your articulate and passionate vision! An exchange of vision, concerns, ideas and information is what we're all about!

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