The Honor (Them) System

It is the age-old question in programs that are emergent and child-directed: What do you do when the children are interested in something that doesn't exactly mesh with your beliefs as a teacher, the culture of the classroom, your personal ideologies?

As a younger teacher (if I'm being honest, even as a more seasoned teacher), I tended to ignore these opportunities for exploration. I figured if I quietly ignored these topics, they would simply fade away. It's true that this tactic has had some measure of success, but as topics and ideas recur year after year, I've had to really ask myself what I'm really trying to do as an early childhood practitioner who is learning alongside children every day. As the years have passed, I have attempted to move farther and farther out of my comfort zone, but currently I have an inquiry emerging in my classroom that is forcing me to do some major soul searching: princesses.

I: "Look, I have on a princess dress!"

It's not that princesses have never been a hot topic in my classroom before. But it's becoming more and more evident to me that in order to really honor the children and respect their burgeoning abilities, I have to set aside my own discomfort and meet them where they are.

It's not princesses that bother me, per se, but more what princesses represent in our overly-sexualized, Disney Princess consumer culture. I am bothered by children, especially girls, striving to emulate characters that focus on outer beauty and "getting a man" as their main goals in life, and more importantly, characters that lack agency and autonomy. (For some helpful resources regarding princesses, click here, here, and here).

Recently, the topic of princesses came up in a conversation about engineers (Huh?!). When I asked the children to tell me what princesses do, there were two recurring themes: they brush their hair and they get a man. I was horrified. Later, I asked a group of girls why they want to be princesses. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they could not articulate what it is a princess "does" or why they wanted to be princesses in the first place. I find this completely fascinating. There was a pretty significant shift in my thinking about the idea of a princess inquiry in this moment - what could we do to open a dialogue about why these children are so enamored with princesses in the first place?

E: "When I sit like this, I look like a princess."

So, in an attempt to honor the children as curious, capable learners, I am moving to meet them where they are. Am I excited to spend the next days, weeks, possibly months discussing princesses? Actually, yes. I consider myself a teacher researcher and as such, I'm excited to at least try to get to the bottom of the infatuation with princesses. While I take issue with what I consider to be unhealthy about princess culture, I am excited to open up a dialogue and perhaps give children pause to think about things a little differently. The important thing is, we are on this journey together and I am doing my best to honor them as learners who have the right to be supported by their teacher. Stay tuned!

It's Okay to Breathe

The children in my class are in the beginning phases of a study of their hands and what those hands represent to them in terms of their identities. It's a very exciting time, when a new inquiry or study is beginning and the possibilities are looming large on the horizon.

I have reflected before on my own sense of urgency and although I am aware of my tendency to rush, and try to be mindful to slow down, I have been reminded this week that I am often still guilty of barreling through my own agenda and not giving the children time to think, process, and reflect on their questions and curiosities.

I think sometimes I get so excited about all of the amazing things the children are doing that I forget that children experience time very differently than I do. Children need time to think, to process, to walk away from ideas for a bit to gain some perspective. In reality, many times I feel the same way, in many different areas of my life. So here, in a moment of thoughtful reflection, I remind myself that it's okay to breathe. It's okay to take a lengthy pause in the midst of an inquiry to let ideas percolate. It's okay to walk away for a few days and just let ideas hang. If the children are truly curious about whatever it is they are investigating, they will come back to it. And I will be here waiting for them when they do.

I was jarred into this moment of reflection today, as I was wrapping up the first phase in our hand study and I was already thinking about starting the next phase tomorrow. Then A spontaneously traced her hand after finishing her journal today and engaged me in a quiet conversation as she deliberated over just which marker to choose to complete her work. 

"My hand is brown so I need to use a brown [marker]...This [marker] is light brown. I love light brown because my skin is light brown. Can you see my face is brown?"

This was such a powerful moment for me, and a strong reminder of why slowing down definitely has its merits. Sometimes, many times, the most profound statements are made spontaneously, in the spaces between my questioning. They key is learning to abandon my own agenda, quiet down, and listen for them.

Visible Learning - Not Just for the Kids!

Now that the new school year is in full swing, it's time to start implementing all of the ideas that have been collecting over the long summer months. This year one of my teaching goals is to be more intentional in the ways I display my own thinking in regard to the children's interests and inquiries. In our classroom, one of the ways we will accomplish this is with a "We're thinking..." board.

Many factors led to the decision to give this board a try:

          Emphasis on making learning visible - 

          As reflective practitioners in a Reggio-inspired preschool setting, we make it a priority to foster visible learning in our classroom. But it's also also vital to remember that teachers also bring much to the inquiries and discussions we engage in with children. Having an intentional space in the classroom for teachers to record and reflect on their thinking will help foster an environment of learning, reflection, and co-construction of knowledge between children and teachers.

          Transparency, communication, and collaboration - 

          I'm very fortunate to teach and learn alongside three incredible assistant facilitators each day (Jayne, Danon, and Townsley) and the reality of the situation is that it is nearly impossible to sit down together each day to share everything we have observed about the children. We do have a weekly team meeting where we all sit down to discuss our documentation and plan for the following week, but the board helps to ensure that we don't forget anything we've noticed and also helps us notice patterns and directions in the children's thinking, which informs the work we do with them.

Ideas into Action

The really excellent thing about the board is that when the time comes for us to get together as a team to plan for the upcoming week, all of our documentation from the previous week is collected in one place.

This year we are using an adapted version of the emergent curriculum form found in We Are All Explorers: Teaching and Learning with Reggio Principles in Urban Settings (Scheinfeld, Haigh, Scheinfeld 2008).

We altered the form slightly to meet the needs of our center and our classroom. In previous years, I would have been hesitant to display the form with its arrows, scratch outs, additions, and changes but now I feel differently. There is actually a strange beauty in making learning visible - perhaps because it can be such a mess.

The truth of the matter is, learning is often messy and can rarely be placed in tidy little boxes. In reality, there are so many ways to learn (we Reggio folks don't strive to embody the Hundred Languages for nothing!) that thinking of it as only neat and linear is pretty shortsighted. I'm so thrilled to be working toward a more realistic model this year - and creating space for the thought processes of the teachers will certainly support that model. Plus, what an amazing example we are setting for the children, showing them that the process of thinking things through is something we value in our community. What a fine example - that we all have ideas to offer and that we are on this learning journey together.