Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/ideas-for-training-staff-rethinking-our-environments/5014254/
When I was in college, many, many years ago, I first heard about the concept of dialectics, learning that every event holds a tension of opposites, good things containing the seeds of bad and vice versa. Perhaps this explains the shift in some of my impressions of early childhood programs as I travel our country. I find myself feeling less proud and increasingly uneasy with the standardization of so many early childhood programs.Over the past 30 years our field has developed many valuable resources to help us recognize the attributes of quality programs for children. For instance, mention the topic of environments and most of us have images of room arrangements with familiar learning areas and materials. These are predictably uniform and easy to spot when you peek into most any accredited child care or Head Start program.
On the one hand, this is a good development, because we've established the importance of an orderly, safe environment centered around some key principles of what young children need. On the other hand, a combination of our environmental assessment tools, guidelines for curriculum approaches and materials promoted by commercial vendors have all led us into a look-alike syndrome. Ultimately, this can't be good for ...