Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/on-childhood/5019341/
Quotations selected by Anne Stonehouse from Places for Childhoods: Making Quality Happen in the Real WorldJim Greenman (1949-2009) was good at many things, and we miss the many ways he shared himself with us, but his wisdom remains to inform our work. He wrote about his professional life:
“Child care has given me the opportunity to continually, seriously, and mostly joyfully play �" play with children and adults and play different roles, hoping the new skills would catch up with me: writer, researcher, videographer, speaker, critic.”
One talent he used in all those roles was playing with ideas and words �" to create powerful, witty, and engaging ways of expressing ideas about children and childhood. He had a brilliant capacity to draw from sources far beyond early childhood literature to make points about what matters. As he said, “I love conceptualizing what child care should be and then passionately speaking and writing about it �" making the ideas come to life.” In his book Places for Childhoods (Exchange Press, 1998), Jim wrote about childhood:
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“When we think of our own early childhoods �" happy or unhappy, chaotic or relaxed �" or perhaps even more powerful, the imagined childhood we ...