A Place for Learning Together

"A warm, secure place that encourages ample responsive adult-child interactions, huge amounts of language and intellectual stimulation, great conversations, and many moments of undivided attention."  This is how Jim Greenman described "a place for learning together in his article, "What Kind of Place for Child Care in the 21st Century?", in the latest Exchange publication, Environments:  A Beginnings Workshop Book.  He continues...

"Perhaps the quickest and most fundamental evaluation of a child care setting is to observe the quantity and quality of conversation.  To note whether adults are listening to children, provoking the ideas of children, and offering a child one of their most precious gifts — undivided attention and their full human presence.  How can this occur with real world ratios and group sizes and all the daily demands of care?  It can only happen in environments that support teachers and are well designed and prepared for independent use by children.  And how would the environment change if designed for conversation?  Perhaps with acoustics and places that lend themselves to conversation: couches, benches under a tree, a seat that puts the baby right there for all the murmurs and reassuring words."

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