Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/lets-be-real!/5011435/
Do you ever catch yourself speaking pleasantly when you don't feel pleasant at all? Do you sometimes feel that you are acting a part, and that the real you is left at home? Are you being your version of a professional, but you don't feel professional? Perhaps you are having an authenticity crisis.Jim Greenman (1992) talks about how children spend their childhoods in child care. It's a sobering thought, a childhood in child care.
What kinds of childhoods are we professionals creating for children? How authentic are they? How honest are the emotional exchanges children see and experience? How rich and authentic are the conversations? How close to "life on the outside" is "life on the inside" of child care? How often do real events, real objects, real people from the outside world have a real impact on the child-centered world in which children spend up to five years of their lives? How influenced are we by the kinds of packaged environments, curricula, materials, and toys available on the market? Do we understand what happens if a child never has a chance to wander, rummage around in a shed, barn, attic, basement, or other clutter-gathering space? When we protect children from ...