Children as Decision Makers

11/09/2017

We put our love where we have put our labor.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803 - 1882, American philosopher and author

"Our view of children strongly determines if we support and challenge them or direct and correct them. Adults must believe that children deserve the right to choose and are capable of understanding that with rights comes responsibilities. If we believe this, then we will use our role to coach children in making good choices," asserts Deb Curtis in Really Seeing Children.

Curtis offers this checklist as a way for programs to assess how much they are ensuring children’s rights to choose:

- Examine your daily schedule

- Record the time periods for all of the activities and transitions that occur throughout the day. How often and for how much time are children choosing what they will do? How does the physical environment support children’s choices? Is it organized and orderly, and does it offer interesting possibilities for children’s engagement?

- What is the quality of the choices children make? Are children able to initiate and sustain their attention in interesting projects with others for significant amounts of time?

- How do you support children in making responsible choices? What might you do to provide more time, coaching, and opportunities to honor children’s right to choose?

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LAUP - Lifting Up Quality in Early Learning.

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