Early Childhood Professionals on Passion and Motivation . . .

Louise Derman-Sparks, "I feel n love with 3 and 4 years olds . . it made me feel whole and so it became my lifelong work, early childhood education and the passion to make sure that all children were taught in environments and in ways that truly nurtured their ability to grow and to develop to their fullest ability . . .the preschool years are critical . . .when children are first noticing the stereotypes about who they are . . .my passion now is as great as it was because children are still trying to figure out all their different identities . . ."


Sandy Escobido, "Seeing how involved my parents were it made me want to be involved in the field of education as well. . . It was in early childhood education I had an opportunity to see what a really unique opportunity we have in work with young children . . .we have an opportunity to shape a child's life for the better so that's what makes me passionate."

"Another unintended consequence of testing in early childhood is that children may come to believe that they are not capable, that they are slow in learning to read or in doing math, when the real problem is that the test does not permit them to demonstrate what they know and can do. Children may be unfairly held back or tracked into a slow group as a result of test scores, and teachers’ expectations can be altered about children’s abilities. We have to be extremely careful when assessing young children."  -Samuel J Meisels



When commenting on a study of self regulation done with young children, psychologist Elena Bodrova, creator of the Tools of the Mind curriculum, said, "Today's 5-year-olds were acting at the level of 3-year-olds 60 years ago, and today's 7-year-olds were barely approaching the level of a 5-year-old 60 years ago," Bodrova explains. "So the results were very sad."  

Gee . . .did we have TV 60 years ago?

Some of My Favorite Books . . .That Happen to be for "Children"

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Dark is Rising Series by Susan Cooper

All of these books feature "ordinary" children/adolescents who struggle with acceptance, family and duty in order to achieve some great things for humanity . . these are wonderful stories for children and adults to read . . .they remind us that courage, honor and sacrifice aren't anachronisms and that someone average can be a hero.  Fantasy/science fiction is  one of the best genes to give our children to teach them common values and also to promote literacy and global thinking.

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” 
― Albert Einstein

“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
― George Bernard Shaw

Shahrazad - 4 years old?