WORDS OF INSPIRATION AND MOTIVATION FROM THE FIELD OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Sources of inspiration and motivation which strike a cord within each of us come from various sources when we least expect them as well as during our educational jouney.  I have listed five such quotes that really started me thinking.

"The most important thing is to enjoy

your children, to love them, be fair and

just with them.  If you do that they're

pretty likely to come out all right."

                                                                    ~ Abigail Eliot

“…the new idea – was program.  I had visited

many day nurseries in Boston as a social worker.

I can remember them even now:  dull green

walls, no light colors, nothing pretty – spotlessly

 clean places, with rows of white-faced listless

 little children sitting, doing nothing.  In the new

 nursery school, the children were active, alive, choosing.”

                                                                     ~Abigail Eliot

“Our ability to incorporate the cultural strengths and the

distinctive ways that families, specifically fathers, contribute to

educational accomplishments of their preschool children is

severely constrained by major gaps and inadequacy in our

research literature.  Before early childhood programs can tap

these fathers’ or families’ potential to enhance children’s

development, research needs to define father and family

involvement more precisely and to examine the culturally rich

dimensions of children’s early care and education experiences.”

                                                                            ~ Aisha Ray, Ph.D.

“…I think I had a built in passion that it was important to make a

real contribution to the world and to fix all the injustices that existed

in the world and I wanted to do that through teaching.”

                                                                                ~ Louise Derman Sparks

“It’s not all about you, you have to take your ego

out of it and think about what is best for this child.”

                                                                                             ~ Renatta M. Cooper

Favorite Book

"I'm Gonna Like Me" by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell, is one of my favorite books to use in my daycare curriculum. This is a great book that focuses on the importance of a child liking themselves for who they are.  As a child's self-esteem grows so does other aspects of their social-emotional and cognitive growth.

Week One...

Week one is just about over for the Foundations course in Early Childhood Studies.  What a great group of individuals to work with as each of us works towards our own personal/professional goals.  There is such a diverse group of individuals with so much knowledge and life experience that I can already tell I am going to personally learn a lot. 

A New Chapter Begins

A new chapter in my life has now begun with the decision to further my knowledge in the early childhood field.  This is my first time using a blog and I am looking forward to using this tool as I begin my journey into the field of early childhood public policy and advocacy.  Keeping the lines of communication open between classmates (especially with an online degree program) is essential as each of us works toward earning our Master's of Science in Early Childhood Studies. 

Each of us who has enrolled in this program of study has chosen the concentration that will prepare each of us to reach our goals for the future.  I chose the degree of Master’s of Science Early Childhood Studies with a concentration in Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy in order to gain the knowledge I believe is needed to pursue my goal of becoming a full-time advocate.

I look forward to hearing from each of you, whether it be a personal reflection, a sharing of ideas or a source for other resources.  Good luck to all.