Philosophy

• Children learn best in a nurturing, supportive, safe environment, where individual and cultural differences are valued.
• Children learn and develop through active exploration and engagement with the people and objects in their environment.
• Children make sense of the world in terms that they can understand.
• Development of the whole child includes broadening children’s relationships beyond the immediate family to include other children and adults. This development includes developing feelings of self-confidence and competence as well as dispositions of curiosity and perseverance and a zest for life and learning.
• All children—from any cultural or ethnic background, whatever social or economic status, and with or without disabilities—have a right to the best possible care and education. The center endeavors to promote the greatest possible diversity in the groups of children served.
• Families have a responsibility to collaborate with their children’s teachers.

Philosophical Influences

The program at Lucy Brock is influenced by a number of theorists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Jerome Bruner, and Howard Gardner. The infant-toddler program draws upon the work of Magda Gerber and her concept of responsive caregiving. One particular source of inspiration is Reggio Emilia, a small town in northern Italy whose infant-toddler and preschool programs have received worldwide acclaim, including being named “the best preschool in the world” by Newsweek a few years ago. Faculty and students at Lucy Brock Child Development Center have been studying and applying Reggio-inspired concepts for several years. Key elements of our adaptation of this approach are:

• Importance of Community
  Relationship is the essence of education. The Lucy Brock Child Development Center community consists of the children, families, staff, faculty, and university students. A sense of connectedness is important for all these components. Several events throughout the year provide opportunities for these groups to meet in a variety of formats, formal as well as informal. Parents may schedule a time to have lunch with their child. The teachers in each classroom search for ways to make the parents’ presence felt in the classrooms even when the parents cannot be there. Families are asked to send letters, photos, tape recordings, or “beautiful stuff” for the art studio. The teachers have mapped the route to parents’ workplaces and made excursions to visit many. Parents often help the teachers find new and better ways of building community. The monthly newsletter contains brief overviews of the ongoing life in each classroom. This information is presented in greater detail in the documentation panels throughout the classrooms.
  
• Environment as co-teacher
  The goal is to create and maintain a beautiful, orderly environment where children, families, staff, faculty, and students all feel welcome, comfortable, and intrigued to explore many possibilities every day. The spaces convey a deep respect for children and for the people who work with the children. Each classroom contains traces of the lives that are lived there, rather than being anonymous, interchangeable classroom space. Safety, of course, is the first priority, but softness, warmth, and tranquility, also, are achieved. The highest compliment came from an “alumna” whose comment on the new infant-toddler room was, “This doesn’t even look like a school!” The pronouncement of this child that the room looked like a house confirmed the success of the faculty and staff in creating a home-like atmosphere.
  
• Emergent or negotiated curriculum
  The curriculum encompasses all the simple activities of daily life in the center—preparing and sharing meals, playing and cleaning up afterward, settling down with a story before nap. The faculty and teachers watch and listen closely during these times, and develop hypotheses about the big ideas that lie beneath the surface of children’s conversations. In reflecting on these observations, the teachers and director develop projections (tentative plans) for ways to sustain and deepen children’s interests. From time to time the teachers introduce materials or topics designed to pique the thoughts and interests of the children. Daily or Weekly Journals, posted on the Parent Communication board in each classroom, give a bird’s eye view of the experiences offered to the children, the responses of the children and clues to the next topic or activity. Children learn through play, because play is fun and keeps a child attentive for longer periods. Drill in specific “school readiness” skills is not practiced. In short, children develop all the skills needed for lifelong learning in natural, almost effortless ways.
  
• Documentation
  Written notes, audio, videotape, and still photography are used to record the life that happens in the classroom so that teachers and faculty can revisit experiences with the children to plan more carefully future objectives and activities. The process of documentation helps the university students reflect on textbook material and research findings and creates a window that allows families and community to see children’s minds at work. Families are encouraged to take the time to review the posted documentation evolving over the year. A good way to do this is for parents and children to tour the displays, read aloud selected bits, or talk about the pictures.