NAEYC

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a national organization that advocates for the rights of young children.  It promotes the education and training of professionals in the field.  It is a leader in the development for high standards in quality for early childhood programs and helps to accredit programs that achieve those high quality standards.  In our field if a program is NAEYC accredited it means that they are a program that offers quality, age appropriate, child-centered, and family friendly curriculum by highly qualified EC educators.  Way up and above the state licensing standards in most states.  These are just a few of the reasons why I support this organization.

Being a member allows you to connect with members in your region and even more specifically to your interests in the field.  It is an invaluable resource connecting you to the archives of the journal Young Children.  I am excited to finally be a member and I look forward the using this resource to help me grow in the EC field.

Here are some of the benefits that encouraged me to become a member of NAEYC:

• Membership in your local NAEYC affiliate 
• The print publication package of your choice: five issues of Young Children or five issues of Teaching Young Children.
• Five digital issues of award-winning Young Children, NEXT for Young Children, and Tesoros y Colores (the Spanish version of Teaching Young Children) packed with the latest developments in early childhood education, practice, and research.
• Reduced registration fees for NAEYC-sponsored conferences and training opportunities, including the world's largest early education conference.
• Access to the Members Only area of our website, which features exclusive digital benefits and content.
• for complete benefits click on the following link: https://www.naeyc.org/membership/benefits

I am already thoroughly enjoying access to the archives of Young Children.  I did a keyword search for changing demographics and found an entire issue devoted to this topic with specific articles, suggestions, and ideas on language diversity.  I also like that the articles ranged from preschoolers to primary age students. The online issue reads just like the actual journal.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

"One important consideration was the pressure for children to value English over their own languages and cultures exerted in politics and in the media, especially when the academic curriculum focused on English only."

-Maria Paula Ghiso

I have had one experience with a child in my class that had a different home language.  When he came to preschool he seemed to already know a lot of English and his father was proficient in English.  Mom did not speak much English, but in their culture I was to speak to the father anyway.  I look back with such regret on that situation.  He was a good student and easy to have in the classroom.  It was easy to ignore the dual language of that family.  The statement above is making me rethink that situation.  I contributed to the pressure for that child and his family to value English over their own language.  I did nothing to embrace his culture and include it in the classroom.  In a classroom almost entirely made up of African American children, think of the lessons they could have learned from a boy from Somalia.  To realize that the color of your skin does not tell your whole cultural story.  

With demographics changing at the rate that they are we must start looking at diverse languages and cultures as assets to the classroom.  We must use families and people in the community as volunteers to share pieces of their cultures.  We must bring home languages into the classroom and encourage them at home.  In doing so every child in the class benefits.  We are helping to create global citizens.  Children who understand that people speak different languages move away from ego-centrism a lot quicker.  They are able to look outside themselves and grasp a large picture of the world and the many different people in it.

References and Resources

Ghiso, M. P. (2013, March). Every language is special: Promoting dual language learning in multicultural primary schools [Electronic version]. Young Children, 68(1), 22-26.

Magruder, E. S., Hayslip, W. W., Espinosa, L. M., & Matera, C. (2013, March). Many languages, one teacher: Supporting language and literacy development for preschool dual language learners [Electronic version]. Young Children, 68(1), 8-15.

NAEYC: https://www.naeyc.org