A Decade In Early Childhood Education - My best years!

It has been 10 years since I first entered into this fascinating field called Early Childhood Education. As a rookie, I was spell bound by the new world that was opened up to me. The spell has not yet been broken :) I have been an ardent learner and am sure will continue to do so in the years to come as well. 

As if to commemorate this decade in my life, I was given an opportunity like no other. My paper on 'Humour in Early Childhood' was accepted by NAEYC for presentation at their annual conference in Dallas, Tx. My presentation and the insight I gained at the conference is incomparable to anything I've experienced before. The people I've met have been wonderful; invigorating and all most of all inspiring.

Some of them have left a mark for life.

Learning about Leadership and revitalised with Holly Elissa Bruno

Perfecting my DAP training skills with Luis

With Legendary Dan Gartrell from Guidance Matters Column

Strong-willed Ketra became a dear friend and drive buddy :)

I've come back from the conference enlightened and with a greater ambition to make a difference in every child's life that I can influence.

My faith in Podar Jumbo Kids is reiterated through the conference. I believe that the education and atmosphere that we provide at Jumbo Kids is of international standards and following the latest research. 

Of the many things that have captured my attention, a few that I would like to list down are as below:

• Developmentally Appropriate practice - This is the cornerstone of the NAEYC philosophy. The most important ingredient in DAP is the intentionality of the teacher. As I learnt more about this, I am convinced that the traditional Indian schooling system was one of the best then and now. Such as that of the Gurukula or the system of education followed at schools like Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan. I wonder if we can move away from the 'assembly line' schooling system towards our roots. If we can adopt DAP in the context of our culture, I believe that our children will benefit highly.

• Passion towards Early Childhood Education - My passion has been my driving force. I have also been blessed that I'm surrounded by people who are equally passionate. However, over these years, I've come to understand that teaching young children is not a first choice profession. Many times when I've interviewed people for various roles, I've had people tell that they are engineers and since they have a setback at home they want to teach. I find it appalling that everyone finds it perfectly fine to choose this profession as a compromise. At the conference, I was delighted to see that 30% of the delegates were students. This meant that in  US, as a country, there is awareness and passion for being in this profession. Similarly, I found many matured (don't want to label them as aged) women taking an active part in the proceedings of the conference. Can we work towards creating a better culture for ourselves and our teachers, after all we added the word 'GURU' to the dictionary.

• STREAM Vs STEM - There is huge importance that we give to academics as a culture. Schools have now gone ahead to incorporate STEM, i.e. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This is all great. We now need to add two more letter R and A to make it STREAM which stand additionally for Relationships and Art. This is a holistic approach to child development. Brain research indicates that without the context of loving relationships, no learning is meaningful. This is gaining momentum worldwide. Once again, I'm awed at how these are already a part of Jumbo Kids since inception and we have the Director of Jumbo Kids Ms. Swati Popat Vats (my mentor) to thank for this.

• Equal Opportunities - I was part of many sessions that delved into creating equal opportunities. This encompassed gender equality, inclusive education, anti-bias education, and more. I have been crusading against portraying of stereotypes to children in their gender roles. I am now armed with more ammunition for this war. In terms of creating equal opportunity to the differently abled, we need to learn a lot and go a long way. The facilities that were made available for them ensured that they were independent and were never pitied upon. This is one culture that we should emulate. Anti-bias is a strong movement taking place with the intention of supporting children's full development in our multicultural, multiracial, multilingual world and to give them the tools to stand up to prejudice, stereotyping, bias and eventually to institutional 'isms'. It's time we lend our support.

• Humour In Early Childhood - This was the topic of my presentation. I do believe strongly that the benefits of humour are worth the effort of conditioning ourselves to use it. The presentation was very well received (even if I say so myself). I am very conscious that I represent a great brand Podar Jumbo Kids, and am glad that I have been able to do justice to this honour bestowed upon me.

I seek all your support to keep this fire within me burning, for it is with all of you that we will be able to see the change one drop at a time.