Young Children - March 2008 - (Page 8) READERS WRITE We received a number of letters regarding “Getting Clear about Developmentally Appropriate Practice” (Professional Development, January 2008), two of which are excerpted here: I have great respect for the authors, as they have been mentors to so many of us in the field. Unfortunately, Carol Copple and Sue Bredekamp make a crucial assumption about the response of the early childhood education field to [reexamining] what constitutes “developmentally appropriate practice.” The assumption that the child care professional’s rejection of this “shift” is somehow kneejerk or pat disrespects the immense degree of conversation, introspection, dialogue, and reflection that has accompanied this resistance. [I worry] when early educators criticize “fun for fun’s sake,” knowing that many of today’s young children have precisely that five-year window of opportunity to have fun for fun’s sake before entering a universe of drill and memorization and regurgitation and high-stakes testing and stress and packaged curricula and fill in the dots and commercial creativity. — Gregory Uba, President, Beach Cities AEYC, and Public Policy Region Representative, California AEYC This is an excellent article. It responds to many of the discussions our team has had over the years. I’m sure this process has been both exciting and crazy making. I think the direction you are going is absolutely appropriate. I also encourage you to remember the training [in the Leading Edge teleconferences and videos prepared for the 1997 DAP position statement] related to “expanding the frame.” In nearly every case a practice should be considered with the questions of (I’m sure you have thought of even more) • In what context is this appropriate or inappropriate? • To what extent is this appropriate or inappropriate? • For which children and families is it appropriate or inappropriate? • For which teachers or programs is it [appropriate or inappropriate]? • For which purpose [is it appropriate or inappropriate]? • And what is the evidence? (cont’d on p. 87) NAEYC Consulting Editors Panel Linda Aiken / Southwestern Community College, Sylva, NC Kay Albrecht / Innovations in Early Childhood Education, Tomball, TX Mary Elizabeth Ambery / Southeast Missouri State University Chiara Bacigalupa / Sonoma State University, CA Diane W. Bales / University of Georgia, Athens Jenna Bilmes/Early Childhood Consultant, Tempe, AZ Bonnie Blagojevic / The University of Maine Barbara Foulks Boyd / Radford University, VA Melinda Brookshire / WestEd, Camarillo, CA Bertha Campbell / Early Childhood Consultant, Basalt, CO Frances Carlson / Chattahoochee Technical College, GA Dina Castro / University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill Lorraine Cooke / Egenolf Early Childhood Center, Elizabeth, NJ Patricia A. Crawford / University of Pittsburgh, PA Sandra E. Huff DeAngelo / Early Care and Family Education Consultant/Trainer, Deer Park, WA Jennifer Dodd / Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County, OH Carolyn Wilkerson Duncan / Livingstone College, Salisbury, NC Frank Fielden / Early Childhood Education Consultant, Colorado Springs Vicki Folds / Children of America, Delray Beach, FL Isela Garcia / Training and Consulting, Avondale, AZ Janet Gonzalez-Mena / Early Childhood Education Consultant, Fairfield, CA Tara Huls / Florida Department of Education, Tallahassee Marla Susman Israel / Loyola University Chicago Tamar Jacobson / Rider University, Philadelphia, PA Kathryn Lilie Jenkins / University of Houston, TX Willette D. Junior / Hartford Head Start Agency, Inc., Detroit, MI Soyong Lee / City College School of Education, City University of New York Jim J. Lesko / Delaware Department of Education Marian Marion/Governors State University, IL Beth McKenna / York Public Schools, York, ME Anthony E. Morgan/Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA Bridget Murray / Henderson Community College, KY Susan Ochshorn / City University of New York Arleen Pratt Prairie / City Colleges of Chicago Kimberly M. Ray / Bernice M. Wright Child Development Laboratory School, Syracuse, NY Pamela E. Ray / St. Phillips College, TX Laurie Lee Richter / Tulane University, LA Katherine Kensinger Rose / Texas Women’s University, Denton Tisha B. Sanders / Vanderbilt University, TN Holly Seplocha / William Paterson University, NJ Amy Shillady / National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center, Fairfax, VA Janis K. Strasser / William Paterson University, NJ Julia Torquati / University of Nebraska, Lincoln Marcy Whitebook / University of California at Berkeley NAEYC Governing Board Anne Mitchell, President / Early Childhood Policy Research, Climax, NY Sue Russell, President-Elect / Child Care Services Association, Chapel Hill, NC Jamilah R. Jor’dan, Vice President / Partnership for Quality Child Care, Chicago Lori Longueville, Secretary / Child Care Resource and Referral, John A. Logan College, Carterville, IL Gayle Cunningham, Treasurer / Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity, Community Action Agency, Birmingham, AL Todd Louis Boressoff / Early Childhood Consultancies, Montclair, NJ Harriet A. Egertson / Early Childhood Consultant, Temecula, CA Yolanda Garcia / WestEd, Institute for Advancing Excellence in Early Education, San José, CA Frank London Gettridge / STAR NET Region V, Chicago Public Schools Jane Henderson / Program-Policy Consulting, Berkeley, CA Gera Jacobs / University of South Dakota, Vermillion Naomi Karp / Early Childhood Education Policy Consultant, Tucson, AZ Joan Lessen-Firestone / Oakland Regional Educational Service Agency, Waterford, MI Jason Sachs / Boston Public Schools James A. Scott Jr. / Ohio Department of Education, Head Start State Collaboration, Columbus Michelle Dolores Soltero / WestEd Program for Infant/Toddler Caregivers, Partners for Quality, CA Elaine Yamashita / Maui Community College, HI Mark R. Ginsberg, Ex Officio / NAEYC Executive Director, Washington, DC Research in Review Editors Mary Benson McMullen / Indiana University Aisha Ray / Erikson Institute, Chicago Sharon K. Ryan / Rutgers University, NJ 8 Young Children • March 2008
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