Philosophy of Education - Lee Ann Balta Bio - Tools We Use - Mission and Vision

Philosophy of Education

Early childhood is an amazing time of brain development and character formation. Children’s intrinsic curiosity makes them exquisite learners that blossom with rich, purposeful interactions and caring relationships (Eric Erickson). The physical location of where a child learns, (i.e. at home, a child care center, and in-home daycare or a half day preschool) is not as important as the rich trusting experiences that they are exposed to. Children’s formal education beings at birth and regardless of where children spend their early years, there are several needed components for them to be successful learners ready for school and eventual contributors in our society. Those components include meeting the child’s basic health and safety needs, supplying a rich environment from which they can explore and providing responsive experiences that include a road map from which to guide and assess children’s learning.

Children begin to learn when they feel safe, respected, and are able to experience success. Their basic needs have to be met before they can move beyond survival mode and reach for the unknown. Lev Vygotsky taught us that families, teachers, or caregivers must scaffold their support depending on the age and developmental level of the individual child so that they can be supported in their growth. Younger children need considerably more support than older children. It’s important to allow children natural opportunities for success, for example using their self-help skills for cleaning up or giving them responsibilities to contribute to the family.

Howard Garner identified the following learning styles: linguistic/verbal, logical/mathematical, musical/rhythmic, special/visual, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. A rich learning environment allows children to pursue his or her special talents and to demonstrate areas of strength through music and movement, manipulatives, science or nature materials, books, dramatic play (Sara Smilansky), building, creative expression, and computers. These experiences should have a balance of adult directed and child initiated interactions. Each child is different and while it is tempting and easy to compare children in any group settings, each child needs an environment that meets their individual development and learning style.

Academic expectations for infant, toddlers and preschoolers are outlined in Foundations by the Indiana Department of Education where academic expectations for all other grade levels are also available. These Foundations serve as a standard or benchmarks to ensure our children are progressing typically and alert us if there is a need for intervention. Social/emotional, vocabulary and language development is enormous during these early childhood years. Because of this children should be exposed to the arts, social experiences such as volunteering and community projects, the understanding of natural and logical consequences, and built-in daily opportunities to develop problem solving strategies. There are teachable moments in daily experiences when discussing the situations from different perspectives and allowing the children to ask questions. Children benefit from opportunities throughout the day to express freedom of thought and action while being taught to respect others. They should be a part of a community contributing to it and completing tasks and goals that help it run smoothly. All these experiences create a higher level of thinking and reflection.

The National Association of the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) calls the early years the learning years. In fact, brain research indicates that children learn as much during the first four years of life than they learn in primary or secondary education. It’s not about the physical locations, it’s about well rounded, mentally stable, curious adults creating a safe place for children to explore, assess that children are developing as they should be and help children develop the love of learning.