Dear Olive Branch
Using Your Personal Power in a Changing ECE Landscape
Many people agree that the early childhood education landscape is continually changing. Personal power can be used to meet the challenges of these changes.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Learning to Swim
I was struggling with being a new single parent to my four children, and had just gotten a new teaching job, which had entailed relocating. I moved south of the Mason-Dixon Line when desegregation in the schools was finally instituted. I was continually surprised how deeply the idea of segregation was entrenched in the area, even after the federal legislative decision that separate was indeed not equal.
Summer was hot where we lived, and there was only one private pool in the area and no other places to swim. I had to apply for membership, and people had to approve my membership. I did not understand, but since I lived near a creek, it was imperative that my own children learn to swim. One of the pool members discovered that I knew how to swim, so I ended up renewing my water safety instructor and lifeguard teaching certification on top of everything else. The pool was struggling to make their financial ends meet.
I discovered that the children at the nearby Head Start program, who were African American, did not know how to swim. So, I negotiated with the governing board at the pool, and with the upper management at Head Start, and with some finagling, I was given permission to bring in the children from Head Start during the time that the swim team was practicing, since the preschoolers only needed to be in the shallow end of the pool.
I heard that there was some negative reaction from some of the members of the pool and it didn’t make sense to me. The children and their Head Start teachers caused no problems. One day, when I was teaching swimming, I borrowed one of the white swim team members who were waiting for her turn to swim, and I asked her to come and demonstrate how to swim for the children who attended Head Start. Her mom, who was white, told the young girl to get out, as “she thought her daughter was bothering my class,” which she was not. One of my classroom teachers got the children from Head Start out of the pool, and I had to assume that she was protecting the children from perceived racial discrimination.
I spent a couple of hours checking with both sides of the story and explaining what had happened. After negotiating we continued to be able to have the Head Start children learn to swim and having the other children demonstrate swimming. My advocacy to help more children in the area learn to swim led to the desegregation of the pool. (D. Satterlee)
Hands Are Not for Hitting
As a professor, I am expected to observe and coach my students during their final semesters at the University. One of my students was hired at a program, where the teacher had quit halfway through the school year because she was struggling with behavior issues in her class of two-year-olds. When the student teacher walked into her new classroom of two-year-olds, she saw a lot of angry behavior as the children were hurting each other. I got a phone call. I went to observe.
My student and I brainstormed about what we could do to calm the class. I suggested that we use sign language to help the children communicate with each other. As we were observing the children, and getting to know their names, I had my student count the number of times per hour that the children were trying to hurt each other, and as well as document the time of day that was the most difficult. The number of times the children accosted each other, on the baseline count was 171 times during the three hours she counted. We found the book; Hands Are Not for Hitting, by Martine Agassi, and read the book to her group of 10 children. Then she demonstrated to the children how to say “Please, stop” with their hands. Next, she caught the children when they were getting ready to use their hands inappropriately, and stopped the children, and had them sign and say to each other “Please, stop”.
She gave them the words to say, both verbally and with their hands, during the times when emotions were high. It just was not easy to strike each other when their hands were busy signing, which really helped reduce the aggression. Over the course of 10 weeks, my student continued to remind the children of what to sign and to say, and she gradually diminished the angry behavior in the room. At the end of the semester, there was only one young child who had three instances of aggressive behavior for the entire day. My student discovered that the child and the mother were abused, and my student secured help for the family. Peace. (D. Satterlee)
Banned Books in a Changing Landscape
In 1965 I was a college student at Beloit College in Wisconsin when I purchased my first children’s book with the intention of using it in a classroom. I was engaged in my student teaching semester and couldn’t wait to share the delightful book with my third graders. I brought it to school, showed it to the supervising teacher, who approved it, and read it to the group of children who thoroughly loved the story with its sweet illustrations. Only later did I discover that the book, The Rabbits’ Wedding by Garth Williams, had been banned in 1959 in all libraries in the state of Alabama!
The story is about two rabbits, one white and one black, who fall in love and decide to get married. The drawings show a joyful couple with flowers in their ears, dancing and celebrating with their friends. A simple story, beautifully illustrated, of love, celebration, and commitment.
This story, depicting love between two different rabbits, was banned due to the concerns that it “promoted” interracial marriage. At the time, interracial marriage was forbidden by law in 31 U.S. states. In 1967 it finally became legal throughout the United States. Today, how many of us would feel threatened by the idea of interracial marriage? How many of us would even consider banning a children’s book such as The Rabbits’ Wedding? And yet, today books are still being banned due to their perceived “promotion” of threatening topics. One wonders, what topics will be “threatening” fifty years from now? Will banning books still be used to silence discourse? This history lesson about the changing landscape speaks to me about the important continuation of our work in making progress towards justice for all…and banning books plays no part in our essential work of creating a more peaceful world. (S. Hopkins)
Teaching in a Different Way
The semester was about to begin. I was excited about finally teaching face-to-face with students in early childhood education after three years of online instruction. Then I saw the email from the dean. Because of low enrollment, the class was being changed from a hybrid class to an online class to boost enrollment. Online classes have become one of the changes in the landscape of teaching.
The challenge of online teaching is building a relationship with students in the class. Since you don’t see students face-to-face, you can’t tell what is going on emotionally. When they don’t turn in an assignment, you wonder if they are understanding, keeping up or maybe having a personal situation that makes it more difficult to participate in the class.
Along with the challenges come unforeseen (to me anyway) benefits. Discussion assignments each week help me know where students are in their understanding of the class material. Since discussions (students respond both to a question the instructor poses and to other student’s responses) are fairly anonymous, I find that students are honest and more likely to write about events in their lives that they may not feel comfortable saying in class. They are also very supportive of each other’s ideas. So, even though I can’t see the students’ faces, I feel like I know how they are feeling and thinking.
Although I went into teaching online classes with fear of no connection, I found I could set up an environment to help students use their power to share their knowledge and have a deeper experience of learning than I expected. The changing landscape is blooming in surprising ways. (J. Daniels)
NOTE: We chose “Dear Olive Branch” as the title for this column for several reasons – foremost as a sign of peace. Also olives come in many colors, sizes, tastes, uses – a sign of diversity just as there are many types of questions and those who send the questions. We hope “Olive’s” responses will help you, the reader – if you have a question for Olive send it to our email address. When Olive isn’t available to answer questions, members of EPCC and/or P.E.A.C.E. will step up to help.
Olive’s Next Topic: Helping and Hurting Power
We are looking for your questions and/or short stories regarding Changing Trends. Please submit your ideas by July 18, 2023. Word range: 150-300 words.
This article is part of our Spring 2023 Newsletter. See all articles.
