A Researcher is driven by curiosity and committed to a lifelong study of children. She asks questions and tests her ideas; observes and reflects on her observations; theorizes and shares her theories with others through dialogue and documentation.
An Author carefully, lovingly crafts the shared language, the routines and rituals, and the documentation that give shape and reality to her educational philosophy. An Artist builds a culture of beauty, inclusion and expression through her arrangement of space and materials; her choice of learning activities; and her interactions with children and their work. A Composer orchestrates the underlying structure that protects a basic sense of security and calm, yet supports complexity and ambition.
A Companion believes that every child is a sacred individual with a particular path in this life, and believes herself privileged to assist children in finding and walking that path. In a school where we pledge to do “nothing without joy,” teachers genuinely enjoy their lives with the children and relish what we like to call “the pleasure of their company.”
A Learning Partner believes education to be a deeply social process. In too many American schools, interactions between teachers and children focus on what Jerome Bruner calls the “boring stuff of petty management”
My hunch is that if we allow ourselves to give who we really are to the children in our care, we will in some way inspire cartwheels in their hearts.
Well! This is Children First! It's a real school, and it's mine."
Children First is a non-profit preschool where parents and teachers cooperate to provide care and education of uncompromising quality for young children.
http://childrenfirstschool.org/cf
childrenfirstmail@gmail.com
919.489.6837