Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting.
~ Ivan Illich
Goals & Schedule
Community
In your relationships with teachers, with children, and with the larger Children First community, we hope you will…
Demonstrate an open-minded and open-hearted curiosity about other people, and an awareness and appreciation of diversity.
Develop empathy – an ability to listen to and take the perspective of others, and to see that their rights and needs are as “real” as your own.
Show others kindness, compassion, courtesy and respect, and communicate your own needs clearly, so that others know how to treat you with kindness, compassion, courtesy and respect in turn.
Feel a sense of belonging – of caring connection and shared history. Know you have an unconditional place in a “we” that embraces and celebrates your unique “me.”
Build mutually enriching, joyful and enduring friendships
Fall head over heels in love, at least once, with someone or something that is part of your life in this community.
Collaborate in work, play and learning.
Ask for help when you need it.
Practice being both a leader and a follower.
Learn to engage in lively, respectful discourse with both adults and children, and to resolve conflicts so that everyone’s needs are met.
Question authority, and actively participate in the co-construction of community agreements that support and protect safety, freedom and joy.
Share responsibility for the care of our classroom and community.
Come to see all the people in your community as teachers, and learn more about their work, their stories, their expertise, their passions, and their cultural traditions.
Come to understand that your well-being is inextricably connected to the well-being of all; develop the will, knowledge and skills that enable you to align your choices and actions with that understanding; and grow the imagination and agency to envision and work towards a world organized for love, freedom and joy.
It is in the laps and conversations, the side-by-side work and play, and the shared bouts of silliness and sadness that a child learns that he or she is somebody important.
Jim Greenman
Well! This is Children First! It's a real school, and it's mine."
~ Reed, age 5, introducing Children First to a visitor
Children First is a non-profit preschool where parents and teachers cooperate to provide care and education of uncompromising quality for young children.