Early Learning Project
Illinois Early Learning (IEL) staff asked Barbara Bowman (BB) about the challenges and opportunities facing the early care and education field today.
IEL welcomes reader responses! Click here to comment on this interview. We will post selected comments for further discussion.IEL:
You have had a long and distinguished career in early childhood and teacher education. Were there particular influences—certain individuals or experiences—that contributed to your professional path?
BB:
In college, I did a year course in child psychology, and as part of the course requirements, I worked in the college nursery school and really enjoyed it. Later, when I was finishing work on my teaching certificate, I visited a kindergarten classroom in Chicago where a teacher was responsible for 100 children—about 50 in the morning and 50 in the afternoon. I completed my teaching certificate, but knew I could not handle that kind of schedule, and my advisor suggested I go to graduate school at the University of Chicago, which I did. I got a job at the Lab nursery school and remembered how much I had enjoyed my child development class. I decided that year that preschool was the place for me. I later taught kindergarten and had 14 children in my classroom—and realized that I would never have survived with 100 children a day.
IEL:
What changes have you observed in the ECE field that surprise you—ones you would not have predicted 10 or 20 years ago?
BB:
What stands out for me about changes in the ECE field over the years is how wrong I have been about a number of things. One example: when Head Start started in the 1960s, I maintained a strong developmental position about children, strongly influenced by Piaget’s work. I believed in the importance of play and in progressive education and thought the same program would be appropriate for all children. Through the 1980s and 1990s as I worked with different communities, I became aware of the fact that many of children’s delays in school aren’t related to developmental failure but rather to opportunity to learn. Many of our children haven’t had a chance to learn school skills, and their past experiences don’t tell them that school-type learning is important. Then I was willing to say, “Just provide a stimulating environment, and kids will learn more or less on their own.” I didn’t appreciate that middle-class parents and teachers create a rich environment for children, a hidden curriculum. The contrast in vocabulary acquisition between low- and middle-income children as they enter school is a good example of that difference. I began to understand that there is so much more to early literacy and to early math that needs to be taught instead of expecting children to pick up that knowledge informally. Over the years, I’ve gotten more interested in how to structure education for young children at school risk, particularly low-income children. Let me say, I now am more focused on teaching children school-related skills and knowledge. That does not mean I want to bore them to death or beat them over the head with instruction. I want to encourage a love of learning while ensuring children are successful in school. Nothing makes you dislike something more than being unsuccessful. I also think play and creativity are very important in the early years. I am just more willing to say that children don’t need to play all day and that in the 2½ hours that we have children in our PreK programs, free play is not the most useful or productive activity. We can encourage parents to let children engage in free play at home instead of doing worksheets.
IEL:
Are there any changes or current ECE trends that concern you?
BB:
Technology concerns me because I don’t know what or how to teach it to children. I don’t believe we should protect children from technology, but I do not understand the field myself well enough to decide on a technology curriculum. For instance, at what ages does it make sense to introduce technology to young children? When should they learn keyboarding? What can be taught through games? How do you teach research skills on the Internet? I have lots of questions about the role of technology in the lives of young children.
IEL:
You serve on the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) Early Childhood Task Force on Transforming Early Learning in Grades PreK-3, which released its recommendations this past June. Many of the NAESP’s recommendations mirror the recently released Race to the Top—Early Learning Challenge priority areas. What, in your view, are the most challenging aspects of aligning our PreK and early elementary grade programs?
BB:
Alignment presents a challenge. Neither teachers nor principals nor directors of child care centers are accustomed to thinking about alignment between PreK and the early elementary grades. Early learning standards help, but they also aren’t widely understood nor uniformly implemented. Ideally, we would identify what children need to know and do in third grade and backfill what each age group needs to know to be successful the next year. Teachers, principals, and directors all need professional development to not only figure out what to teach but also how to teach different grade levels.
There is a role for teacher education to help teachers figure out how to be effective with groups of children and to help children know how to learn in a group. Early childhood teachers tend to concentrate on individualizing and relationships. Both are important, but it is also important to be able to manage a group of children so they can learn together. Our teacher education programs and ongoing professional development need to address these areas. We need to fast-track the ideas that work.
IEL:
You experience the early care and education field from multiple angles—as a researcher, a teacher educator, and as a manager of programs for the Chicago Public School District. What are some challenges you see facing school principals and teacher educators?
BB:
Regarding school principals, it may be unrealistic to expect principals to be instructional leaders for such a wide age range present in our schools today. Perhaps we need to think about new schools that serve children PreK through grade 3. I think it is important for teacher educators to spend a year in the classroom every seven years or so. We often place our student teachers in the best schools and don’t have any idea how poor some of the teaching is out there and how many children are not prepared for school. We have to do a better job preparing our new teachers for today’s schools and children.
IEL:
You have highlighted some of the challenges facing the early care and education field today. Are there reasons for optimism?
BB:
It is an exciting time to be in education. People are beginning to get that development and learning go together. Schools and programs are thinking about new ways to make parents partners. Parents need to approve of what we do in schools. Race to the Top has focused attention on early education, which is a good thing. The challenges are always there. The opportunities are endless. Anyone who has been in education as long as I have has to be optimistic.
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