Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Activities & Curriculum Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Arts & Crafts Music for Learning Recommended Reading Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education Job Sharing Board State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! Each month we'll send you an email filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now Date: 8/14/2002 11:47:00 AM Author: Barry Bussewitz (barry.bussewitz@solano.cc.ca.us) Subject: young children need hugs, laps, love and diaper changes! Jesse: When I read your five rules I began to think you must be making a facetious statement. Assuming you were being straightorwardly sincere, I do endorse your right to work out your relationship with your work in all appropriate ways that protect your own wellbeing and aslo serve your young client fully. I clearly understand there are many compelling reasons to be thoughtful in this regard. However, I would also strenuously object to the generalization of those admonitions to others. If they were applied to me as a caregiver I would simply not be able to do my job because I would need a nanny to protect me or the children at all times -- and to give young children the care that they need and deserve and that makes being an early childhood professional a significant, important, and distinct professional calling. Young children need physical care: they need hugs, laps, love and, often, diaper changes. If I am not allowed to provide those and a lot more, I cannot do my job. How could I even be hired to do the job with those limitations? I am concerned about what your clients want for their children if they are comforted by your willingness to do none of that. My approach as an educator is to question, counter and educate myself and others regarding phobias and biases that are detrimental to children, as well as to face the threatening realities of both irrational fears and valid concerns. In my college classes I work to examine and counter anti-male bias, as well as other forms of "isms" (racism, sexism, classism, ageism, etc.), because they limit us all. At the National Association for the Education of Young Children national conference in New York City this November, I am scheduled to present a workshop entitled, "Can Homophobia Be Cured? A dialogue/exploration into the social and spiritual aspects of seeing anti-homosexual hostility as a social problem that concerns Early Childhood Educators personally and professionally in our work with children and families. All welcome." This workshop, and the conference in general, are representative of the many opportunities I find essential both personally and professionally in terms of finding allies and forming networks for the difficult challenge of creating a socio-cultural context in which young children can be fairly served. I repeat that I respect your need to make your personal choices that work for you. I encourage you both to consider the wider context of their implications and to join with others to change oppressive fears, biases and ignorance. Name: Email: Subject

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