Enterprise Talk Guidelines
This is what I have learned about how to actually change my own behavior with children to become more authentically me and act towards them in a way that is congruent with my values. You’ll find here a one page summary of Enterprise Talk and wall charts to post around you as reminders. The article on it is below.
Enterprise Talk: a handrail to authenticity and integrity
Authenticity: Am I being aware, open, and present in this moment of stress? Or am I acting habitually?
Integrity: If I hold certain values, am I practicing those values in this moment of stress? Am I walking my talk?
I wrote this in celebration of Lilian Katz, in which I discuss the significance of being carefully intentional when we talk to children. Since we adults are bigger, more privileged, and can be a bull in a china shop, we might look carefully at ourselves when we use our often unrecognized power. Download the pdf, on this page, too. This work is transformation.
Cultivating Conversations with Children
You know people who are surrounded by children because the children love being with them so much. Do you want that for you, too? After long study, really long study, I finally learned how to have meaningful conversations with any child I encounter. By meaningful, I mean that in one single conversation both the child’s life and the adult’s life are changed in a beneficial way. This is a complete course of study designed to change adult behavior. This is work is transformation, too, so it seems college credit is appropriate for doing the work in red.
If you are currently enrolled in a relevant higher education program, it may be possible to petition for independent study credit by documenting one’s work through the challenges linked here. Goals, objectives, assignments, and evaluation are all included.
Levels of Abstraction
Continuing up one more step in understanding the essentials, I offer a slide show presentation of Marion Blank’s Levels of Abstraction as applied to casual commenting and selecting children’s books. Here’s how some cultures prepare young children for the world of ideas and evaluating what is available in the library and online. No matter what you are searching for at my site, the utility of this for your future may surprise you. It sure changed me.
Troubling Behavior
Commonly called behavior management or discipline, this page addresses how helpers deal with troubling behavior. After being taught by over a hundred challenging children, I found that “correcting them” was not the goal. I also found that it takes time to change behavior, and one has to start with personal work to practice ways of communicating from a place of authenticity and warmth, especially when upset. The ‘managment’ role could be more accurately described as leadership and care for the child as well as the child’s community.
Management Protocol
Subsequent to taking on the challenges in the Troubling Behavior section, I provide a systematic way to address those problems that still might remain. Some problems are so extremely difficult that the entire group of managers, parents, and caregivers must meet to address them consistently and positively. The Management Protocol sets the agenda for group work after first addressing how we talk about what we see happening. Usually people share their opinions rather than look at objective facts and discuss the meaning of those facts that a group can agree upon.
If you are currently enrolled in a relevant higher education program, it may be possible to petition for independent study credit by documenting one’s work through the challenges of these pages above. Goals, objectives, assignments, and evaluation for that work and documentation of that work for official review are included in RED.
Emotion Vocabulary
One handout from the Troubling Behavior materials has become widely used across the world.
I put together a one-page list of English words describing feelings organized by category and intensity. View in browser. Download pdf.
Active Listening
Also from the Troubling Behavior materials is a companion piece: a convention to optimize one’s effectiveness in providing care when times get emotional. This isn’t a way to solve any problem; it’s an opportunity for closeness, and it’s worth learning to do well.
Interviewing Prospective Staff
Rather than hire a teacher based on an abstract discussion of values and pedagogy, you can show them these four short videos and see what they truly understand. Each is a sophisticated provocation about the essentials of early childhood pedagogy. The videos reside on Vimeo, so they can be accessed anywhere, and the supportive materials reside on this page.
Talking to Children About Their Art
Here is what I have learned about being an authentic art educator for preschool aged children. Using tempera paint as an example I offer a protocol for responding to children as soon as possible after completing a work. We ought to treat children as we would treat adults.