Pretty much wherever you
look, the universe of care, learning, and play environments is limited and
disappointing. It certainly is not inspiring. Last year I wrote about the need
for more varied spaces for children.
Since then, the question of why we don’t create environments that truly favor
children has persisted for me and, I think–perhaps hopefully–for others as
well.
We locate spaces for
young children in basements when they need to see the world. We make children
sit down at desks and be quiet, just when they are really good at talking and
moving in exciting ways. We expect children to learn as they learn naturally,
and then we scour environments clean of rich textures, sounds, and varied
materials that are intriguing and full of information for their thinking and
learning. At the same time, we clutter early childhood spaces with cartoony
penguins, leprechauns, and pumpkins dangling from ceilings where children can
see only a bit. We saturate rooms with bright red, blue, and yellow, and
compete with children’s faces, hands, and their work.
Even babies are put in
spaces we call classrooms that
are miniature versions of 1st grade classrooms; those classrooms are
miniature versions of high school classrooms. Activity areas and room
arrangements in preschool classrooms and kindergartens are based on preschool
models from the 1950’s.
Options aren’t more
promising if you look at furniture and equipment for play and learning spaces
for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners in early childhood and school
catalogues. Selected with an adult worldview rather than a child’s sense and
sensibility, these products find their way into museum preschools, program
spaces for toddlers and “mommy and me” programs, early childhood exhibit
spaces, and museum play yards. The relatively new colorful carpets with giant
alphabets, numbers or rainforest images do not change the paradigm.
How can we change the paradigm and create environments that
favor the child?
How can we move away
from settings that favor the janitor, the teacher, the nanny, the education
commissioner, the parent, the furniture salesman, or the accreditation team?
Environments that favor
children cannot happen without a full, positive image of children, their
capabilities, and potential as well as an understanding of the power of a
setting to extend those promising qualities. Yes, there are found places to
play and wonderful places planted for play
that support children’s exploration, discovery, and connections. With few
exceptions, however, the spaces we create for children in schools, infant,
toddler and preschool and care settings; in museum classrooms, and exhibits are
limited, especially compared to the many more examples of environments designed
for selling and for nurturing animals in zoos.
Recognizing Who Children Really Are
Children are moving
through their world, learning as they go. They watch, they reach, they want to
find out. They have questions, spoken and unspoken. The world is full of
sensory information where knowledge begins. Children respond to the present and
to what is present and in that moment.
At 15, 35, or 75 years old, we see this same world very differently. We
know a lot about how it works and what to expect. We are no longer fascinated
by simple cause-and-effect; generally we are not surprised by gravity. We can
imagine where a sound came from and what made the sound. While we may be
pleased to see lightning bugs, we are not enthralled and dash about in
wonderment.
Thinking
of children as curious, competent, full of strengths, makes children important.
It also reflects what research is making clear.
…there is strong evidence that children, when they have accumulated
substantial knowledge, have the ability to abstract well beyond what is
ordinarily observed. Indeed, the striking feature of modern research is that it
describes unexpected competencies in young children, key features of which
appear to be universal. These data focus attention on the child’s exposure to
learning opportunities, calling into question simplistic conceptualizations of developmentally
appropriate practice that do not recognize the newly understood competencies of
very young children, and they highlight the importance of individual
differences in children, their past experiences, and their present contexts.[i]
Environments Embody Meaning
Most of us view the built
environment as 3-D wallpaper. It’s background for our lives, surroundings that
we take for granted. The physical environment, however, is more than the
arrangement of furniture in a room. Not only does the environment encompass the
full volume of a space, the surfaces, and materials that cover walls, the views
outside, and the quality of light that enters, it is also greater than the sum
of these parts.
Spaces are not necessarily
legible, readily understood when first approached and explored. Often they
prompt questions, spoken and unspoken, about what might occur in a space, the
behaviors that are expected or discouraged. What can I do here? What does this
place do? How long can I stay? Where can I go? What can I touch? Is this a
place to play or sit? To make choices or follow directions? To wait or get
busy? Do I stay at this table or visit all the tables? Is this a place to try
new things or do the same things again?
Environments are also
context with meaning. Just as context gives helpful clues to a word’s meaning
in a sentence, the environment provides clues to a space and its possibilities.
When we shape a setting and its physical character, we can help anticipate and
answer questions. In planning an environment, we express our intentions for the
space along with our understanding and assumptions about those who use it.
While we are not fully determining what will occur in a space, we are opening
up some possibilities and closing down others. We have an opportunity to send
messages about mood, actions, and what will be done here and can be learned
here. So, what are we conveying in the care, learning, and play environments we
create for children in schools and museums?
Children’s Strong Relationships
With Environments
Young
children live continuously in the here-and-now of experience, engaging with the
qualities of the environment, its volumes, touch, sounds, light, odors, and
movements. Right from the moment of birth, infants are engaged in developing a
relationship with the environment. Research on babies from 12-33 months shows
that their interactions with the physical environment account for approximately
80-90% of waking time. Social interactions comprise approximately 10-20% of
waking time.[ii]
A lap, a crib, or a room, environments
are the containers for the everyday moments that matter to children. Babies’
draw on, live in, and act on the environment as a primary source of information
about the world. With brains active from birth and through physical and sensory
exploration, they inhabit spaces fully.
Children are active
participants in their environment. They are not merely consumers. From a very
early age, they exert control over their environment in a relationship that is
reciprocal. A child pushes on the environment, intentionally or
unintentionally, and it pushes back. A baby drops a spoon, and gathers
information about gravity. A preschooler pulls a chair up to the counter to
reach higher. A seven year old throws a ball and breaks a window.
Environments speak
directly to children. We may think a child is “misbehaving” when he is
responding to an interesting feature that is present. In the Adventures in the
Arts exhibit at the Museum of the Rockies, a 5
year-old boy repeatedly scooted up-and-down a ramp. His mother kept shushing
him without, apparently, considering that the ramp was far more engaging than
the flat floor or the paintings hung too high for him to see. His feet,
however, made interesting sounds as they moved fast and slow, hard and soft, up
and down the ramp.
Both the social and the
physical environment are important: “…early environments matter and nurturing
relationships are essential”.[iii] Yet, in children’s programs, the
physical environment is often what distinguishes program quality. In programs,
classrooms, and exhibits, children notice and respond to the aliveness of
space, even when an adult or another child is not present.
Environment as the Third Teacher
Among
the leading ideas from the Municipal Schools of Reggio Emilia (Italy) is the
environment as the third teacher.
In the infant, toddler, preschool, and elementary schools, social and physical
relationships are reinforced in the school settings. Clear physical
organization makes space legible so, at every age, a child is competent in
navigating. Environments are planned to create opportunities for the child to
explore in open-ended ways and to find many possibilities. Thoughtful attention
is given to environments that are beautiful, hospitable, and amiable.
In strengthening physical
relationships about the world; encouraging social connections; arranging space
to be attractive and create possibilities; selecting varied materials and
objects for exploration; and inspiring with beauty, an environment can serve as
a full curriculum. It carries messages, content, and invitations to explore. When
adults are more attentive to the environment, possibilities for children’s
exploring, thinking, and learning can be increased.
For young children,
physical development is cognitive development. Toddlers love to move;
they fall; they learn about gravity. Those short, somewhat wobbly toddler legs
are meant for covering territory, not for sitting at short chairs and tables. Recently,
I visited an early care and learning program and noticed the very tiny
table and chairs in the
infant room. The director told
me that they were required as part of NAEYC accreditation. As if babies
(or children) can’t learn unless seated at a table! What about steps, the
floor, a cushion, or the middle of a sand pile as platforms for play and
exploration?
Creating Environments that Favor
the Child
Environments
that favor the child are alive and responsive to a child’s potential; they
enable the child to build on her curiosity; build his competence; and grow
into the possibilities the space offers. These environments:
Hold
an image of the child as curious, capable, competent, and full of potential at
the center, grounding choices for all aspects of a space in
that rich image.
Make
the organization of space legible and invest spaces with meaning that is relevant and particular to that group of
children and adults.
Enable
children’s sense of agency and accomplishment by inviting possibilities with a rich and varied
array of materials and objects.
Connect
the daily world inside with the larger world outside, through windows and doors, linking with families,
and reaching out to adventures beyond.
Are
beautiful, hospitable, pleasant spaces, rich in detail and meaning.
These
are full and rich dimensions of environments worthy of exploring, ones that respect
and engage children’s great capabilities. Over the next few months, I intend to
explore them. I hope to do so with input from readers–your questions,
curiosities, experiences, and images you feel express these qualities. I invite
you to think about and share your thoughts as a comment here or via email (jwverg@earthlink.net).
[i] National Research Council,
Committee on Early Childhood Psychology. 2000. Eager to Learn: Educating Our
Preschoolers in Bowman, Barbara T., M. Suzanne Donovan, and M. Susan Burns.
(Eds.). National Academy Press: Washington, DC.
[ii] White, B.L., B. Kaban, B.
Shapiro, and J. Attanucci. (1977). Competence and Experience in I.C. Uzgiris
and F. Weizman (Eds.) The Structure of Experience. Plenum Press: New York.
(p.115-152).
[iii] National Research Council,
Committee on Early Childhood Psychology. 2000. Eager to Learn: Educating Our
Preschoolers in Bowman, Barbara T., M. Suzanne Donovan, and M. Susan Burns.
(Eds.). National Academy Press: Washington, DC.
