June 14 1968 I had my first experience
working with young children
I've now actually been in a field for 50
years pretty scary thought
things have changed when I was I started
my work for the Department of Recreation
in Philadelphia and I was hired to coach
basketball referee basketball games
create leagues
oh and by the way Steve would you work
with these three and four-year-olds it's
like sure as long as I got to play
basketball and so I have this incredible
memory of sitting with those three and
four-year-olds in the shade of the
building and I found a case of paste do
you remember the old paste with the
wooden spoon and we would get the
construction paper out and the kids
would dip in and half the time they ate
the paste but they would eat the paste
they would do their thing and there was
something kind of magic beginning to
happen so that was the beginning of the
journey of this 50 years so I have seen
an enormous amount of trends happen in
this period some are really exciting
some are rather dismal I think early
childhood education in this day right
now is probably in its most interesting
challenging place but it's the best
opportunity because people are beginning
to understand the importance of what
happens early in life we I started I
worked in a half-day preschool program
and the biggest challenge was that we
had in that half-day program was a child
would lose a sock or they would spilled
her juice that was kind of the extent
the classrooms were pretty vanilla in
all aspects of that word
and the challenges were we're fairly
minimal but there was something really
inviting and really a tantalizing about
understanding what I was seeing so as I
danced up the up the developmental
ladder and begin to understand a little
bit more the importance of the true
impact of early childhood looking at
classrooms today are significantly
different our classrooms today are dimly
lit children being asked to sit and
listen for lengthy periods of time which
are not in their developmental soul they
are asked to do skill drill things
because they will learn they have to
stand in line I'm working with a school
right now where the children have to
walk up and down the hallways like this
what is that saying there is that the
classrooms are changing we have more and
more dysregulated children we have
teachers that are fragmented families
that are struggling to find the
resources for a morning breakfast to
find the resources to get their children
to school on time early childhood and
childhood is changing so as we look at
some of the classrooms and we look at
the struggles that teachers have we're
also seeing a breed of teacher that have
their own baggage that they bring in the
classroom so we have traumatized
children we have traumatized teachers we
have families with a whole collection of
behaviors and baggage that they're
struggling with so the classrooms are
changing we're seeing children with
angry love
angry love is the child who has no other
resources to get their emotional needs
met by throwing chairs across the room
the teachers in the room are beginning
to understand that we're seeing kids
that are so dysregulated and they're
saying hold me love me I will do
anything anything to get that even if it
means another beating we we are seeing
these children come in with angry love
they're highly traumatized and we're
seeing teachers that are traumatized and
the behaviors are activating secondary
trauma for the classroom we're helping
teachers begin to understand that what
we need in classrooms today is ruthless
compassion how to hold the soul of a
child even though they're cussing at you
even though they're spitting at you even
though they're throwing the chair how do
we hold the soul of that frighten that
frightened little baby yes we are seeing
changes in early childhood right now so
some of the trends that I have seen and
it's really exciting with a hundred
years worth of of research and
observational theory and we know that
all behavior has meaning remember that
all behavior has meaning we also know
that what happens early in life lasts a
lifetime the the research that has been
done by Kaiser Permanente and the CDC
about early trauma and adverse childhood
experiences is mapping out the the life
history for some of our children early
trauma has direct impact on learn
long-term health outcomes so what
happens early in life lasts a lifetime
we also know that the brain research
says that in the first five years of
life is the most critical time of brain
development the most critical time of
brain development so let's put these
things together what happens early in
life lasts a lifetime all behavior has
meaning the critical nature of brain
development in the first five years so
I'd like you to drink this in a moment
because it means that we can influence a
generation in five years we can
influence a generation in five years so
if we want to change society we must
change the way we teach our youngest
children we must change the way we teach
our youngest children we must change the
way we support families we must change
the way we are teaching our teachers we
must have teachers understand that they
are holding the souls of the children in
their charge and that every day is a
phenomenon every day is a phenomenon we
need to brighten the life for the
children in our charge so as we think
about what the impact is that what the
research says about early childhood
let's take a look at what the teachers
are with what the teachers look like
today in our in our state of Missouri to
be an early childhood educator all you
need is to be 18 years of age free of TB
and not have it felony now that's a bar
isn't it when you think about the
research the critical brain development
the first five years of life all
behavior has meaning all of these things
make a difference and yet the standards
for the teachers that are holding the
souls of our children are so low a real
challenge they are some of the most
lowest paid and under supported
educators that you'll find in our
country this is criminal we need to look
at how we invest so recently within the
past 15 years recently in my decades in
my generation we think about all that
research that has been I'm gonna say
ignored until more more current and more
current but we have economic data that
says every dollar invested in early
childhood has a 13 percent return on
investment every dollar invested in
early childhood has a 13 dollar return
on investment a 13 percent return on
investment so what I'd like you to do
this evening go home and look at your
own portfolio and see how many of you
are getting at 13 percent return on your
investment okay
we need to think about investing in our
youngest children families and teachers
with a completely different lens on how
we're going to invest in them so what we
what we are thinking what we are doing
at Loum Institute right now is think of
what is in our control what is in our
control right now we we spend hours
working with teachers and helping
teachers understand so we see five
critical components that teachers need
to know first of all teachers must
understand the emotional development of
the children in their classrooms they
must understand the the emotional
development of children now that is a
one directional piece earlier I
mentioned
that we often have teachers who are
coming traumatized teachers teach who
they are think back to the teacher that
you had that caused you struggles was it
you or was it them so we need to help
teachers understand who they are
understand their personal baggage that
they bring in the classroom understand
their their implicit bias that they
bring in the classroom do you know that
in the field of early childhood
education that preschool age children
are expelled three times more than any
other grade level three times more than
any other grade level preschoolers in
addition african-american boys preschool
boys are expelled three times higher
than any other culture in preschool what
is it what's the story we have to help
under help teachers understand who they
are what's the emotional baggage what's
the what's the social baggage that they
bring into the classroom what are they
seeing through their lens if they teach
who they are we also want teachers to
begin understanding temperament of
children and their own temperament of
children is that child fierce fearful is
that child feisty is that child flexible
who's in front of me we also have data
that says early childhood educators have
a tendency to have a B to be a more of a
fearful temperamental profession so when
you have a teacher that comes out of a
fearful temperament and they were
working with feisty kids or traumatized
kids it's they have a tendency to
oppress child
so we have to have teachers begin to
understand their inner souls we also
have to have teachers to begin
understanding the family histories
what's going on in the family if we we
have teachers who will want to schedule
appointments with families and they're
late or they missed their appointment
but they have spent a lifetime of not
working within the same system so we
have to have teachers look at the family
histories and create a synergistic
experience for for for families and to
be able to host families where they are
we also need to take into account what's
going on in our environment our
environment is so explosive today and
there's so much toxicity going on and
yet that's where the great opportunities
are for us for teachers to sit with
children to be with them to nurture
their souls so they feel emotionally
safe because we know in the research
that when children are emotionally safe
they will be socially safe because they
know have a they have an emotional
partner to help if they are feeling
emotionally safe and socially safe they
will take academic risk our systems have
a tendency to want to teach children to
the head but we have to teach to the
soul and the heart first so when they
when they enter kindergarten that they
are ready and they had the resiliency
necessary to take on the next adventure
and school needs to be an adventure not
an odious experience
so as we look at teachers children and
families we need to look to a holistic
lens and elevate the field of early
childhood education and give our
children the hope the hope that they
need for a better day so we ask you when
you leave here to begin thinking about
how are you investing in your time
talent and treasures in early childhood
education which will compound the
investment as they go into the
elementary middle school in high school
so we thank you for your thinking and
drinking that in and hopes that you will
make the steps necessary to hold the
Sol's
[Applause]