Create a Community of Learners

“Several years ago I was invited to write a paper on three gold-standard early childhood programs that have been studied for decades as the models for profound and positive development, learning, and adulthood success in children from very challenging backgrounds,” writes Ellen Galinsky in her popular book, Mind in the Making. Galinsky explains what she learned from interviewing administrators associated with the High/Scope Perry Preschool Project, the Abecedarian Project and the Chicago Child-Parent Centers:

“These researchers talked about many things that made a difference, among them the importance of viewing social-emotional and intellectual learning as being linked and helping children find something they care about learning and then pursuing that. But I also heard another message that has not been communicated loudly or frequently enough. Each of these programs became a ‘community of learners,’ a place where administrators were learning, teachers were learning, parents were learning, and children were learning…My interviews revealed that adults fostered children’s motivation by being motivated themselves.”

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