Understanding the
Languages of a Child

By Jennifer Shankman
Director of Early Childhood

What does it look like to first view the young child as capable and competent? How are we making meaning when we count our children as global citizens with rights? What do we do each day to respond to the developmental needs and interests of the young child, while also keeping our eye on the pulse of education in America—and knowing that the two often cause friction? These are big questions to the untrained eye. For the educators in our early childhood education department, the mission to ask and answer these questions is our North Star, for it drives us in the work we do.

Wise School Early Childhood’s approach is through the lens of a constructivist philosophy, wherein we provide children with multiple entry points and a wide array of rich materials to spark wonder, foster creativity, and allow children the room to think imaginatively and critically as they unravel the challenges that arise throughout their day. This type of curriculum does not come in the form of lesson plans that are taught frontally by a teacher. We make deeper meaning in our spaces by listening to the children’s voices, learning their interests, and by being student, teacher, and guide on the journey. We take time to ask questions, to listen and to reflect, both with the children as well as with our colleagues. We take notes, collect work, document, and figure out how to always study more deeply and extend our emergent curriculum.

This isn’t easy work and it isn’t all that we do. While we are attempting to unravel the colorful thread of emergent studies, we are also balancing children’s temperaments, stretches, and strengths; behavioral and social/emotional needs; the physical needs of a young child that change from minute to minute; and the expectation of Kindergarten readiness and success. Now consider that we manage up to 16 of those beautiful children, with 16 different sets of needs, in a classroom with two professionals. We do our best to find balance.

Here at Wise, we take all of these elements and daily unknowns and wrap them up under the beautiful umbrella of who we are—a Jewish institution that connects through the building of community; celebration of holiday and tradition; and deep values of kindness, responsibility, integrity, creativity, empathy, and inclusion.

It is easy to lose sight of that North Star when we are in the thick of our school day. It takes energy and strong professional development to be meticulous about this work and to stay the course. And we want to be meticulous about this work because our children deserve it. If we see them as competent, capable citizens with rights (and we do), it is easy to understand truly how important it is to carry out our constructivist philosophy and our mission of making meaning and changing the world.

The Lowell Milken Family Foundation gift to Wise School Early Childhood is truly transformational. It will launch this part of our program into a class of its own. On the programmatic side, we will be able to set aside the time and space to build out our vision through deep, ongoing opportunities for staff development and study. We will gain access to the best resources, the best research, and the best resources in the field of early childhood education. We will have the opportunity to extend STEAM education through regular art, music, science, gardening, yoga, and physical education classes.

Imagine our school setting the bar for other Jewish and secular preschools and being a leader in the field of Jewish early childhood education. Imagine our school being a school that shares in the education of teachers beyond our doors, including students from underserved communities or places that don’t have the same access to quality professional development. It is quite a big task and while it is going to take quite a bit of work and time, it is now well within our reach.

Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia philosophy of early childhood education, wrote poetically that “the child has a hundred languages” but that the world at large is always trying to take those languages away. In Wise School Early Childhood, we agree with Malaguzzi’s insistence that when the world tries to take them away, “the child says: No way. The hundred is there.”

We follow our North Star.