On Roots and Wings

"There are two things we should give our children:

one is roots and the other is wings."

Quotation attributed to Hodding Carter and Henry Ward Beecher

I began studying early childhood education and child psychology in 1996 after working as a toddler classroom teacher at a daycare center in Seattle for one year. One of the earliest concepts in education to catch my eye was a book on the desk of one of the graduate assistants who taught me, Roots & Wings: Affirming Culture in Early Childhood Programs by Stacy York.

If I have one goal in educating my children and all children, it is this: to help each individual feel strongly enough rooted in their love and family history that the world is seen through a lense of capability, possibility and love for all humanity. May it be so that I can achieve even a little bit of this goal in my own journey of living, loving, and teaching.