Grass Valley, CA, June 14-17
CEASE East and West members gathered at the Woolman Retreat in Nevada City, California for three days of working on our commitment to create a safe and just world for children and families, planning our activities for the coming year and enjoying our valued companionship.
We continue to be concerned about the No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top emphasis on early academics and high stakes testing. One of our actions will be to write an article regarding the benefits of child-initiated play. Another is to continue to focus on play in our future workshops.
A new committee was formed to create the 2012 Fall Packet with the goal of eventually transitioning the packet to a paperless resource to be available well before the Fall NAEYC conference. This year resources will include background on the upcoming election and a FYI comparing the military budget with the ECE budget.
We plan to continue to support and work with our close partners: Save our Schools, Defending the Early Years and the Campaign for the Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We discussed NAEYC’s bias toward technology in the ECE classroom as evidenced in the May 2012 Young Children. We will support the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Alliance for Childhood as they complete their report on the effects of technology on young children’s growth and development. We agreed with the recommendations of the health-related organizations with reference to the exposure of young children, particularly those under two, to screen media.
While we continue to view NAEYC as an appropriate forum for our advocacy work, we are also investigating the possibility of becoming an interest forum at the Association for Childhood Education International, which more closely aligns with our values and purposes.
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