Sharing the Joy for Infants and Toddlers
I heard the news that Dr. Alice Sterling Honig died in early March of this year. Oh, yes I hadn’t seen her speaking at a National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) conference in many years — age, health, and COVID had kept her away. I had forgotten how much I loved going to her workshops and interacting with her in the hallways. She was always filled with joy, exuberance, love, and stories. It is difficult we didn’t have this forever.
Dr. Honig had become one of the leading experts of infant and toddler caregiving. She taught a summer week-long course at Syracuse University, well known throughout the country as a comprehensive study of young children. She wrote numerous articles about founding and leading her world-renown lab school in Syracuse.
I first met her in 1988 when she was a keynote speaker at the New Mexico Association for the Education of Young Children (NMAEYC) annual conference. I was the president of the Albuquerque Chapter of NMAEYC and wanted to hold a reception at the conference. I wrote her a letter (no email in those ancient days) and asked her to be part of the reception at the conference. We had already asked Ella Jenkins to speak and sing but Dr. Honig was icing on the cake.
Within a week I got a phone call at La Puerta de los Niños where I worked. Alice told me she would love to come.
I found out she was also connected to the pacifist organization Fellowship of Reconciliation and involved in peace activities in New York. I was active in CEASE (now P.E.A.C.E.) at the time in New Mexico. This event brought together two things I loved: early childhood education and peace. To put it mildly it was an amazing reception and well attended.
After moving to Boston and soon after graduate school, because of Dr. Honig I shifted from being a preschool teacher to an Infant toddler teacher. The rest of my career was spent sharing the joy of those youngest of children.
I attended Dr. Honig’s summer institute in New York as well as most of the presentations she gave at NAEYC conferences, and arranged for her to speak at the Massachusetts AEYC conference. She talked at a CEASE workshop in New Orleans on Peace and Infants & Toddlers. Later as P.E.A.C.E. we gave her our annual Peace Award. Wherever she spoke, she shared the joy of the youngest of children. Her joy spread throughout the world.
She lived a full life dedicated to children and teachers. Thanks to her we have all been inspired to look more closely at all children and see their role in our lives – and be reminded that we were all babies once.
