We would love to have the chance to introduce you to Delaney Wright, show you our beautiful campus, and tell you more about the ways we can collaborate to build a wonderful foundation for your child’s life of learning!
Our Philosophy
At the heart of Delaney Wright Eagle Rock is the belief that when children are provided a safe and nurturing environment to explore and grow in that they are able to learn and develop into unique individuals who are also capable and empathetic. Our philosophy encompasses the following principles:
Whole Child Approach
When children feel physically and emotionally safe, they are more ready to learn and feel more engaged in their school community and community abroad. We believe in supporting the child’s development as a unique individual while also challenging them in developmentally appropriate ways to continue to grow and develop. Through doing this, children develop a sense of themselves as unique individuals, while also respecting the needs and feelings of others.
Play-Based Learning
Play-based learning challenges and engages children in making sense of the world. It centers around the children’s interests and wonderings about the world. Through exploration of intentional materials, children are able to construct their own knowledge and understanding. Play and learning are then about the process and not the final product. Play is used to maximize each child’s potential.
Anti-Bias Education
It is the job of the adults to help young children construct a positive sense of self and a respectful understanding of others. Anti-bias education at Delaney Wright involves creating a community that supports all dimensions of human differences. We understand that at its core, anti-bias education needs to permeate everything that happens in our program – including the interactions between children, families, and staff – and shapes how we create our curriculum each day. The specific goals of anti-bias education are that:
Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities,
Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections,
Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts and,
Each child will demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with other or alone, against prejudice and/or discriminatory actions.
In the classroom, we foster experiences for children to recognize and value differences and likeness, to express their feelings when discomfort occurs, and to ask questions that support healthy emotional and social development. We strongly encourage families to work with the teachers in helping incorporate different familial cultures or holidays into the curriculum.
Adults as Co-Facilitators of Learning
The role of the adult, whether it is a teacher or a parent, is to help guide the child through their role as explorers and enquirers of their own knowledge with careful and sensitive listening, observation, and reflection. Our teachers provide stimulating classroom environments that allow the children to discover and develop, while also providing thoughtful responses to children’s dialogue and strong social collaboration, where each child is an equal participant and the teacher is not seen as the giver of knowledge, but rather as the co-collaborator of knowledge.
Documentation
Together educators and early learners communicate and present learning journeys with documentation. Educators honor and value children’s ideas through observation, documentation, and reflection. Educators are present to assist children in expressing what they have learned.
The Role of the Environment
The environment as the third teacher plays an integral role by sparking and inspiring wonder and curiosity. Learning opportunities are a response to children’s interests with intentional materials that promote deeper thinking skills. These materials provide learning opportunities through playfully enriching environments.
Anti-Bias Curriculum Resources
Your 5 Year-Old is Already Racially Biased
100 Race-Conscious Things You Can Say to Your Child to Advance Racial Justice
Why White Parents Need to do More Than Talk to Their Kids About Racism
www.time.com/5362786/talking-racism-with-white-kids-not-enough/
Diversity and Inclusion: Lessons in Friendship & Love