Contact Us

For more information about Defending the Early Years and how you can participate in our efforts to promote sane and appropriate policies and practices in early childhood education, email Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin at deydirector@gmail.com or write to: Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin/Defending the Early Years/ 35 Eldridge Road, #108/ Jamaica Plain, MA 02130

For outreach and media inquiries please contact:

Gina Contursi at (917)405-7680

gina.contursi@gmail.com

 

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15 thoughts on “Contact Us”

  2. I attended a seminar at the center for parents and teachers and I want to be sure that I am added to the email list. The discussion was beneficial and thought provoking and I would like to help this cause when I can. Please addme to the list :

    Tiffany Clark
    Tiffanylclark@luve.com

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  4. Thanks, Ed, for all that you’re doing to advocate for young children! I met you and attended your workshop at the recent conference at CUNY. (My claim to fame is that Dana Wiser, of Community Playthings, is my brother.) I’ve also taught Kindergarten for 15 years, in a private school, where I could teach the way children learn!! What a blessing!

    I’m doing my best to spread the word in the Saratoga Springs-Ballston Spa N.Y. area, talking with nursery school teachers, and connecting them with you and the Alliance for Childhood. Thanks, too, for “Crisis in the Kindergarten,” “The Crisis in Early Education,” and “Restoring Play…”. I’ve tried to get copies of the above through the Alliance, without results. Is there any way that I could get them through you?

    Thanks again for your passionate advocacy!
    Rae Wiser Whitehead

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  5. I have been writing in opposition to the Common Core Standards ever since they appeared.My commentaries have appeared in education Week and Valerie Strauss’ “The Answer Sheet” over the past two years. specifically, however, I would like to draw your attention to my article in the March 2013 issue of the Phi Delta Kappan, titled: “Warning: the Common Core Standards May Be Harmful to Children.” In it I focused on the inappropriateness of several standards for K-5 children. In addition, I have submitted another commentary to Education Week with the past few days. This one focus on the essential problems of the ELA Standards, one of which is expecting young children to perform like college students.

    Joanne Yatvin

    P.S. You might also be interested in another commentary of mine that was published in The Answer Sheet under the title,”Schools Need More Vigor Not Rigor.”

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  8. Please include me on your email list. I am the founder of Common Core Forum which is a statewide, non-partisan, volunteer citizen group dedicated to replacing the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSI) in Massachusetts with academically challenging and age-appropriate educational standards. Keep up the good work. Donna

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  9. I have returned to the early childhood level and I am appalled by what is going on. I am required to directly teach 3 and 4 year olds for 65minutes in a half day program. They only get 15 minutes of out side play and the 25 minutes of free play. Wow, this goes against everything I Bel ve in and was taught about early childhood. Are we simply taking away children’s childhood for the sake of college and career that happens decades later? Children will go through many more stages of development before college. I have seen children as early as first grade turned off about school. I found this website trying to update myself on the latest trend in early childhood education.

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  12. What we think is wrong with the current mathematics education system in elementary schools in the United States?

    …………………………

    Margery J. Doyle

    Cognitive Systems Scientist and Engineer

    Cognitive Architects and Engineers

    …………………………..

    Dr. Ahmed A. Moustafa

    Department of Veterans Affairs, East Organge, New Jersey, USA

    Marcs Institute for Brain and Behaviour and School of Social Sciences and Psychology, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    …………………………

    What we think is wrong with the current mathematics education system in elementary schools in the United States?

    1- The current mathematics education system in elementary schools in the United States is relying heavily on the use of formal language.

    2- The current mathematics curricula teach the subject matter using mostly formal language, making the process very difficult for children training to learn mathematics at such a young age, when their formal language systems have yet to mature.

    3- Relying heavily on the formal language system can cause mathematics anxiety when learning mathematics, which in turn, decrease a student’s ability to learn mathematics effectively.

    …………………………….

    How can we teach children mathematics so easily?

    1- Because visual-spatial capabilities are well-developed and mature at a young age, a math curriculum in the form of tables conveying the concepts allows the child an opportunity to easily learn mathematical concepts.

    2- We use the visual-spatial abstract system with first grade students. Using the visual-spatial abstract system with first grade students will help students to form abstract concepts and master math so easily.

    3- We are using brain training programs, to build strong mathematics processing networks and processes in the student’s brain.

    …………………………………

    Brain-Inspired Math

    Visual-Spatial Abstract System, Grade 1

    A new technique for teaching mathematics and boosting a child’s math skills.

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