Time to watch, to listen and hear young children!

“Please let me be: please listen to me!”

Dr. Jacqui Cousins, May 2017

I have been asked as an early years’ elder for my reflections on the state of education and care in Britain in 2017; in particular, whether I have any pertinent questions to ask our prospective politicians. Many new people have never heard of me and that’s absolutely fine as I don’t seek fame or fortune but have a real interest in the work of students and many groups (see www.jacquicousins.co.uk.) I wear many different hats and love to study: however, with an enormous family, I have no time to sit on any committees or bother about being one of them up there! Ivory towers are too easy to fall out of and I have no head for heights. As an early years’ consultant and a conference keynoter on the subject of listening and learning, my mantra is that:
Early years Carers and Educators need to take time to listen to the many different ‘voices’ of young children so that they are able to PARTICIPATE fully in building a fairer and more democratic world.

My main preoccupation is human development from an ecological point of view. (in the context of education, the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner (Bronfenbrenner, 2005) provides further insights into this theoretical stance: particularly on how the learning of our youngest children is as much dependent on equal or reciprocal relationships of harmony between key people in their lives as to the methods used in teaching.) As an artist and a writer, my presentations are very visual with many true stories about people and all the projects carried out together which put ‘vision into action!’ My favourite job now is to be the children’s voluntary 'Nursery Nanna' locally so that I am able to help staff a bit and continue to be totally fascinated by the children. They come to me a lot to talk in our Leechwell Community Gardens (in Totnes, Devon) designed by us all and which is our favourite place to be. Totnes is a ‘Caring Town’ and that is an important project which we are all part of in various networking teams of equal merit. No one person can be or can do everything that is needed now to keep our children safe and sane.

Empowerment projects - Vision into Action?

We are living at a time of fundamental global change: too much of change is being made at an inhuman speed as the tools of technology begin to take over. Most of our largest macro-systems are being reinvented or restructured too quickly and are getting out of balance. Any state of disequilibrium (whether in the subconscious or conscious) is chaotic, challenging, stressful and confusing for all living creatures including humans. A balance has to be found so that harmony can be restored and our batteries recharged. Without that balance all of us but particularly our young children inevitable begin to suffer from emotional problems. We can see for ourselves more anxieties and stress by looking at their tearful little faces and hear about their nightmares and experience more wet beds. Children need adults to change NOW! Now it is the actions and the following inspirational words of Janusz Korczak which inspired us at the UN and still guide my life and work:
“Children are not the people of tomorrow but people today. They are entitled to be taken seriously and treated with tenderness and respect as equals. They should be allowed to grow into whoever they were meant to be...the UNKNOWN person inside each of them is the hope for the future” A Voice for the Child: the inspirational words of Janusz Korczak (Joseph, 1999)

As the image (below) of children’s new Millennium wishes shows, their deepest wishes for change for all children in the world are clear. Please listen to them! Let them be! A majority as babies are already creative, curious, playful problem solvers when they have sufficient adults alongside to guide! Politicians of all parties PLEASE let our children enjoy their childhood before it’s too late!

South Hams Devon ARTS children’s new Millennium Wishes:

“Our Millennium Dream is for ....children everywhere to join us in our imaginary Millennium Dream Party Picnic....to have lots of food....to have fun and play party games...to be surrounded by love....and to live in peace.”

Reflections of an elder

At age 78, it would be easy join the growing British culture of blame or watch (what is fast becoming) a daily tit for tat at the current political discussions for all to see on television. I won’t go on about the mis-named weekly Parliamentary Question Time when tempers flare quite regularly, and respectful or logical points of view are rare. We all hope our young children never see those kinds of pseudo - discussions which take place every week. Of course, we often have clashing political opinions ourselves, but the articulate and intelligent adults in children’s young lives need to show them how to express those opinions articulately and respectfully.
Children invariably model themselves on us so we adults have a responsibility to give all our children the best possible example. We need to take note of the increasing mental issues of depression in our young and listen to why our youngest potential voters are so disillusioned with politics and politicians they choose not to vote. Freedom to speak and to vote is fundamental in our democracy; many people died and many still do to make that possible. Even as young as three and four, our youngest children know about how to vote for things and how to tally the numbers in a fair way. Children are capable of so much more than many people expect of them but that should never be an excuse to put on more pressure by expecting them to do things that their brains and bodies are nowhere nearly ready to achieve. No matter what the methods imposed, early failure of young children when they try to read too soon is one of causes of lowering self esteem and causing early disaffection.

The past is like a dream!

Nearing my 50th year as a professional early years’ person I hope there is still plenty of time for me to celebrate childhood. It used to be so exciting and energising when I first became a nursery teacher in 1969. The Plowden Report suggested that an education for being as well as knowing, without any pressure of tests and targets, was firmly on the agenda. We young enthusiasts put vision into action especially through play, practical projects, science fairs and the arts. We were all expected by our LEAs and our headteachers to spend time in the difficult task of observing, recording and diagnostically assessing the language and learning of children from the age of four.

It is good to be an elder and have had experience of different ways to find out about so many different things which help children to develop well and all their adults be happy too! All those areas have been very well researched. Dame Marie Clay as long ago as the ‘70s gave us the best diagnostic tools to identify how aware young children are of print: two puzzling and funny books called ‘Sand’ and ‘Stones’ (Heinemann). Before their teachers imposed any rote methods with ‘flash cards’ or ‘phonic drill’ which were then in vogue, when I was the head of an early years’ diagnostic unit we used those Marie Clay tests for years. Our children and their families joined in the fun and knew we have all been born with different kinds of brains.

It is interesting how some of our children manifested ‘problems’ because they had experienced difficult births and their brains had been slightly damaged. Others went way above any ‘normal’ developmental scale. They were much too bright for their immaturity to cope with. Some hardly slept at night because their brains were so active and that exhausted their families. We now know so much more about the different kinds of autism and so many other neurological problems. With sophisticated brain scanning they could be understood so much more accurately now.
However, we and their families and all other support agencies worked with local family education networks (FERNS) and groups of volunteer FANS – family arts networkers. We did our best and were really getting somewhere with those children. We carefully shared their progress and celebrated tiny steps. Inevitably we were the first to have all funding cut!
A majority of those children excelled and calmed down when they were given the time to be as creative and inventive in our unit as they needed to be. That was no surprise because we had a beautiful indoor and outdoor environment and the enviable ratio of one key person plus a nursery nurse for every child with floating adults from other agencies who came to observe and intervene as early as possible before strange habits developed into regular patterns. We had only 15 children there as well as artistic and musical FANS as volunteers. Their families were happy and were true partners in our developmental work. How we all used to laugh!

Time for political cuts again?

For the past twenty years policies have narrowed the curriculum and cut funds. Well meaning politicians of all parties have thought only about the ‘short term’ quick fixes instead consulting with our specialists properly about children’s needs for the ‘long term’. They believe any gaps in understanding can be measured by tests and targets and that competitive league tables are a true measure of a good school. I promised not to rant about these things but I am tempted to chain myself to the railings at Westminster and demonstrate again.

I am proud to follow in my Rosie-Mum’s footsteps and take direct action as we did when we marched in the 1990s for deaf children’s rights to sign! A very thorny issue by many to attempt to stop children signing. Rosie-Mum went profoundly deaf at the age of only 10 and had to leave school soon after. Her deafness and associated depression had resulted in so much real trauma for us both when I was taken into care as a baby and taken away by another court at the age of seven. Long before that, in 1927 Rosie had chained herself with friends to one of Coram’s cherubs at the old Foundling Hospital gates in Bloomsbury. She had the strongest sense of ‘justice and fairness’ I have ever known. That chaining episode was to help save Coram’s Fields according to Thomas Coram’s ‘will’ in which he left it all for children’s play. People like Elinor Goldschmied and all the Mary Ward Settlement women of the former Suffrage movement joined Rosie in their demonstrations and many stayed in contact with her all her life. So without people like Rosie and so many elders of our profession no longer here, what happens to all very special young children and their families with the increasing cuts? They more than anybody need to voice themselves through the arts. I have just had the news from my local schools that the special needs assistants and the arts staff will be the first to go! That is totally ridiculous in what is supposed to be a civilised country which not long ago guided the way or were at least equals in our arts-led professions within the early years. I wonder how we will hold our heads up in the rest of Europe where schooling starts much later and care really does focus on care about the whole child with healthy development being achieved through play. Maybe that sense of shame about our dropping standards is why so many politicians are pushing ahead with BREXIT?

Somehow we adults in the care and education professions have to restore a healthy balance in order for our young children to thrive and enjoy their childhood. At times like this, we know it is the most vulnerable and disaffected amongst them who may be empowered later by very damaged people who offer gifts to tempt them to go astray. Already there is mounting evidence of how this is happening and how our youngest adolescents are increasingly depressed, self harming and even suicidal. The most disadvantaged in chaotic families are easy prey with alcohol and drugs. Desperate and exhausted families are sick of looking for none existent jobs. Many have had their benefits cut and have to choose now between heating and eating. They are expected to go out to work when in the past, staying at home to look after their children was considered to be one of the most important jobs a parent could do!

The system of education is becoming even more politicised with ‘cost-effectiveness’ seen only in financial terms instead of considering the emotional effects of the lack of time for adults to listen to their children. In schools, the class sizes are creeping up way past 30 and will no doubt go higher still with further cuts. With class assistants being the first to go who is going to help guide children through their work or through any emotional sadness or pain? This means we have to do everything possible to build their inner and outer strength and self confidence so that they learn in playful situations how to be themselves and dare to say “NO!” We are already getting them ready to read every time we read them wonderful stories and answer their questions or engage with them in discussions which are meaningful to them as they ponder or puzzle to make sense of their world.

Quite naturally in our settings we are preparing our children for life as it is being lived now. They have been very frightened by what happened so recently in Manchester: it is quite possible to give any child a long lasting shock when they see frightening things over which they have no control. Today a child of six had seen it on the television; he knows I work with WARchild so he asked me are we now at war? How do we adults answer such a question? Do we really think this is peace? Too many young children have spoken to me in equally worrying ways about how hard it is to find a job! I’m not sure whether they really meant a job for their Dad but it might have been a job for themselves as for their writing homework at the age of seven (!!! don’t start me off again!!! yes, aged 7) the task was to prepare a CV! Of course it had to be imaginary. At least I hope it was, in case keen adults start to push little ones up our chimneys again.

Why do some politicians ignore the parents and professionals who really care?

Perhaps because they really do come from another planet just like some people think....or maybe they have had such different ‘class’ experiences in their lives? Perhaps it’s because they have too much to do....too little time to be.... and feel too tense? They have no time themselves to be curious or to think with any depth? We know as professionals, it is so often those relaxed moments when the spontaneous curiosity of young children is aroused and the deepest questions fly out of their little mouths. Maybe it’s time for politicians to begin to relax more with their children?

Make the space to listen to children, where children can think

Have we the time now to help people to listen to children? How do we set up our learning environments so that they truly wish to learn?
BUT! I can hear you say, how do we explain ourselves to Ofsted’s inspectors? Rather than labour that thorny point, it is as well to remember that Ofsted inspectors are human too. They have no power to actually tell us how we should be teaching and the best of them admit they can learn so much from us as long as we can justify what we are doing – especially when working with the youngest children. If in fear of Ofsted as so many people are, I suggest the book Successful Early Years Ofsted Inspections: THRIVING CHILDREN, CONFIDENT STAFF! by Dr. Julian Grenier (Grenier, 2016). I still consider Julian one of my star PGCE students and learnt so much from him as a true scholar at Oxford. After so much experience, he now guides a team as Headteacher of Sheringham Nursery School and Children’s Centre.

Let’s listen to some teachers past and present

In the past, Connie Rosen (the poet Michael’s mother and my first language mentor) advised me as a nursery teacher to do what comes naturally to you when you are in their wonder-filled world of playful curiosity and fantasy. Much later, my PhD Professor Martin Hughes showed me how to achieve that as a novice researcher. He helped me to transcribe all my most pertinent tape recordings of four year olds and to analyse some of their natural conversations particularly when they had something to spontaneously puzzle about or invent. That analysis took three years but it was worth every moment because of the clear evidence it gave. Irrespective of social class and the low expectations previously seen in that inner city school, all those four year olds showed the greatest command of language and depth of thinking when trying to understand or solve problems compared with those in sit and listen to adult led sessions on the over crowded mat! Of course, most of the children tried hard to listen to please teacher and become good pupils but my observations and the tape recordings showed how they either grunted back at her, wandered off or simply fell asleep. All that is except a Traveller child called Sonnyboy who asked his teacher so many questions (mainly about her questions) that she eventually gave up and let him take over to tell his own stories while we tape recorded him and listened attentively nearby.

Our own Professor Julie Fisher knew also about Sonnyboy. Like me, Julie encourages people to reflect deeply on the quality and the impact of our interactions in whichever setting we work. We had worked together and shared my ‘Listening to Four Year Olds’ years ago when she tuned in immediately to the crucial importance of ‘active listening’ in brief 'listening to children attentively and taking action on what they say.' Her team took my work much further and her book, Interacting or Interfering: improving interactions in the early years (Fisher, 2016) is an essential read for us but especially now for prospective politicians who want to know more. Julie has researched for over four years with a team of practitioners who work with children from six months to six years in a variety of settings. They found it is essential that we “WAIT! WATCH! and WONDER!” before we actually talk and bombard young children with our own confusing questions which stopped them talking. When they video’d themselves, the research team found evidence of high quality interactions so often in their spontaneous informal and puzzling moments. They relaxed yet strived for more of that kind of talk and thinking. That adds a bank of crucial evidence about how to guide young children to much more important educational goals than those stated by Ofsted which still focus on adults’ asking questions. Julie’s well researched ways of being with young children are fundamental to the achievement of outstanding teaching and learning in the early years.

Being the change

Those of us who have plenty of time because we have “retired” often choose to work within a philosophical framework: a favourite of mine is ‘Storywise: Thinking through Stories, by Dr. Karin Murris and Joanna Haynes (Murris & Haynes, 2000). Unfortunately I was never able to find the uninterrupted time to do this when a headteacher or at Oxford. But I had watched Karin in total fascination when she held the attention of a group of lively three year olds as she shared with them Jill Murphy’s ‘The last Noo-Noo.’ They made a wonderfully imaginative Noo-Noo tree for me to bring home later. It still has pride of place with many of their home-made decorations and their cast off ‘comforters.’ We need that kind of time to guide and encourage young children to be respectful through listening to wonderful stories. Those tales have been chosen specifically because they embed much deeper human issues for us all to sit and discuss and debate in a very civilized way. The Last Noo- Noo is on a family or political theme of ‘power and control!’ Politicians please take note and maybe come and join us?

All of us inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, Froebelians, Montessori followers, those at Steiner, we in the ‘What Matters to Children’ team and other creative and dedicated people who now choose to ‘home educate’ their young, so many early years specialists, have childhood firmly in its rightful place. Often subconsciously and intuitively we have helped an education for being to blossom and grow. We have retained a focus on the children and their healthy, happy and holistic development in a very troubled world. We the elders have supported, guided and encouraged others to achieve their academic and pragmatic best. To share each other's excellence in observational skills and good practice has helped shape the minds of teachers and others concerned about the development of young children. Usually behind the scenes, we have a lobbied and argued clearly, logically and sometimes ferociously with the powers that be on all issues vital to ensure our children's absolute right to their childhood. We are their advocates until they find their voice Please start to listen to us and save a fortune by trusting us to take much more professional control!

Time to celebrate Childhood!

Park School children at Dartington in 2013

At a time of global and political change, which will certainly affect all our young children, it is appropriate for me to remember these empathetic youngsters so happy to be safe at Park School here in Devon. When this picture was taken, our small charity WARchild had just embarked on its first project with orphans in Syria. These children had picked apples from their orchards, made juice and jam and sold it to help the Syrian children now in our care. They had invited me to their Assembly to share all their gifts. The greatest gift for me was their uninhibited joyfulness expressed in their smiles and reflected in the depth of their feelings. The calmness and peace of that occasion gave the children the confidence to ask me so many questions.

We puzzled together over why there are wars in other places and how to help people make our kind of peace. They had as much time as they needed and their teachers’ guidance of children so young was a well practiced art in letting our children be! At Park School, adults take time to listen to the children because they aim to encourage their healthy and holistic development. Essentially, an education for being is education for the feelings, the emotions and the spirit. Very often in the past, the ‘being’ in young children’s education was referred to as an unplanned part of the hidden curriculum. However, my own earliest research into the talk of four year olds revealed that what may have been hidden from adults was seldom hidden for the children. They were totally tuned in to everything that was going on around them even to the relationships and attitudes the adults had towards each other.

At Park School the adults are well aware of that. They place a clear emphasis on encouraging the children to form good relationships with peers and adults alike. They give as much time as is needed for them to discuss issues in depth. As an integral part of their curriculum, the adults help them to participate to design their environment and care for all living things. Even the youngest and most articulate children need to learn how to listen to others and wait their turn to speak especially when important decisions depend on counting votes to reach a consensus. Adults act as models and guides to help them regain their self control, restore their inner calm and help resolve any conflicts. In any school there are bound to be differing opinions and that is seen as a normal part of life. The well-being of the children and appropriateness in everything they do encourages the greatest depth in their thinking and learning. This reflects an education for being with a human and holistic approach to early years care and education.
In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, ‘children are the change.’ They are our future and it is they who will eventually sort out the global problems which we the adults have created in our ignorance and greed. Gandhi might well have added, if we be adults had listened to the children, taken them seriously and provided them with guidance and ample opportunities to exercise their curiosity and creativity and they would have changed the world long ago!

Questions for politicians?

I have no simple questions to fit the complexity of our profession. I continue to wonder why politicians of any Party campaigning on this subject seem to accept all the financial cuts as part of the necessary austerity measures to make Britain commercially GREAT again. Why do they accept some of the most bizarre teaching methods to get young children ready to read before their brains and co-ordination have actually developed? I wonder whether any of our prospective politicians know and understand the complexity of our chosen work? Do they not know it is the emotional wellbeing of our children, their families and all their other educators which is of a major concern to us? Do they not know that it is through play that our children develop most effectively to achieve their true potential? No harm done? Here I am reminded of that poor sad and now dead MP who angrily objected to our lobby on the importance of play in education (“In my days at prep school, we worked hard from the age of five, reading by seven, learnt our tables, disciplined quite severely and played at play times only. IT NEVER DID ME ANY HARM! “) and went on to kill himself a week later in a misadventurous sex game. (Cousins, 2009).

References

Bronfenbrenner, U., 2005. Making Human Beings Human. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cousins, J., 2009. On an Education for Being. Refocus Journal, Sightlines Initiative, Issue 9.
Fisher, J., 2016. Interacting Or Interfering? Improving Interactions In The Early Years. Maidenhead: McGraw Hill.
Grenier, J., 2016. Successful Early Years Ofsted Inspections: Thriving Children, Confident Staff. s.l.:Sage.
Joseph, S., 1999. A Voice for The child: the inspirational words of Janusz Korczak. s.l.:Thorsons.
Murris, K. & Haynes, J., 2000. Storywise; Thinking though Stories. Reigate: DialogeWorks.