2 Responding to questions through practice
This section will consider some of the ways that settings can both respond to some of these big questions and review their practice. First, return to Professor Jan White who suggests the starting point is ‘Our why’. What does she mean by this expression and what is ‘Your why’?
Transcript
JAN WHITE: Alongside that, I feel a question is, whose responsibility might it be to give children, very young children, loads and loads of time in the outdoors? We know that in children's family lives, they're accessing the outdoors. And they're accessing green space, in particular, I think less.
So less time outdoors altogether because of the way we live our lives now. And less opportunity to spend time in green space for a variety of reasons.
And I think that early childhood education has always been compensatory. I'm thinking about the original British nursery school set up at the beginning of the 1900s-- Rachel McMillan Nursery School, for instance-- where the work was around children's health because they lived in what was termed "squalid conditions." And the nursery was around compensating for what was missing in those children's lives.
So the question is, is it our responsibility as providers of early childhood education and care-- does it become our responsibility to make sure that children are accessing the outdoors and nature for all those development wellbeings-- happiness, life-- life meaning.
Going back to that quote, the meaning of life is wrapped up in your experience of being outdoors in nature, isn't it? When you witness the miracle of life and all that goes on-- not just who's there, but all the things that are happening-- that gives you something that's in your core for the rest of your life.