Favorite quotes

“If you look at what really impacts children, what really influences their development, it's both the quality of the preschool experience and the parental impact. So you have to shoot for two things, to make sure that everything you do is quality and that everything you do is true to a model that includes parents, addresses the whole child and is of appropriate intensity.”

--Edward Zigler, Ph. D.

“I agree that personal experience is what makes the entire reading process meaningful. That's why I think what is most important, what best prepares preschool children and kindergartners for reading, is play. I'm referring to well-developed dramatic play, where children take on rich roles and create fantasy worlds that are of their own design. Children develop incredible story lines with their play partners. This kind of dramatic play provides the best backdrop for developing cognitive skills, including symbolic thinking and self-regulation and, specific literacy-related skills such as oral language.”

--Deborah Leong, Ph. D.

“My passion comes from wanting to make a difference…I’m not here to save the world, I’m here just to make a difference in the community that I’m working.”

--Raymond Hernandez, MS Ed.

“I see early childhood education, all education, really, as a civil rights issue.”

--Renatta M. Cooper