Liberated Learning

What is required of a fire keeper? On today’s episode, Mike and Kisa unpack what it means to tend to the children in our village long before any of them feel the need to burn it down just to feel its warmth.

They know If they try something and fail, they are loved.  

If they try and succeed, they are loved.  

If they act out in anger, they are loved. 

Even if they don’t get the red plate today, they are loved. 

There is always a road back because we can solve problems together.

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

Liberating yourself starts with dreaming of what you want in the world. It’s not about ignoring the challenges but imagining a way through them. Kisa tells Mike about her writing process working on her new book, "We Are the Ones We’re Waiting For." Kisa and Mike both find that writing is less about coming up with new ideas and more about connecting the threads of the ideas that keep popping up. 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

The first 1,800 days of life remind us that the micro shapes the macro. The smallest moments—how we respond, how we care, how we show up—matter more than we often realize. 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

LL009 Care and Cooperation 

When we focus on our community of children and educators rather than each child as an isolated individual, we find an infinite number of ways children show up as a helper, speaking up for themselves and speaking up for others. Too often, the culture of early childhood education tries to foster “self-help skills” with the goal of independence. But most children show their “self-help” skills more readily when they use them to help others. In addition, when we foster care and cooperation in our early childhood communities, we foster cohesion as a group and a sense of agency and belonging in individuals. 

What if we dared to make caring for one another visible by viewing our grand gestures through the lens of humanity? 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

Liberated Educator Job # 1: Make it normal for each child to appreciate every other child. Create a space where everybody understands that everybody is different. Even in a homogenous space, everyone brings a different cultural context because culture is multi-faceted. 

What if every child in a room that looks the same still saw their unique culture, identity, and experience as something to be celebrated — not just tolerated? 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

What if we've been moralizing play in ways that quietly shape who gets to hold power later? What if we let children play the way they want to play? What if let each child learn about themselves by trying out multiple ways to play and ultimately, multiple ways to be in the world? 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

There are so many neurotypical assumptions in the field of early childhood that cause many of us to see neurodivergent children through a deficit lens. Kisa and Mike wonder what would happen if we viewed these same children with a lens of curiosity and celebration. Some children may play differently than most children, but play is play. 

Mike references the article Including Autism: Confronting Inequitable Practices in a Toddler Classroom by Emmanuelle N. Fincham and Amanda R. Fellner  

https://educate.bankstreet.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1307&context=occasional-paper-series 

You can hear Mike and Heather Bernt-Santy talk to the authors of the article on That Early Childhood Nerd, episode 221 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

People of the global majority have to work twice as hard to be twice as good. Kisa shares how she can face people questioning her expertise and --to no surprise—Mike shares that he hasn’t been questioned in the same way even when someone disagrees with him. Kisa and Mike dig deep into cultural curiosity, expertise, and what it feels like to navigate learning spaces where your humanity is always up for debate.

*Mike references Playing with Nature: Supporting Preschoolers’ Creativity in Natural Outdoor Classrooms by Christine Kiewra and Ellen Veselack 

chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1120194.pdf 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

Having all the answers is a Eurocentric idea that is woven into the educational system. But we are better served with curiosity. When children play, they actively construct their knowledge. We should bring that same curiosity when working with children. Another shortcoming of the idea of having all the answers is that each of us sees the world through are unique cultural lens. Just because you have an answer doesn’t mean it is the same answer as someone else. 

In the spirit of curiosity, Mike and Kisa share some of their own cultural identities and experiences that shape the way they look at the world. They end up with more questions than answers. 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness 

Kisa and Mike reflect on the view of educators as people who bestow skills and knowledge on children and find it to be a dehumanizing practice. This practice creates a barrier to authentic relationships between everyone in the learning community, children and adults. This is especially true for the flibbertigibbets of the world who can be seen as a problem to solve rather than person to celebrate. 

Kisa can be found at The Playlab Foundation and Mike at Inclusion Includes Us, on Instagram and Facebook. Their books are available at https://www.redleafpress.org/ 

Theme music by John's Black Dirt https://johnsblackdirt.bandcamp.com/album/horrible-moments-of-upness