Unveiling Inspiration: Insights from Early Childhood Education by Nicole Willard, EdD
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending the 2024 Annual Conference for the California Association for the Education of Young Children (CAAEYC). While at the conference I had the opportunity to connect with educators, advocates and administrators in the early childhood education field. Many expressed frustration with children not being able to “hold their attention like they used to.” I heard story after story about these intentional curriculum plans and thoughtful provocations set up in the morning only for children to “destroy” them or ignore them all together. This got me thinking back on almost 15 years of early childhood experiences. I began to wonder what draws children to some activities, but not others. Why do some children see a block tower set up and their first instinct is to run right through it? When activities are out for multiple days or even weeks, what leads to ignoring something one day but engaging for hours the next day? It wasn’t until this week that I think I found part of my answer.
Recently the community center affiliated with my preschool hosted our first Author Talk. Author Ateret Haselkorn spoke about her debut novel Call Me Obie, a coming of age novel that tackles complex themes around discrimination, identity and friendship. During the question and answer portion of the event there was a thread that kept coming back throughout the conversation about “inspiration.” Haselkorn spoke about the way ideas for characters emerged while doing the dishes or how details would emerge as she got to know her characters better, but is that considered inspiration? Is there really such a thing or is it an illusion that people chase?
That night I went home thinking about inspiration. Is it a spark that emerges into a flame? Is it a recurring problem looking to be solved? Is it one big moment or a million tiny ones? I thought about the countless times I sat down to write proposals for conferences waiting for an idea to come to me or the times I stood staring at the curriculum closet thinking about what I was going to plan for the next week. I could not help but wonder how I can go from having no idea at all to waking up at 2am with a full outline for an article in my mind waiting to flow onto paper.
The next morning as I spent time in the classroom I watched as children entered. Some took the leap right into their play and others moved around like hummingbirds, bouncing from activity to activity. I reflected back to those conversations at the CAAEYC conference about children’s attention, yet what I noticed seemed less about an inability to focus and more about finding something worthy of investing their attention. In these moments, could it be that elusive “inspiration” that children were seeking?
In my quest to define inspiration I checked the first place I could think of, Merriam-Webster dictionary. According to their definition, inspiration is “an inspiring agent or influence” or “the quality or state of being inspired.” As one can imagine this did not bring much clarity. The more I thought about inspiration I thought back to those small moments that spark something. In Haselkorn’s case it was a random idea while doing the dishes. For me, it was a Disney movie and the start of a Pandemic. If inspiration can come from nowhere, then how can we as teachers create opportunities for students to find inspiration in our classroom?
I would argue that provocations are often a way that teachers hope to inspire children. Provocations are used as a way to stimulate or extend an idea and allow children to explore their thoughts with open ended materials and resources. However, if teachers are expecting to see children engage with the materials in specific ways I would wonder if the provocations are truly serving their purpose. Knowing that we cannot predict what will inspire a child, maybe teachers need to evaluate their own ideas of what inspiration is. In the earlier example the teacher was frustrated that a child “destroyed” a provocation. However, what if that provocation triggered the child to explore what happens when running through a block structure? Could that lead to another child rebuilding it even taller? Maybe a group of children then explore the sounds different materials make when being knocked over. The opportunities for exploration are endless, and as teachers it is not our job to define the way that children should engage in activities, but to instead provide extensions to the ideas children are exploring.
As teachers, we need to be constantly evaluating how to provide children with what they need. Children’s actions are their way of showing us what they need. Think about that child that knocks all the legos on the floor the minute they are put out on the table or the one who knocks their peer’s tower over that they have been working on. How can we channel that desire to knock things down and turn it into something where they are not causing harm? Just like how Haselkorn could not stop her ideas from flowing while doing the dishes or I cannot stop ideas from coming to me at 2am, we cannot expect children to be able to control where that idea for further exploration comes to them. In creating an environment where children can explore freely, we empower them to discover and follow their own sources of inspiration.
