Code of Ethics

gluing rice-one of my older students
made hers look like a flower.
most of them were piles of rice ontop of
a pile of glue:)

This week’s assignment was to choose three of the ideals from the NAEYC and DEC codes of ethics and talk about why they are meaningful to us and our professional career.  It has been difficult to choose only three.  Our center is going through the NAEYC reaccreditation process so we recently had 2 1/2 hours of training on the NAEYC code of ethics; what they mean to our center and us as professionals in the field of Early Childhood.   

The ideals I chose have become a foundation for my personal goals and beliefs in my professional career development. 

I.1.5—To create and maintain safe and healthy settings that foster children’s social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and that respect their dignity and their contributions.

I strive every day in all I do to follow this ideal.  I feel that it is my number one priority to provide the children in my class an environment where they feel safe, confident, respected and loved for who they are.  Children who feel respected and loved can be confident about themselves and their choices.  They will develop a trust for their caregivers and know it is safe to take risks and there will be someone there to help them when it is needed.   With an environment like this a child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development will thrive and grow to its fullest potential. 

I-3A.2—To share resources with co-workers, collaborating to ensure that the best possible early childhood care and education program is provided.

4. We shall support professionals new to the field by mentoring them in the practice of evidence and ethically based services.

As professionals in this field (as we have learned over the past 7 weeks) we need to do all we can to share whatever knowledge, information and resources we have with others who share our passion so they can better serve the children and families in their care.  Also as someone who wants to teach Early Childhood Education I hold myself to these ideals as part of my obligation to people entering this field so they will have a good foundation from which to build on.  I often experience others who, I think, do not want to share their knowledge because they are afraid they will not be seen as valuable anymore or they think everyone should “figure it out on their own.”  Many professions are very competitive and sharing is not done because someone is moving up the proverbial ladder.  The Early Childhood profession is not or should not be that way.  I have never met anyone in this field who said I am doing this so I can be rich someday, so I can move up the ladder and step on toes as I go.  The answer I think most of us would hear is “I am here for the children.”

I-2.2—To develop relationships of mutual trust and create partnerships with the families we serve.

2. We shall provide services and supports to children and families in a fair and equitable manner while respecting families’ culture, race, language, socioeconomic status, marital status, and sexual orientation.

We can so easily fall into the trap of judging families and making a decision about what we think is their “situation”.  Not being judgmental is actually something I work on continuously.  Families need to feel respected and know that they will not be judged for their parenting decisions in order for them to feel like they can share with teachers things about their family.

We may see an “expensive new car” in the parking lot and the family getting out is the family that never pays their bill on time, they always forget diapers…Isn’t it hard not to jump to a conclusion that “well that must be why they can’t pay their bill.”  When in reality we may not know the situation at all!

I try to look at it like this, maybe a family member gave them the car and I’m so glad that they have a safe and reliable vehicle to transport their family in.  

Now, if we have built a strong trusting relationship with that family they may very w

ell come in and tell us all about how they were so lucky to have been given the car.  However, if families do not feel welcomed, respected and trusted they will rarely share anything with us.  To what end is this situation good for anyone involved, especially the children? 

Resources:

NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf

The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.dec-sped.org/