If we can cultivate a concern for others, keeping in mind the oneness of humanity, we can build a more compassionate world.
– Dalai Lama XIV

“Relationships are at the core of all we do,” writes Rukia Monique Rogers in an article that provides the foundation for an Exchange Reflections, “Creating a Beloved Community in Your Organization.”

Rogers encourages everyone involved in the field of early care and education, from pre-service teachers, to home childcare providers, to administrators and staff of large and small programs, to consider carefully what kind of community they would like to create as they work with families and children. She provides a stirring vision of what could be possible.

This Reflections provides tools for considering how to put that vision into practice.

Writing about her belief that we must make deep relationships the foundation of all we do, she explains,  “This belief has influenced the way we design our environment, routines, traditions, and celebrations we develop for our school culture. Drawing on Indigenous and African wisdom, we mentally try to tear down the walls of our classrooms and think of ourselves as a village, rather than individual classrooms. We have moved past thinking of ourselves as professionals who do not get personal in our relationships with families, because how can we be in relationships without making connections with families in very deep ways, knowing their hopes and dreams, their ancestors, and so on?”