This is the home page for the reflections, insights, and musings I’ll share on all things related to early childhood education and care. Thanks for visiting!
Bio
Chris Amirault, Ph.D., is a author, trainer, and coach serving professionals in early childhood education and care. He served for two decades as the director of NAEYC-accredited Early Head Start, preschool, and pre-K programs in Rhode Island and Oklahoma.
He was president of the Rhode Island Association for the Education of Young Children and has served as Chair of the Council for NAEYC Accreditation, as a member of the NAEYC Affiliate Advisory Council, as a founding facilitator of NAEYC’s Diversity and Equity Interest Forum, and on NAEYC working groups for developmentally appropriate practice and equity.
Chris has taught undergraduate and graduate education courses at Brown University, the Community College of Rhode Island, the University of Oklahoma, and elsewhere, and served as Director of the Institute for Elementary and Secondary Education at Brown. He has published articles in early childhood journals and presented many times at early childhood conferences on a wide range of topics. Chris is coauthor with Christine M. Snyder of the Free Spirit book, Finding Your Way Through Conflict: Strategies for Early Childhood Educators (2021), and his new book, Sparking Learning in Young Children: Classroom Best Practices, is forthcoming this summer from Shell Education.
Chris concentrated in both English and Computer Science as an undergraduate at Brown University, and he has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The father of two adult daughters, he lives in Salem OR with his wife, dog, and cat.
Why “No Mud, No Lotus”?
In many different cultures and spiritual traditions, the image of a lotus rising up from the murky mud is a metaphor for the mysterious transformations that can happen when we work with skill, compassion, and insight on our difficulties. Indeed, like the lotus, it is precisely by mucking about in the mud that we are able to fully bloom!
All of us — both young children and adults — demonstrate this powerful feature of human development every day. Maintaining persistence while learning a new task; acknowledging relationship ruptures and seeking repair; honoring the impact of trauma; confronting our differences in a collaborative spirit: in these and many other ways we learn that the ability to transform challenges into opportunities for growth is truly our superpower.
And when we adults forget? We can just watch our youngest children demonstrate this superpower in all of its mysterious, glorious beauty — proving why early childhood education is the most important profession on the planet.
Contact
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