Children were not born to wear name tags.

Our practices must be of benefit to the children, not geared towards the convenience of adults.

Each child matters to us. We want children to be known and celebrated as unique people. And we want them to feel that they're part of a family when they're with us.

Children were not born to sit still.

Learning is not about the transmission of information; it's a conversation. It's multi-dimensional and involves our whole selves-including our bodies.

We respect that the children in our care are children, and not students.

Children were not born to stand in line.

Group management is not our curriculum.

We value children's agency: they can decide how to move their bodies from one place to another. They're not commodities for us to move as efficiently as possible.

Our focus ought to be on the children's competence rather than our need for order and control.

Children were not born to speak with "inside voices."

Learning is exciting! We want to feed children's excitement, not stifle it. We need to be mindful of all the ways we say "No" to children, and eliminate most of those.

The emotion in a child's voice-excitement, fear, anger, delight-is part of what she's communicating; her "speech" is about more than words.

Children were not born to walk.

Children deserve to be children-to have us adults make room for the big work of childhood.

Learning is a kinesthetic process, and movement is part of that. Big, bold movement is a way for children to come to know their bodies, to be embodied.

Children were not born to wear shoes.

We want to find many opportunities for children to be outside often, and to have immediate contact with the natural world.

Children were not born to be neat.

Learning is messy! Discovery is whimsical, spontaneous, organic, not planned neatly so that it fits on a table. We want to put learning and discovery first, not our need for tidiness and order.

Our attention ought to be primarily on what children are doing, not on the mess that they're making.