The 100th year anniversary marks an important time for all NCTE members. For those of us in early childhood education this moment in time is particularly poignant, because with the creation of the Early Childhood Education Assembly we are officially recognized as a constituent group of the organization.
As I move on to the position of past chair I want to thank all of you for the opportunity to serve in the capacity of interim chair and chair. Your encouragement, support, and patience over the past three and a half years have been greatly appreciated. In particular I want to thank Jean Anne Clyde and the Early Childhood Issues Committee of the late 1990s for their vision of an NCTE that welcomes early childhood educators. Thanks to Carol Avery for putting the committee in place and Jerry Harste for keeping it going. I am also grateful for time spent with Susi Long with whom I had initial conversations that eventually led to the idea of the ECE Assembly. Debi Goodman, as past chair of the Elementary Section Steering Committee (ESSC), helped create a space for the ECEA at the ESSC table making it possible for us to participate in program planning for the annual convention and bringing to you the Day of Early Childhood. Thanks also goes to Laurie Katz, Barbara Z. Kiefer, Detra Price-Dennis, Melissa Wilson, and Patricia Enciso, past co-editors of Language Arts, who expanded the focus of the journal to include pre-K. Historically pre-school concerns have not always been addressed in the journal. Laurie and her co-editors even went as far as to devote a special issue that focused specifically on early literacy.
Thank you to Mariana Souto-Manning, Dinah Volk, Carol Felderman and Jeff Wood for the hours of work getting the ECEA off the ground and continuing to help iron out the kinks as we enter into our toddler years. Carmen Medina, Erin Miller and the Affirmative Action Committee have been instrumental in ensuring that issues of diversity and difference are kept at the forefront of our work. And of course thank you to the At-Large Members of the Board of Directors;Victoria Dixon-Mokeba, Amy Evans, Anne Haas Dyson, Celia Genishi, Julia Lopez-Robertson, Becky McCraw, Wayne Serebrin, and Katie Wood-Ray.
It took almost 100 years for us to be recognized in an official capacity at NCTE, so for the next 100 years it behooves us to make sure that early childhood concerns and issues continue to be part of the NCTE agenda. Here’s to the next 100!
Vivian Vasquez
Past Chair
If you presented an EC focused paper at NCTE this year please consider submitting it for publication in the ECEA Yearbook Volume 2.
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