NAEYCNEWS
district has a Literacy for the Lou initiative, where we provide literature to families and share ideas about literacy activities they can do at home. We celebrate NAEYC’ s Week of the Young Child ® to elevate our pre-K program and teachers and to celebrate families as well. We have family events every night of that week, where we focus on social and emotional skills, STEM [ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ], and literacy. This past year, we had a STEM night at The Magic House, a children’ s museum in the city. Almost 1,000 people participated! We had snacks and STEM-focused books like Future Engineer, by Lori Alexander. Every child left with one high-quality children’ s text. The best part was when families said,“ I can’ t believe we have access to the whole museum for free!”
So much has been written about the push for more academic instruction in early childhood settings. As the director of early childhood education in a public school district, how do you guard against that?
This is something we’ re seeing, and it comes from a place of good intentions: To increase academic outcomes and hold all students to high standards. However, if it’ s done without a whole-child approach, an understanding of child development, and a connection to play, it can actually stifle creativity and joyful exploration. Instructional practices have changed, but child-directed play has a place in the curriculum. It is meeting children where they are and helping every child grow, learn, and reach their potential.
Where do you see yourself in the next few years?
I’ m interested in advocacy work, especially in social justice. I really like working with multilingual and neurodivergent learners. [ Linda has a master’ s degree from Webster University in teaching English as a second language.] And I’ m interested in trauma-informed teaching. I’ m grateful for where I am right now and excited for whatever is next.
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Photographs: courtesy of Christine Rolfe Copyright © 2025 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online at NAEYC. org / resources / permissions.
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