NAEYC’ s Centennial Year: 100 Years of Impact
Looking to the Past to Inform the Future
A Review of NAEYC’ s Earliest Writings on Collaboration and Inclusion
Stacy Simonyi, Leigh-Ann Leinhauser Brown, Kaitlin Northey, and Heather Duhamel
Young children need a friend in [ their ] court. They need someone with the mantle of authority who can be their spokesman. We need someone in every state— professional workers with an adequate staff— concerned with child growth and development and with helping parents— who can be this spokesman for young children.— James L. Hymes Jr.
James L. Hymes Jr., a professor of education in New Paltz, New York, wrote the opening excerpt in an article reflecting on the first 25 years of the National Association for Nursery Education, NAEYC’ s predecessor. Now as then, young children need us, the professionals in the field of early childhood education, to be their advocates. But just as in 1948, we cannot
70 Young Children
Spring 2026