Both the NAEYC AND DEC Codes of Ethics are full of wonderful and equally important statements and ideas that are early childhood professionals guide to providing supportive, appropriate, and quality environments to young children. Reading through them, it was hard to narrow it down to just 3 that I find to be of special importance, so I looked at 3 that I feel were worth talking through because they've been relevant to my professional career in the past few months.
DEC
Professional and Interpersonal Behavior:
I.2- We shall demonstrate the highest standards of personal integrity, truthfulness, and honesty in all
our professional activities in order to inspire the trust and confidence of the children and families
and of those with whom we work.
This is crucial for early childhood professionals because in our roles we must always ensure that ew are being truthful, honest, and show integrity in all that we do, because we are working with such an important age group, and often times with children who can't yet articulate for themselves, so we need to know that those working with them are people of the highest character.
Enhancement of Children’s and Families’ Quality of Lives
III.1- We shall demonstrate our respect and concern for children, families, colleagues, and others with
whom we work, honoring their beliefs, values, customs, languages, and culture.
In our roles we must be open, accepting, and loving of all people we interact with. There is plenty of hate and judgement in the world we live in today, but there is no place for that in our professional lives. Our focus has to always be on the good of the children and their families, and with that has to come respect for them AND their differences. If we can't do this, we will never be able to build a trusting relationship with that child or their family, and in the end the child and their experience will suffer, and that is simply unacceptable for everyone involved.
NAEYC
P-1.1—Above all, we shall not harm children. We shall
not participate in practices that are emotionally
damaging, physically harmful, disrespectful, degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to
children.
Though this seems like a pretty obvious thought, it certainly is an important one. This principle is the basis of many in the NAEYC code, and that is because it is absolutely crucial. I think you have to look at the sometimes less obvious ways that we could "harm" children in our field. This could mean through not making a call to CPS when there's concerns. It could also be when you share a frustration on your social media that involves a family or child, the repercussions of that absolutely harm the child and/or family. And it can also mean when you share with that family at pick up all about how awful their child's day was... but you do it out of frustration or anger, and not out of true concern and care. Our jobs are hard, and some days are harder than others (and some are great!), but we have to be sure that we are keeping our frustrations and anger in check, and really acting out of love and concern in all that we do, otherwise we may intentionally or unintentionally harm children with our words and actions.
