Conference at Rice to focus on early childhood education

CONTACT:  Margot Dimond
PHONE:   713-348-6775
EMAIL:    mdimond@rice.edu

JAN. 15 CONFERENCE AT RICE TO FOCUS ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
Open to teachers, school administrators and parents

Promoting social skills, reasoning abilities and imagination in young children is the focus of a half-day conference for pre-school and elementary teachers, administrators and parents to be held at Duncan Hall on the Rice University campus Saturday, Jan. 15, from 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.

“Is Reading Instruction Really Enough? Nurturing a Thinking Child” is sponsored by the School Literacy and Culture Project of Rice’s Center for Education. The registration fee is $50.00.

Speakers include Vivian Gussin Paley and Patsy Cooper.  Paley is author of “White Teacher” and “You Can’t Say You Can’t Play” and a recipient of the MacArthur “genius” award.  A teacher of young children for more than thirty years, she was recently named Outstanding Teacher in the Language Arts by the Council of Teachers of English.  Paley promotes early childhood education that nurtures children’s inherent curiosity and imagination.

Cooper, an education professor at New York University, has long been a student of Paley’s work.  A founder of the School Literacy and Culture Project at Rice, Cooper has been an outspoken advocate for thoughtful, child-centered practices in the early childhood classroom.  She will talk about comprehensive reading instruction in light of Paley’s work.

For more information and directions to Duncan Hall and parking, call 713-348-5333, or e-mail <slc@rice.edu>.