Philosophy

Brown/Fox Point Early Childhood Education Center is a community preschool and kindergarten designed to meet the needs of working families in the greater Providence community. Our program offers full time quality care and education that stimulates learning in all areas of a child%u2019s development. Teachers blend meaningful learning experiences, developmentally appropriate practices and a nurturing atmosphere to create a safe and creative learning environment.

Children are respected at Brown Fox Point. Teachers listen to children, observe them in action, and plan curricula based upon children%u2019s interests. Throughout the course of the year, children and teachers together build a community of learners where each individual member is valued for the strengths that he/she brings to the group. In their interactions with children, teachers model empathy, respect, and acceptance. In classrooms that feel safe, comfortable and calm, children can have successful learning experiences. By balancing independence with limit setting, teachers are helping children learn how to be part of a community. Teachers actively model and facilitate problem solving and conflict resolution skills with the ultimate goal of empowering children to solve problems appropriately.

At Brown/Fox Point, children develop and learn in natural ways %u2013 by playing and interacting with their peers. Through their play, children engage, explore, and create; they make sense of their world, learn about themselves and others, develop language, gain self-confidence and self-control, problem-solve, and understand and express feelings. The process of each activity or experience is the focal point of its implementation, not the product. Process-oriented curricula guide children to think, reason, question, and learn.

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Diversity

Our classrooms are places where differences are valued and children and their families are appreciated and respected. Our community is diverse in many ways, including economically, culturally, and linguistically. We include children of differing abilities and work with the Providence School Department to provide special services when appropriate. Using an anti-bias approach, teachers help children learn about the diversity of our community, laying the groundwork for children to grow up free of bias and prejudice.

Brown/Fox Point strives to be an inclusive community for every child and every family. As a result, Brown/Fox Point is committed to promoting diversity in all its forms, including those related to racial and ethnic identity, gender, socioeconomic status, sexuality, age, family structure, religion, national origin and ability. We actively seek to teach children tolerance of all forms of difference, and just as actively seek to dissuade children from bias about norms and stereotypes. Accordingly, staff are expected not only to embrace such tolerance but also to model it in their own teaching and interactions with children, staff, and families.

An important component to our program is an appreciation of diversity and the value we place on multiculturalism. As with other facets of our program, the multicultural element is drawn from our diverse population of children and their families. Throughout the center and in everything we do, we view and present diversity as a celebration of people, of differences and of ways of living. We hope that children will recognize diversity as an essential and valuable part of society.

The multicultural element of our program is drawn from our diverse population of children and families. Diversity is viewed and presented as a celebration of people, differences, and ways of living. Respecting our commitment to diversity and inclusion, teachers at Brown/Fox Point work in collaboration with the Providence School Department with children requiring special education services. On site, classroom-based special educati