Dedication Doesn’t Have to Mean Deadication

A woman wearing glasses and a suit is smiling in front of a flag.

Sim Loh is a family partnership coordinator at Children’s Village, a nationally-accredited Keystone 4 STARS early learning and school-age enrichment program in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, serving about 350 children. She supports children and families, including non-English speaking families of immigrant status, by ensuring equitable access to education, health, employment, and legal information and resources on a day-to-day basis. She is a member of the Children First Racial Equity Early Childhood Education Provider Council, a community member representative of Philadelphia School District Multilingual Advisory Council, and a board member of Historic Philadelphia.

Sim explains, “I ensure families know their rights and educate them on ways to speak up for themselves and request for interpretation/translation services. I share families’ stories and experiences with legislators and decision-makers so that their needs are understood. Attending Leadership Connections will help me strengthen and grow my skills in all domains by interacting with and hearing from experienced leaders in different positions. With newly acquired skills, I seek to learn about the systems level while paying close attention to the accessibility and barriers of different systems and resources and their impacts on young children and their families.”

A table showing the comparison of pre and post intervention of fas scores

Being an administrator of an early childhood program is not just a state of employment; it is a state of mind. So many individuals who don the director’s hat with noble intentions of creating exemplary centers end up leaving the field frustrated, depleted and disillusioned. They burn out. They find that there is simply too much to do and too many people tugging on their sleeve for help, advice and support. Are you at risk of burning out? … Download this resource to read the rest of this story.

This resource is part of our archived Director’s Link newsletter series.

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A 140 Year Story: The Evolution of an Institute

By Lisa M. Downey • August 20, 2025

by Lisa M. Downey Elizabeth Harrison once said, “There is nothing great accomplished in this world without faith in its greatness.” Harrison, an educator and advocate for the kindergarten movement in the United States, settled in Chicago in 1885 and worked alongside other visionary women of the time to create a training school for kindergarten teachers and mothers that, at the time, was a truly radical idea. The prevailing thought of the day was that children should not attend school until they were at least 6 years of age. In the U.S., due to poverty and a gross lack of child labor laws, children were usually engaged in farming, industry, or other work-based activities within the home. Also, in the late 1800’s, most teachers were white men. Further, it was commonly believed that, if you were wealthy, a woman’s place was in the home and in support of society through philanthropic activities. If you were not wealthy, you were likely working in factories, farms, or other domestic forms of employment. The idea that women would be teachers was ludicrous to some. Harrison sought to change that, by empowering women and mothers to connect with their children in ways that were play based, focused on holistic development, and based on the theories and practices of Owen, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Montessori.