Introduction: Living a Philosophy of Early Childhood Education - A Festschrift for Harriet Cuffaro

Abstract

This issue of the Occasional Paper Series is a Festschrift in honor of Harriet K. Cuffaro, a Bank Street College faculty member from 1968-1998. A Festschrift—a volume reflecting the values, theories, and passions of a senior scholar in a field—seeks to offer scholarship that builds on these contributions. Harriet Cuffaro has touched and shaped more lives of teachers, scholars, and colleagues than we can possibly count. A teacher in her soul, and an esteemed scholar of John Dewey, Harriet has " unfolded and connected " essential Deweyan ideas and made them accessible and meaningful in the lives of teachers. It is our hope that this volume honors the lessons we have all learned from Harriet. It has been more than 25 years since I (Miriam) first sat in Harriet Cuffaro's office at Bank Street College of Education, but the image of her welcoming space is still vivid. The centerpiece was a glass case whose wooden frame rested on the floor and met the hanging bookshelves halfway up the wall. On each shelf, Harriet had carefully placed sets of blocks that she had acquired through her own travels and as gifts from colleagues and former students. Each set had a story and a history, color and texture, purpose and possibility. On any given day, with a simultaneous playful and serious gaze, Harriet would tell me about a particular set, inviting me to touch, hold, and play with the blocks. In those moments, Harriet's philosophy of teaching rested in my hands. We would talk about the history of the set, how it reflected the philosophy of the designer, the opportunities it offered the children at the time, and how it might have informed other educational materials to come. For me, as a student studying to become a teacher and seeking to understand and experience progressive education, my meetings with Harriet were formative. As her student, I understood