While reading over NAEYC's Code of Ethical Conduct, three ideals really stuck out to me personally. Two of them seem to be in conflict with one another. The first one is I-1.5-- to create and maintain safe and healthy settings that foster children's social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and that respect their dignity and their contributions. This has always been my first priority as a preschool teacher. But some years the safe and healthy setting isn't just the physical environment but also the children within the environment. If a child is hurting other children in my class, then I have not met my ethical requirement of a safe setting and the hurtful child may have to be removed. However, this may be in conflict with the second ideal that stuck with me which is I-1.8--to support the right of each child to play and learn in an including environment that meets the needs of children with or without disabilities. A child with emotional issues has the same right to play in the environment as a child without. However, I have had some children in my class that hurt others because of their emotional issues even with interventions and training in appropriate behavior. So which ideal do I promote first? If I exclude the child with emotional issues, am I violating their right or am I violating the rights of the other students if I include this child?
The third ideal that really struck me was I-2.3--to welcome all family members and encourage them to participate in the program. I feel that this has always been my strongest area when it comes to working with families. Over the years I have had grandmothers, mothers, fathers, cousins, and aunts that have participates in the program in different ways. I have always had an "open door" policy when it comes to families and have never turned a family member away.
