Dr. Hilliard is the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Agency for Instructional Technology, and the International Advisory Board of New Horizons for Learning.

Drawing on the Institute theme of "Transforming Ideas into Action", Hilliard looked beyond traditional educational concepts and challenged "bell-shaped curve" thinking in his address. He urges educators and caregivers to adopt proven, if unorthodox, roles to facilitate learning for all children by encouraging natural development within a supportive and caring environment.

His address provided five views of how to release the genius... metacognitive models based on observations of the most fundamental learning accomplishment shared by virtually all humans--the so-called "mother-tongue" method--by which children learn to speak the native language of their parents.

The first model is based on the work of Shinichi Suzuki, a self-taught teacher best known for a approach to music teaching in which all children succeed. Hilliard referenced Suzuki's insightful (but difficult to find) book "Nurtured by Love" which describes the development of Suzuki's philosophy of learning... a combination of perseverance, energy, patience and repetition coupled to a superior environment that provides continual exposure to masterful examples. Suzuki has no admissions test, allowing anyone to participate and believing that everyone will succeed.

Noting that "humans instinctively adapt to any environment...inspiration and interest are acquired involuntarily from exposure. A superior environment has the greatest effect in creating superior human beings", Hilliard also observed that "a clever baby can become tone-deaf--can even become a wolf. The only concern for parents should be to bring up your children as 'noble human beings'... an idle person will develop neither ability nor noble ideas."

The second model is drawn from "Kandeze--the Congo Art of Baby Sitting" by K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau of Zaire. Kandeze is a Zairian term meaning to nurture the child and the environment.

Like Suzuki, Fu-Kiau believes the character issue is the key. Kandeze involves the elders in the community in an active program of storytelling and singing which transfers into the child's own language the songs, stories, legends and games. These contain the lessons in character, the meaning of life, the role of the community. Everyone, men and women, must participate in the process and much of the program's success is attributed to the quality of relationships which develop and to the extensive repetition that occurs as a natural part of the process.

Hilliard's third model was the most familiar to NAEYC leaders-- the work of Erik Erikson, founder of the Erikson Institute in Chicago. Describing Erikson's work as providing a map of Human Development to nurture a sense of "I can do it myself", through stages of

• I can begin this
• Who am I
• I see you
• Generalization
• Integrity.

The fourth model comes from Marion Lundy-Dobbert et al at the University of Minnesota and their observations on the learning behavior of primates...

Like humans,

• Primates learn by observation and modeling
• Primates learn through social experience
• Primates learn through social conflict
• Primates learn through play, particularly play in which there exists a slight arousal but open emotional state, much repetition and a free combination of physical, cognitive and behavioral opportunity.

Drawing a parallel to Bloom's Taxonomy and the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains, Hilliard emphasized the importance of also providing a spiritual domain to convey the cultural values and character-forming experiences.

The fifth model draws on the work of Augusta Mann with Wade Nobles at the San Francisco State University, who conduct highly regarded "Power Learning Conferences" showing techniques to help the brain make connections coupled with exercises to give the connections meaning. "Deep meanings are what human beings live for...and development requires Nurture, not Nature."

Summarizing the common elements of these five metacognitive models with the assertion that character is determined by the environment that we create for children, Hilliard exhorted leaders to:

• Destroy doubt
• Touch the spirit
• Focus on child's character (who not what)
• Build bonds with the child and with each other

NAEYC is the National Association for the Education of Young Children. With over 100,000 members, NAEYC provides a wide variety of services to Early Childhood caregivers and parents, and, through the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs, administers the accreditation system for early childhood centers.