Nancy Carlsson-Paige Biography
Teacher, Professor of Education, Writer, Activist b. 1944
"Corporations have been allowed to assume, without public dialogue or debate, a growing influence over children’s play, thoughts, and values, an influence which is, for the most part, a negative one. Those who market to children do not base their decisions on the well-being of children but on the well-being of their profits. And if violence sells, then they provide it, no matter what the costs are to children and society, no matter how much the values they push conflict with those of families."
Nancy Carlsson-Paige is a professor of early childhood education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where she has taught teachers for more than thirty years and was a founder of the University's Center for Peaceable Schools. Since the mid-1980's, she has written ( Who's Calling Shots?: How to Respond Effectively to Children's Fascination with War Play and War Toys) and spoken extensively about the impact of violence, especially in the media, on children's lives and their social development, and the ways in which children learn the skills needed to promote caring relationships and positive conflict resolution. She has written five books and numerous articles on media violence, conflict resolution, and peaceable classrooms and schools. Her most recent book is called Taking Back Childhood: A Proven Roadmap for Raising Confident, Creative, Compassionate Kids. Nancy is an advocate for policies and practices that promote children's well being and encourage skills and attitudes that further peace and nonviolence.
By learning about her childhood, one can readily understand how Dr. Carlsson-Paige came to espouse the value of creative play and the need to preserve healthy relationships from the prevalence of violence and materialism in today’s culture. Growing up in a small town outside of Albany, New York, Nancy spent much of her time in unstructured play outdoors and in nature. She has written of “wonderful memories of playing with neighborhood kids and also of being alone in nature—floating sticks down a stream, sitting in a forest of pine trees, and picking berries, ...climbing trees and playing in a treehouse.” Her father was an educator and both parents were unusually progressive for their time. For example, they had an old, shabby couch in their living room that was exclusively for her sister and Nancy to jump on.
Although the small town in which she grew up was quite conventional, her parents were not. Their home was artistic and unconventional, messy and creative—not a typical home of the 1950's, a period when most suburban parents were concerned with "fitting in." As a child Nancy was free to follow her own interests and find her personal way. She and her sister played outside for hours without supervision and were called home to the sound of a cow bell.
The school she attended had a good reputation, yet she remembers being bored much of the time while in class. Nancy was able to do what was expected of her to be a good student, but found school less than inspiring. She was sent to Sunday School in the Methodist Church and from a very young age can remember not relating at all to what they were telling her. She did, however, feel a deep, spiritual connection to nature, and still does.
Nancy had many friends through childhood and later school years who constituted her most important relationships outside of her immediate family. It wasn't until college that she began to feel inspired by certain adults, their visions, and how they lived, and by early thoughts of a more ideal society that she was beginning to imagine. Dr. Carlsson-Paige has written that the most significant adult in her young adult life, one who continued to be important to her for over three decades, was Howard Zinn. She moved next door to Howard and his wife Roz when she was in her late 20's. During those years she was formulating her political views, and Howard was more than willing to be her mentor. His ideas, his political philosophy, and his morality deeply resonated with her. Thus, it was Howard Zinn who started Nancy on her path toward becoming a thinking, questioning person committed to positive and creative child development, social justice and peace.She presents these strong commitments throughout the books and articles she has written as well as in her classes and speeches.
In a speech given by Dr. Carlsson-Paige in June of 2011 when she won the Embracing the Legacy Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps, she stated:
Teachers cannot thrive in punitive environments where they are measured, compared, and threatened. Children can¹t learn in these environments either — at least they can¹t learn in the ways I have taught teachers to understand learning for my whole career. You can drill kids and get their test scores up. You can take away recess and field trips, the arts and activity based learning to make time for more test prep. But real learning is not rote learning. Real learning is thinking in original ways, knowing how to apply ideas, growing morally as well as intellectually.
Dr. Carlsson-Paige and Dr. Diane Levin co-authored an article entitled “One Size Doesn’t Fit All” for the April 18, 2010 edition of The Boston Globe. They claim:
We won’t make genuine progress in closing the achievement gap in our nation’s schools until we address the underlying inequities that are its root cause. Imposing more standards and tests is a misplaced, misleading, even harmful approach. If these standards are imposed, we will see a continuing achievement gap and new levels of stress and failure among young children. Worst of all, we will have missed an opportunity to give our nation’s children the best possible education, the one they deserve and the one our future depends on.
Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige cares deeply about the emotional and spiritual well-being of children. As she states on her website:
Today’s cultural pressures on children—media saturation, materialism, test-driven schools, and the fast pace of life—threaten to undermine some of the basic building blocks of healthy development. But we adults can navigate these difficult waters when we understand what it is children need and how we can best help them in these rapidly changing times.
