Garrison Center for Early Childhood Education

Narratives

CommunityCollege Campus Early Childhood Education and Safety

This unique facility brings together three distinct programs — childcare for faculty children, an observation room for the college students enrolled in the early childhood curriculum and an institute dedicated to the safety of children.

The building presents a home-like image in a campus dominated by a large pre-cast concrete academic building. This diminutive but welcoming structure has New England architectural elements, yet it also has large windows and clean lines that make it contemporary and inviting. The building is sited in a small grove of trees creating a dark green background that frames and highlights the small white building.

A sixteen foot glass wall marks the building entry and showcases a maple-shelved library - visibility and easy access to books and resource materials is a major project theme. The library wall is the main connection between the childcare and the child safety institution. This feature unites the two primary programs and provides a central location for their shared resources.

The childcare facility has its own entry on the west side of the library. Its lobby has a large display wall with built-in benches, where entering children transition into school. One classroom offers views of the thick stand of trees while the other overlooks the main campus and the busy student walkways.

An elliptical shaped room is located in between the two classrooms. It is “invisible” to the children. This room serves as an observation room for the students of the early childhood curriculum. This room has one-way, mirrored glass in various windows into the children’s classrooms. From the child’s perspective these are reflective mirrors inviting self-exploration.

On the east side of the library is an institute for child safety. This space consists of three offices, and a state-of-the-art conference room. There is a large glass window on the east side of the conference room and a glass wall into the corridor offering views of the adjacent children’s playground.

The project combines complementary programs and does so in a small structure that manages to be a welcoming focal point in a large-scale campus dominated by the academic building. The children, the college students and the staff of the two institutions share an innovative, progressive and friendly facility.

College Campus Early Childhood Education and Safety

The Early Childhood Education Center is a uniquely designed facility that incorporates a Childcare Center, Laboratory/Observation Classroom and the Institute for Child Health & Safety. The 5,200 square foot facility features full multi-media capability to enhance instructional opportunities in Early Childhood Education.

The Childcare Center consists of two model classrooms serving a maximum of forty children, 2.9 to 5 years of age; two child-size bathrooms; a kitchen; director’s office; and a room designed to accommodate as many as seven infants on an on-demand basis.

In addition to the classrooms, a Laboratory/Observation classroom serves as a training site for Community College students preparing to enter the field of Early Childhood Education. Students in the Early Childhood Education Program are afforded the opportunity to connect educational theory to practice during lecture sessions, lab hours, and student teaching experiences under the supervision of college professors.

The unique elliptical design of the Laboratory/Observation Classroom provides a panoramic view of the daily operations of the fully equipped childcare facility that literally surrounds the Laboratory/Observation Classroom. The Center is the only facility of its kind at a community college in Massachusetts that incorporates one-way glass windows and a multi-function sound system that has been specifically designed to provide opportunities for individual students to view and listen, via headsets, to classroom activity. To facilitate this activity, the childcare center is divided into four quadrants and observation areas. Based on the appropriateness and relevance of a particular activity, instructors may also broadcast activities to the entire class. Perhaps one of the greatest advantages for students is that they can experience the life of a preschool teacher, whether it is during a positive moment or challenging situation. Our students find this opportunity a gift, preparing them for entry into the field of Early Childhood Education as a teacher.

The final component of the overall center is the Institute for Child Health and Safety. The mission of the Institute is to ensure the health and safety of all children in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the objective of the Institute to protect the children of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by providing hands-on, practical learning opportunities for parents, caregivers, and children; and, to provide a clearinghouse of child health and safety information.

The Institute’s resource library contains dozens of books, by leading experts, on topics such as safety, health, nutrition, parenting and child development, as well as a variety of books for young readers. The library also provides information about the many regional, state and national organizations and agencies that support children’s health and safety.
The Institute provides aid to communities and organizations by sponsoring talks on Internet safety and other health and safety topics. Through the campus police, the Institute also brings R.A.D.KIDS (a program designed to empower children to defend themselves in the event of an attempted abduction) demonstrations to local communities.