Reclaiming voices:
Empowering
child’s agency and
rights

Katherine A. Jarman
EDUC 475 Graduating Seminar
Capilano University
April 2020

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“And then, I realized what you do with an idea…
you change the world.”
- What do You Do With an Idea? Written by Kobi Yamada

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Introduction
Through the power of storytelling and knowledge
sharing, the children were welcomed to share their
knowledge and gain a voice through their
enactment of their story and in turn enhance their
understanding of the relationship to themselves, to
their educators, to their families, and to their
community.
Gert Biesta speaks to the strength and power of the
singularity within a child, not to push
independence, but the acknowledgment of the
child, their inner being, and support of their agency
within a pluralistic world. This research is not to
focus on a child-centred practice, but rather
exploring the notion of how human beings respond
to the world and come into the world among
others and keeping the child’s singularity in a world
of plurality (Biesta, 2009., p. 69). This is not pushing
the idea of the independent child and simply
following their lead (child-centred approach), but
making space for collective education, co-creation
of knowledge and being, responding to each other,
and challenging whether there is a need for cookie
cutter designs and ideas.

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Process essay
This project began at Hundred Languages Childcare in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia in October of 2019 until the
beginning of March 2020. Two full days a week were spent in the childcare centre working with the children, getting
to know each child, observing relationships, and providing opportunities to explore the ideas the children wanted to
share. The educators, Sandy, Wafa, Elsa, and Monika, were all very supportive of this project and the ideas being
shaped by the children they worked with. In the first couple of weeks spent in the centre, there was an emerging
theme of connection, community, and collaboration that made space for the project work that was unfolding with
the children. Allowing for time and space, we were able to build on these ideas throughout the day. Discussions
with the children in a group or individually helped to paint the picture that was beginning to form; the sharing of
ideas and information was palpable. Ideas flowed everywhere but how can we, through documentation and
conversation, help children to have their ideas heard?
This project was a gradual build on the simple act of reading the story What do you do with an idea? written by Kobi
Yamada and The Giving Tree written by Shel Silverstein. The story by Kobi Yamada is told as a journey through the
creation and blossoming of an idea and what happens when you give the idea space to grow and flourish or when
we allow other views and thoughts to diminish them. The project evolved from the main question in the story from
what do you do with an idea to who can have ideas? Where do ideas come from and how are your ideas heard?
The project is much the same – what happens when you give children the space and ability to grow their ideas and
flourish? What can happen if their ideas are not heard or respected? We revisited the story many times discussing
the growing idea and how it’s very similar to the way ideas within ourselves can grow and change. Discussions on
how ideas can grow from one child to the next slowly filling the room with their expression and excitement or
challenging each other to listen to different ideas working to understand the meaning and thought.

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Storytelling was shared using different materials - whether it was reading the book, retelling the story, using felted
story pieces, and drawing. Through the course of this project, the children worked collaboratively on different
versions of their stories, different ways of telling their stories, and continued to expand on their stories. Each time
the felted story pieces were brought out, their ideas grew, spreading through the room, and seemed to invite other
children to join who may not have before. Language was expressed with all the senses and the children showed
compassion and understanding with each person who wanted to share. Through the course of the project, we were
able to see the children listening and sharing thoughts with each other and with the educators. Listening with their
entire bodies as they acted out each idea, used the paper to draw their thoughts, watched others draw and
seemingly inspired to draw and expand on their own. The children used this opportunity to move the story through
the centre from one end to another. Story pieces joined them in the kitchen area or with the blocks, even helping
them with making play dough. The crow they had found in the story box, named Cory the Crow, became the star in
many of their stories which helped to expand the space to the outdoors as they noticed crows on their walks,
expanding their worlds just that much more.
Storytelling is a tradition that is present in many cultures and shared through many generations and is a way of
sharing and conveying knowledge, exploring ideas together, and building on understanding. Storytelling teaches us
to love, to respect each other, to impart wisdom, to forgive, or to offer a different perspective. These opportunities
of sharing helped to bring the child’s individual voice to the centre, to build their voices together, and to bring a
larger understanding of their views and ideas to the adults in their lives. Biesta explains that by embracing individual
singularity within the pluralistic society – a society of many, it challenges us to be able to respond to the “otherness
of the other” – to take the responsibility to respond (2009, p 69). It is through this project work with the children
that the emerging themes of listening, acknowledging and respecting the singularity of each other, and respecting
the rights of the child became evident. The challenge and imperative of today’s society is the need for a shift, a
refocus, and an interest in a shared understanding of the strength, agency, and singularity within the child, working
to bring those ideas forward into education. The children began to realize the story we shared together in the
beginning was true. The ideas that they create can help to change their world.

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Conceptual essay

Everyone has a story. Each story is unique even with billions of people on the planet, no two stories are the same –
similar experiences maybe, but never the same. Children have their own stories, each sharing their stories every
day as they come to the centre through interactions with the world around them. Their stories, their way of being,
their way of knowing, their singularity meets each child and educator, each material item, and each space. Their
stories are guided by their feelings and emotions, their interactions, missing family members, daily challenges, but
all through the lens of their story. Storytelling is a way to connect with one another, to share ideas, to observe, and
to express feelings that may be hard with one on one conversation. Storytelling gives educators and children the
opportunity to connect through a story or a shared idea and to have their own stories come together as one if but
for a moment. As the children engage with others, share their ideas, and recreate their histories, the idea their
voice and their ideas are valued becomes more apparent. Through the course of researching the idea of
empowering children’s voices, three main concepts started to emerge as the building blocks of this project pedagogy of listening, children’s singularity, and the rights of the child.
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The act of listening is fundamental to building and maintaining relationships with the people and places around us,
not just with our ears but utilizing all our senses. Carlina Rinaldi explains the act of listening is really about the act of
searching for meaning within the surrounding world and creates the opportunities for connection to self, each other,
place, and space (2001. P 2). Listening is not just listening with our ears to the words being said, but also listening to
what our bodies are saying, what the material is saying, and what the space itself is saying (Giamminuti, 2013 p 23).
The philosophy of the pedagogy of listening welcomes all the questions and answers that are possible, not seeking
the right or wrong answer per se, but engaging with and exploring ideas among the group and respecting the
process. This idea does challenge the very nature of the traditional school system which says that the correct
answer is the only answer, but that path ignores the process and what is already known by the children in the room.
This way of being can challenge the colonial view of education moving to equalize the education process for children
from all walks of life to a co-construction of knowledge rather than a dictation of information. This pedagogy is not
an easy one to take on but worth every bit of effort as it requires a deep awareness and a suspension of judgments
and prejudices and requires an openness to change as it acknowledges the child as a co-collaborator in the centre
and a key participant in their lives. Engaging with storytelling encourages children to share their ideas with each
other and with their educators, to tell their own story and to be heard within the centre.
The pedagogy of listening goes hand in hand with acknowledging the singularity of the child as the educator must
be able to acknowledge a child’s self, or their singularity in and among the plural world in order to fully hear the
child (Dahlberg and Moss, 2005). The concept of singularity is not one to focus on a child-centred practice but
rather to acknowledge the very essence that makes each child unique, makes them the individual they are as they
move through a very pluralistic world. There is a traditional view of the educator that places the educator into an
all-knowing position – top of the pyramid, ready to impart knowledge but this view limits the child’s view and
silences their voices, ignores their singularity, and ignoring the child's history and knowledge. Gaile Sloan Cannella
describes the “voices of silent knowing” as those of the children educators work with and the voices that need to
be elevated rather than silenced (2008). Children share an understanding of the world outside of the centre that
many educators would not believe and the ideas the children construct are through lenses that are vast and
encompasses this world and their own history. To not acknowledge this singular being is a disservice to the very
essence that makes a child who they are and what they bring to the world. The beauty that is seen through the eyes
of a fulfilling relationship that acknowledges the internal and external of a person or place is to see the world for
what they describe and brings the magic into the centre, into the community, and into the world.
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Through the pedagogy of listening and acknowledging the singularity of the child, we then strive to embrace the
rights of children as the third thread woven through this project work of reclaiming voices. Every child has a right to
express their views and ideas freely and ideas are respected. Children are social beings and working with
storytelling as a way for children to share their ideas helped to bring even the quietest child into the project. The
children would use the felted story pieces to tell a story and the story can grow and change depending on their own
experience, the thoughts of the audience watching or participating and allows the child’s confidence and resilience
to grow. Empowering children to take on storytelling as means of communicating and to be heard helps to enhance
the thought that children are creators of their own experience. The children were challenged to think of the
materials and natural world around them in a different light. Moving from a human centred approach and
acknowledging the same agency that children deserve is deserved of the surrounding environment as well.
Materials can have ideas, share histories and society must rethink our understandings of the world around us.
Through relationships and interactions with their peers, with adults, with ideas, with objects, and with the real and
imaginary events of their world they work to learn where they fit among all of it. The rights of children should be
recognized as the rights of all children as a step towards a more fulfilled humanity.
The project work began by creating spaces for children's emerging thoughts and ideas to be heard, fostered, and
incorporated into their surrounding worlds while incorporating the surrounding world into their thoughts and
explorations. Through working collaboratively with the children, the idea of sharing ideas is encouraged and through
engaging in democratic conversations we worked with questions, such as, who can have ideas and where do ideas
come from to explore the notion of the individual in a plural world. Weaving the threads of the pedagogy of listening
while embracing the singularity of the child and respecting the rights of the child, a story unfolds that is rich and
vibrant with ideas that fill the centre and community with the voices of the children who live there. To cultivate a
culture where children and educators are actively participating in reciprocal listening to each other's ideas. By
embracing singularity and acknowledging the rights of the child, we can begin the work to unsilence the silenced.

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What do you do with an idea? What do educators do when challenged by an idea? Do
children get the opportunity to share their ideas? Are children welcome to express who
they are, what they feel, and share their ideas with their classmates, with their teachers,
with their families, or the world outside?
Where do ideas come from? Is the concept of an idea limited to those items with a voice,
with a mind, or can ideas come from the non-human other and expand in partnership with
ideas from our minds? Are children given the opportunity to explore this concept without
being limited?

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The children in Hundred Languages Childcare are
part of the breath, voice, and heart of the centre.
Each child walks through the door with their family
member to start the day at different times
throughout the morning. Sometimes they are
rushed, sometimes still sleepy, sometimes cheerful,
sometimes sad. In these moments, the educators
acknowledge and embrace the story the children
are bringing to the centre that day as each day is
different. Each child is different and has a unique
history of their own even at three years old, five
years old, or even months old. In these moments it
is apparent that we need to slow down, to take a
moment and relate to the children in our lives. All
too often my own son has grabbed my hand and
simply asked “play with me” in moments when I
am feeling panicked trying to get everything done.
He is wise beyond his years and can see the need
to stop, the need to focus on one thing, not a
million, and to just be.
In times of sorrow and missing mommy, Sandy
often takes the time needed with each child to help
them work through the very challenging emotions
they are experiencing. She takes the time to
acknowledge their being, their autonomy, asking if
they need a hug or help and letting them know
that she is there.

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This exploration began with the act of reading one story, What do you do with an idea? We were intrigued by the
idea that ideas can grow and change. We began our conversations each day with a choice of the felt pieces from
the story box. Elizabeth and Austin each took turns finding “Brownie” the mouse under the house. With each
round of the game, “Brownie” went on adventures to different places meeting new characters, sometimes family
members of the children were brought into the story. The characters were often special guests in the stories
shared with the other pieces found in the story box. While they enacted their stories the question “where do
ideas come from?” was introduced.

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Some of the questions we puzzled with
were:
What do you do with an idea?
Where do ideas come from?
Who can have an idea?

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We continued our exploration with storytelling
and this question of where do ideas come from.
The children worked together to see how their
ideas could be formed through conversation with
each other and the educators in the room.
During circle time, they were introduced to the
needle felted pieces originally handcrafted to tell
the story of Shel Silverstein's, The Giving Tree.
The children were openly invited to use the
pieces to tell their own stories.
The children generated ideas using the different
felt pieces and listened to each other as they
built their story from the foundation of The
Giving Tree to a story of Isha’s grandpa coming to
visit and the family sailing from India to New York
and back to Canada all the while carrying the
ever important cargo of fresh apples.

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Books became a reference point for the children. A way to visualize their story, remember pieces of other stories
and to trigger memories of their own. Gwen sat down to revisit The Giving Tree and returned to her story she was
telling adding in pieces from around the room. During this time, the question of “Where do ideas come from?” was
revisited. Could these felt pieces have ideas?

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The children thought for a long time about the idea
that the story pieces could have ideas.
Isha: No, I have ideas.
Conner: No
Kate: What do you think if I said the story pieces
could have ideas?
Divya: No, they don’t. They aren’t real.
Kate: Is what you are saying that only things that are
“real” are able to have ideas? The pieces are made
from wool which came from a sheep which are real.
Divya: But it’s not real. Like you and me.
Divya has expressed an idea that many of the
children seem to share. This notion that ideas come
from “real” things, or more generally – people.

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We continued to discuss the idea of “real” things being the only ones to have ideas as was brought up by
Isha and Conner. Isha was challenged to think of non-human objects and materials to see if they could have
ideas. We wondered whether objects had ideas of their own or if they helped to spark ideas in our minds.
Isha explained her ideas come from her mind and she felt materials could help, but only she can make the
toy crow speak. She explained it could not talk by itself. Conner agreed. Isha then took the story pieces and
used them to explain her story idea.
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Daily life became the narrative of the stories, the
histories, and the ideas children shared with each other.
Isha began telling the story of a grandfather going on a
long trip to New York and India on the search for the
best apples in the world. She placed the pieces near
the tree laying down to rest as a family. A wood block
entered the scene as the boat, and the little boy joined
the grandfather on his very long voyage over rough
oceans and stopping at many islands on the way while
the rest of the family stayed home. The journey was
rough, and the seas rocked the boat back and forth and
back and forth. When they arrived in India, they
searched for the best apples. When they found them,
they got back on their boat and sailed home.
When they returned from their very long trip, a crow
watched over the family as they slept with the new
apples.

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The exploration continued with the use of the chosen story and stories pieces. The crow became a main character
in the next story process. The children visited the book and shared the story of the growing idea with the crow.
They used items from the classroom and the story box to set the stage for the crow, making a home for him in the
tree and ensuring he had plenty of apples to eat. Compassion for this character was expressed by Gwen as she fed
the crow one of the apples and he hopped along looking for his friend.

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Setting the stage for the story is part of
the process of working through
challenging situations. Is the tree friendly
or will it not share the apples? Will the
tree be surrounded by water making it
harder to get to? Should we worry about
our story friends having enough food and
water for their long journey? Many
different themes come through as the
ideas were shared by the children
participating.

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Cory the crow wears a hat
Told by Gwen, Divya, and Zola
Gwen: There once was a crow hopping along
looking for food. His name is Cory!
Divya: He didn’t like the garbage in the garbage
[can] so he went looking for something yummy.
Zola: He needs a hat [She picks up the brown hat
and places the hat on the head of the crow] he
likes the hat.
Gwen: I wonder if the crow will find his friend? I
saw a crow outside! [She runs to the window to
see if she can still see the crow.]
Divya: Lets build him a home in the tree.
The children worked together to set up the little
tree, adding pieces of green and blue around the
base. Divya explained the water (the blue pieces)
will help keep the tree fed and the green pieces
will help to feed the crow.
Zola continued to collect pieces of “food” from
around the classroom to feed to Cory the Crow.
Cory wore his hat as he flew from place to place
looking for yummy food.

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This home that was constructed for Cory the
Crow was carefully thought out and
constructed to make sure he had plenty to eat
and drink. Divya explained they needed to
ensure Cory has enough to eat and drink for
when they are at home and he is at the centre.
They gathered items together, such as food
from the kitchen area, Lego blocks from the
Lego table, and setting aside some play dough
for him to eat while they are at home.
The care Divya expressed for Cory the crow
spread through the group as they each found a
piece for him to keep to make sure he was
cared for. I wondered with the children
whether Cory knew and understood the
children were working to help him.
Divya pondered for a moment.
”No, well, yes. I think he does. I hope he does.
Do you think he does?”

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This is the tree the children began
constructing for Cory the Crow to
make sure that he had a home of
his own.

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Several days later, Zola remembered Cory the crow was in the story box and wanted to bring him
back out. Claire and Elizabeth joined in creating their neighbourhood and creating more space for
Cory to explore as he flew from place to place. Remembering the last conversation with Divya, the
same question was brought up. Do you think Cory the Crow understands the children were building a
community to help him?

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Claire looked around at what they
were building and seemed to choose
to place the tree in a park for Cory to
live in. Austin added the blue felt
pieces to one side stating “there was a
pond for the fish to live in and for Cory
to eat!”
Zola shared ideas with Claire and
Austin about the kinds of food Cory
likes to eat and where Cory seems to
prefer to live. She explained Cory
preferred to live in the house where
he could play games.
I asked Zola if she had asked Cory
where he preferred to live? Zola
thought for a moment and then
picked up Cory to ask where he
wanted to live. She paused for a
moment as if to listen to what he had
to say and then replied “Well, he said
he wanted to live with me because we
are friends.”

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Claire was working to gather items for the community. The community has houses,
and a big tree and a park for everyone to play at. Zola helped Claire gather the
items she was looking for.

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The children came together and decided
they wanted to recreate the park Cory the
Crow visits and began to think together
about how this idea could come to be.
Stefan came running over bursting with ideas
on how to create a bigger space for Cory the
Crow. The children in the group were
expressing a concern over the size of the
space that Cory gets to live in, including the
story box he travels in. The children began
suggesting the story box needed to be bigger,
or that Cory could live in the centre on a
shelf up high so he could look down and see
all of them every day.

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Stefan began to gather the pieces
he needed in order to create the
space he felt Cory needed to be
happy.
Stefan explained that crows live in
trees and need to be able to have
plenty of food to eat.
I asked Stefan if he thought Cory
was appreciative of the work he
was doing to help him. Did Cory
understand what Stefan was trying
to do?
Stefan smiled and replied with
“Yes. Of course.” Stefan explained
Cory was a crow, and crows are
very smart.
I asked whether this crow was as
smart as crows that live outside in
nature.
Stefan thought for a moment and
replied with “I think so. Crows are
crows.”
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Using cushions from around the centre, the
children began to construct the larger
space for Cory the Crow to live. They felt
he needed a taller tree to live in and make
a nest!
Claire, Yoyo, and Zavier worked to gather
the cushions that look like tree pieces and
brought them to Zola, Elizabeth, and Stefan
to help get them stacked high. They
wanted to make sure Cory could have a
view of the whole centre.
The children seemed to view Cory as an
integral part of the story world and
incorporated him into their many ideas that
evolve in the centre.

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Stefan sat down and asked if he could try and make something.
He had an idea and he wanted to see if he could make it come
together.
I sat down with Stefan to work on an idea he had about
building a robot. While he worked on his project he asked if I
could read him some of the book, Where do Ideas Come From?
As we read, I asked him where did he think ideas came from
and who could have an idea?
Stefan: From my brain. Ideas are in my brain.
Kate: Does it come from anywhere else in your body?
Stefan: No, just my brain.
Kate: Do you think things like the story pieces we work with can
have an idea? Like Cory the Crow?
Stefan: Only if it has a brain. Cory has a brain!
Kate: What can we do with ideas? Can we feed our ideas?
Stefan: I feed them food. Like at lunch time I eat all my food
and it feeds my brain.

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Stefan is finishing up his robot and exclaimed “My robot has an idea!”

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The idea that Stefan’s robot had an idea sparked continued
conversation about where ideas come from.
Stefan: My robot has an idea!
Kate: Do robots have brains? Like people?
Stefan: No (laughing)
Kate: I remember you saying that ideas come from your brain.
Stefan: yeah!
Kate: Does your robot have a brain?
Stefan: No, robots do not have brains.
Kate: Then where do you think the robot’s idea is coming from?
Stefan: Well, this robot has a brain. But it’s a different kind of
brain. It beeps and boops.
Kate: What’s the robot’s idea?
Stefan: He’s thinking he wants to go outside and play with a ball.

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Zola, Yoyo, and Divya joined the project and
decided to also make their own creations using
the same paper strips Stefan was using.
A discussion about robots continued as Stefan
sat nearby listening to what they had to say.
Divya: I’m drawing a robot. This robot is
named Rolly!
Stefan: Mine is named Silly!
Kate: Stefan mentioned that his robot has
ideas like the story we’ve been reading. What
do you think?
Zola: Mine isn’t a robot.
Divya: My robot has an idea. And when it has
an idea, like a game, then we can play it.
Stefan: Oh yeah! It can have great game ideas!
Mine is thinking that he wants to play with
your robot!

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The invitation to the children to come and draw a story with me was open to anyone who wanted to
join. The children took the time to draw out their ideas and story pieces. I wrote some questions on the
paper and wrote down each of their answers. Oliver and Jase explained that all of Oliver’s ideas come
from Jase’s house and he can’t have ideas anywhere else. Jase explained it was because all his toys
were there to help them have ideas.
The children took the time to share the paper with each other being mindful not to draw on each
other’s picture and helping each other when one was stuck. The children worked together to create a
story about two monsters who went to Jase’s house to play in the attic.

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Gwen shared her story about a snail
with polka dots going into Port
Moody.

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Divya drew herself and her sister getting
ready to dance.

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Oliver and Jase drew similar adventures
according to their recount of events.
There was a terrible storm at Jase’s house
and they both had to fight a giant
monster in his backyard.

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Austin and Nico decided to pull out
the story box again and see if Cory
the Crow wanted to come out and
play. Austin wanted to help Cory fly
around the room. Nico was
interested in exploring the different
pieces in the box. This was his first
time participating in the project and
he was interested in seeing what
was hidden in the story box.

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Nico quickly dove into the character of the little boy in the
story box and started acting out his ideas. The little boy, was
Nico, and he enjoyed going to the park. Much like himself, the
little boy lives near a big park with a big tree. In that tree were
big apples he liked to feed to Cory the Crow. Yum!

I posed a question to Nico.
Kate: Nico, what do you do with an
idea?
Nico: You put it on!
He grabbed the tree and picked up
the apples.
Nico: You put the ideas on the tree!
And then you can watch it grow.
Austin picked up the characters and
explained they were a family
looking for ideas.

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Cory the Crow made an appearance in most of the stories shared by the children. Each time his experiences
changed as the different children helped him around the centre. Sometimes he was making a nest in the tree
and the apples became eggs. Or he was looking for a job and the kitchen area became his workspace. Ideas
changed and evolved to encompass more of what the children knew.

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Claire joined in the story fun with Zavier. Both children have very little verbal language but are incredibly
expressive in other ways using their body, voice, gestures, and the other languages they have. They
shared in the telling of their own story about Cory the Crow on the search for apples in the tree. Cory
got sleepy towards the end and was tucked in for an afternoon nap. Claire took the time to pat his back
to help him fall asleep.

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Gwen joined the storytelling with Claire and decided the chalkboard right behind Claire was a perfect place to
help add to her story. As Gwen drew her picture, she was describing the movements and lines as other birds
coming to join Cory the Crow. She worked to smooth out the feathers. “No, no, no.” She says. “Feathers need
to be smooth so that the birds can fly faster. There’s also a cloud.”

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During the final days of the project the
children wanted to spend more time
drawing their ideas. Jase and Oliver shared
some markers, but each drew their own
story this time. Oliver began working on
some stairs that travel all the way to the
sky and Jase is working on a different
monster that lives near a volcano.

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While Jase and Oliver took the time to draw together, Oliver started asking for help with his drawing. He
wanted to know whether the clouds should be above or below the stairs.
Jase: Below. Make the stairs go high like an airplane. Airplanes go above the clouds. I saw it when I went
to Hawaii.
Oliver: Ok, I’ll put them down here.
Jase: I am drawing another volcano like Hawaii.

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Closing thoughts
The children of Hundred Languages Childcare truly are part of the heart and soul of the centre. The educators are
welcoming of ideas and through the course of this project, it was not apparent where this would lead by starting
with the reading of a book. Fascination with the thought of what you do with an idea challenged the views of many
of the children as they worked through new concepts. Who can have ideas? Can materials have ideas? Can the toys
we play with every day have ideas? Can you feed your ideas? The work the children did within this project helped
to share their voices through the centre as their ideas took shape with drawings, with the construction of tall trees
or caves. The children felt comfortable sharing their ideas and challenging each other to new ideas. They took time
to hear each idea and fit some with the story they were acting out.
Storytelling is a tradition that spans cultures and generations of shared knowledge and information, shared verbally,
written, or through the very essence that make each child the unique singular being as part of the larger puzzle of
the world. Storytelling does in fact teach us to love, respect, to accept wisdom, or offer a different perspective.
These opportunities presented themselves many times through the course of the project. This project attempts to
unsettle the traditional grounds of education and move to a more co-constructive framework where children's
voices are heard. It is a challenge to the current societal view that the child needs to remain unseen and unheard
and moving to a more welcoming place where the child is welcome in public spaces and places. This project is a
challenge to ensure a child's singularity is respected and embraced as they move through a pluralistic world or the
world of many. This idea would require a full societal shift to change the view of children, childhood, and childcare
to be essential to the social and emotional growth of children and the respect of the child’s own strength, agency
and singularity.
As mentioned before, this project’s original idea was to create spaces for children's emerging thoughts and ideas to
be heard, fostered, and incorporated into their surrounding world. Through the course of this project, the children
expanded their understanding of the materials they worked with and questioned where ideas come from only to
learn ideas can come from most anywhere, inspired by different aspects of their day and expanded through
storytelling. The children began to realize the story we shared together in the beginning was true. The ideas that
they create can help to change their world and work to reclaim their voices and to unsilence the silenced.

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