Mission
The mission of the Family
Development Center, a division of Governors State University’s College of
Education, is to provide accessible and exceptional education for children,
families and students, and to encourage lifelong learning and the development
of the whole child.
Vision
The Family Development Center will
be the Model Early Education Center for the South Suburbs.
Core Values
- Making a difference in people’s lives:
We value and respect the recipients of our services and the trust they
place in us. We affect change in people’s lives by using an approach that
builds on an individual’s strengths. - Life-long Learners:
We lay an educational foundation for our students. We promote learning
for our parents and ourselves as professionals. - Quality and Excellence in our Work:
As professionals in our field, we are at the forefront of excellence in
early childhood education. - Demonstrate Inclusiveness and Diversity:
We embrace diversity among students, staff, and faculty as well as members
of the broader community, and we encourage acceptance of wide-ranging
perspectives.
Philosophy
We believe that children learn in
many different ways and children’s learning is impacted by a variety of forces.
When children are actively engaged and construct their own knowledge through
hands on activities in a stimulating environment, their growth and development
flourish.
We use a research based, reasoned
eclecticism approach with Creative Curriculum as our play based foundation. The
Family Development Center staff provides a variety of opportunities and
experiences in the environment to meet the needs of all children. We
honor diversity, creativity and playfulness in every experience and strive to
provide security and emotional support for all children and their families.
We encourage life long learning and
the dispositions of critical thinking, analytical thinking, questioning, and
experimentation.