Karen Booth to head Child and Family Center
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by ZACH VEILLEUX
Karen Booth, a teacher and administrator with over 35 years of experience in early childhood education, has been named director of the university’s Child and Family Center. She will take over the center’s operations this summer, replacing Marjorie Goldsmith, who is leaving after 17 years with the CFC (see “Marjorie Goldsmith to leave Child and Family Center,” below).
Ms. Booth’s interest in early childhood education began in her high school and college years, when she first volunteered in children’s schools. She worked as a nursery school teacher even as she pursued her undergraduate degree; she ultimately received a bachelor’s degree in education from Wayne State University and a master’s in education from Bank Street College of Education. “My whole life, I’ve been drawn to watching children grow and develop, and to helping support the process of growing up and understanding the world,” Ms. Booth says. “I have a great deal of respect for children, and I consider it a privilege to be able to share in a child’s journey, with their family, as they experience things for the very first time.”
Her career since then has taken her to several New York City early education programs, including the highly regarded Calhoun School on the Upper West Side, where she spent more than 15 years, and the West Side YMCA, where she was director of both the parent cooperative nursery school and the Tender Care day care center. In addition, she supervised the Kinder Camp program, which serves more than 400 children each summer.
Since 2001 Ms. Booth has been the early childhood director at the Third Street Music School Settlement in the East Village, a community arts school with numerous programs for preschool- and school-age children and adults. The preschool programs fully integrate visual arts, music, dance and drama into the curriculum. “There’s something exciting about meshing arts and education, and it gives preschool children a very powerful way to learn and to explore the world,” Ms. Booth says.
Arts have played a major role throughout Ms. Booth’s career, in fact. In addition to being a passionate artist herself, Ms. Booth has traveled to Italy’s renowned Reggio Emilia, where children direct their own learning and use the visual arts to synthesize new experiences and knowledge. She was also part of a New York City educator’s group devoted to the Reggio Emilia philosophy. The methodology translates well to the CFC, where substantial investments have been made in arts facilities and education.
“It’s very exciting for me to accept the position at Rockefeller’s Child and Family Center, where there’s already a strong arts program in place,” says Ms. Booth. “It’s also a privilege to return to a campus setting, which is where I began my career. Rockefeller’s setting provides a safe outdoor area for children to explore and offers something very unusual for New York — a place to interact with nature.
“There’s a strong sense of community here, and the campus environment makes it easy for parents to visit frequently and get to know the teachers and other children. That’s an important element in a child education program, and helps make it an exciting and fulfilling place to work.”
“I’m very pleased that Karen has accepted the university’s offer to direct the Child and Family Center,” says Virginia Huffman, vice president for human resources. “Her background and knowledge in preschool art, music and dance programs fittingly complement the CFC philosophy and she brings extensive professional and administration experience from other early childhood programs. I’m sure she will be warmly welcomed by the CFC community and the university as a whole.”
Originally from Dearborn, Michigan, Ms. Booth currently lives in the East Village.
| Marjorie Goldsmith to leave Child and Family Center
by TALLEY HENNING BROWN Her modus operandi is both art and science, but her work is well known among a particular cohort at Rockefeller — parents. As director of the university’s Child and Family Center, Marjorie Goldsmith has helped guide hundreds of Rockefeller children through the most formative years of their lives, heralded in a vast expansion of the program and introduced numerous improvements to the center’s facilities. After 17 years at Rockefeller, Dr. Goldsmith will say her official goodbyes June 30, to take up directorship of All Souls School. Dr. Goldsmith began working in early childhood education in 1973. Following the example of her mother and grandmother — both lifelong teachers — she holds a master’s degree in early childhood education from Bank Street College of Education and a doctorate in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has served as teacher/director of the Jackson Heights Children’s Center, materials development coordinator at the City College Day Care Training Program, educational director of Plaza Head Start and, for eight years, director of The First Presbyterian Church Nursery School. The CFC, which Dr. Goldsmith joined in 1992, was established in the 1950s as an informal parent-run program, a way for American mothers on campus to help welcome the families of the numerous overseas researchers joining the Rockefeller community. By the time it became an official department of the university in the early 1970s, the CFC filled four classrooms and was equipped to offer half-day care to children three years and older. When demand for the service increased rapidly as the university grew during the 1990s, Dr. Goldsmith was hired to expand the program. The CFC now has 10 classrooms and is licensed for 122 children, ages three months to five years. Dr. Goldsmith oversaw the construction of three playgrounds and an art studio and reorganized and expanded the children’s library. She supervised a permanent staff of over 40 teachers and specialists, planned and managed the center’s budget and led the admissions process. She also hosted regular parent discussion groups and introduced incentives for professional development for CFC teachers. Dr. Goldsmith shaped the center’s curriculum around an approach known as developmental-interaction, which seeks to foster creativity, problem solving ability and social development through children’s active participation in learning experiences and interaction with their physical and social environment. The university’s landscaped campus and the surrounding neighborhood have played an integral part of that learning process: Small groups of children and teachers are often seen parading toward a mission at a local park or museum or learning about nature on campus. “I don’t think it’s possible to underestimate the effect of the environment on the way we live and work,” says Dr. Goldsmith. “That’s one of the things I’m going to miss about Rockefeller; this beautiful campus is an exceptional place to work. Another is the wonderful people in all the campus departments and the parents, children and teachers I’ve had the pleasure to get to know.” Beginning in July, Dr. Goldsmith will be the new director of All Souls School, a private preschool on the Upper East Side. Directorship of the CFC will be filled by Karen Booth, another Bank Street College alumna. “I know with her experience, Karen will fit very well here,” she says. “And I know what she can expect. The people at Rockefeller are not only welcoming and friendly, but incredibly diverse, a quality that creates a climate that is both enriching and challenging for everyone involved.” |
