ABSTRACT
Language is arguably the most powerful tool for social justice available to every early childhood educator. When a language of respect for the hope and resiliency of children is supported by an abiding personal and professional commitment to fairness and equal opportunities, every early childhood educator can enact a living curriculum of advocacy for children. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Early childhood educators who are comfortable with the use of deficit terminology that denigrates the abilities and experiences of children who are different from themselves in their economic and cultural lives, even when they express their professional commitment to children, can enable deeply entrenched forms of discrimination that work directly against fair treatment of children. Even the most talented and well-prepared educators can build a wall between themselves and their students with language that reinforces historic and damaging beliefs about children most at risk for institutional harm fueled by discrimination. Such walls can serve to justify teacher decisions and actions that withhold or alter opportunities and expectations for children deemed inferior or deficient.
