▶ Interview
Park You Jeong | Director, Center for Child Educare Service & Research
(Professor in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies)
There are some particularly vibrant members of the SNU campus: around 260 children growing at their own pace at the Baekhak and Neutinamu Daycare Centers. By their side is Director Youjeong Park, who helps them discover the joy of exploring the world and grow stronger from within. Since being appointed director in March, Professor Park has been driving change at the center. Here, we explore the educational philosophy behind these changes.
Every morning at 8:30, the area outside the daycare centers bustles with children and their parents. Baekhak Daycare Center, established in 1997, welcomes children ages one to two, while Neutinamu Daycare Center, which opened in 2003, welcomes those ages three to five. This lively morning scene reflects a daily rhythm quietly nurtured over the years by the Center for Child Educare Service & Research, one that has become a steadfast source of support for the university community.
Professor Park, who took office in March, brings a deep, firsthand understanding of the center to her new role. Having begun her career here as a student teacher and later worked as a teacher, she is now back with a special connection to the center and a renewed sense of purpose.
“As director, I first focused on our classroom teachers’ documentation. It is an honest reflection of how teachers view children’s lives and what they notice and value most.”
For her, even the smallest changes in a child can reveal important signs of learning. For example, when documenting a child taking off their socks, a teacher should go beyond simple notes (e.g., “The child took off their socks.”) and capture subtle changes in the child’s approach (e.g., “The child used to pull from the toes but has now figured out how to pull them off from the heel.”). This is why Professor Park’s first step was to change how teachers document children’s learning. Her other priorities include reframing Theme-Based Exploration and Expression Activities (Jutam), a hallmark of the center, and introducing a Mind Growth Program in response to changing times.
“Jutam can easily be mistaken for a cognitive learning activity confined to a single topic. In fact, it is child-led. Say a tropical fish is brought into the classroom. The children naturally start talking about it and asking imaginative questions like, ‘Do fish have nostrils too?’ To find answers, they might visit a market themselves to buy a fish for closer observation and bring in the center’s cook as an expert to examine its swim bladder. In the process, children come up with their own answers, and we should never try to correct them. What may seem far-fetched or simply wrong to an adult is actually the child’s current hypothesis. Once we give children the answer, they lose the joy of exploration that comes from discovering the mysteries of the world for themselves.”
While Jutam nurtures the joy of exploration, the Mind Growth Program fosters children’s social-emotional development. In a 2019 SNU study exploring ways to better serve university members’ childcare needs, a social-emotional development program topped respondents’ list of desired services. Based on these findings, Professor Park recently collaborated with Professor Kim Joo Hwan’s team at Yonsei University to develop a Mind Growth Program for young children, with support from the Samsung Welfare Foundation. Since July, the program has been piloted in classes for children ages three to five.
“Children are naturally drawn to the world around them. The key is to redirect their attention inward and help them become aware of their bodily sensations and emotions. This awareness, in turn, leads to self-regulation and self-acceptance. We are increasingly seeing children who are bright but lack perseverance, so they are quick to lose their temper or give up. Indeed, mental health indicators among children and adolescents have reached alarming levels. When children struggle to love and accept themselves as they are, peer relationship problems or school bullying can surface as early as the upper elementary grades. It all begins with teaching children from a very young age to accept themselves, be patient and considerate of others, acknowledge that they can’t have everything, and learn to be grateful.”
The Mind Growth Program is set to be rolled out to 113 centers nationwide with support from the Korea Institute for Childcare and Early Childhood Education. Through these efforts, the center is at the forefront of meaningful change in early childhood care and education. Parents, who are themselves part of the university community, also deeply appreciate these values, actively contributing by gathering materials, inviting experts, and sharing their own expertise. What else, then, does the academic community expect from the center?
“Despite growing demand for extended evening childcare, we at the center do not see taking over parenting altogether as the answer. We need to support parents in balancing work and family life so that they can continue to find fulfillment in parenting. But above all, the childcare system must prioritize children’s happiness and development.”
More than anything, Professor Park hopes the center will be a place where children are free to explore and happily take on challenges.
“My idea of a Bold Innovation is being willing to pour all your energy into something even when the chances of failure are high and the outcome is uncertain. As they learn to walk, babies fall thousands of times, yet they keep getting back up and trying again. We need to ask ourselves whether, in the name of safety, we have steered children away from risk, only to deprive them of opportunities to realize their potential. I would offer this advice to members of the university community: When you encounter children on campus, pause for a moment, listen to what they have to say, and draw fresh inspiration from them. No matter your field, engaging with children’s perspectives can spark new ideas for your own research.”
As Professor Park reminds us, we were all children once. Who we are as adults is the result of all the thoughts and behaviors that shaped us over the course of our childhood. Now is the time for us to be a safety net for the next generation. That is exactly what the center is here for: accepting a degree of risk and protecting children’s natural instincts so that they have the freedom to fail and try again. Baekhak Daycare Center and Neutinamu Daycare Center have been doing just that.
“As young children learn to talk and take their first steps,
they try and fail thousands of times, yet they never give up.
I can’t help but feel that the instinct to take on challenges
is not something we develop, but something we are born with.”
