DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET Children First, Durham, NC you can make a way out of no way. Bigger ideas about quality are doable, and they don’t require an unreasonable amount of money. Taking time, working with extraordinary diligence, and seeing yourself as creative and resourceful can help you step beyond the barriers to creating great places for childhood. When Deb returned to redevelop herself as a practicing children’s teacher, Margie continued to work as a college instructor, consultant, and coach for early childhood programs. She discovered that as inspiring as our book Designs for Living and Learning might be, teachers and admin- istrators couldn’t get beyond adding a bit of window dressing unless they had a process for examining why they do what they do and for exploring the values they want reflected in their work. It became clear that it wasn’t just the physical environment and materials that needed reconfiguring in these programs—the daily routines, use of time, support structures, com- munications, and relationships all had to be rethought if the environment was to be effectively designed, cared for, and used. The social-emotional environment, what we think of as the classroom or program culture, is intricately related to what the Italian educators of Reggio Emilia call “the 10  [   Introduc tion COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL