DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET ACKNOWLEDGMENTS first began to see that what I had to say might provoke some very strong reactions. I sent the first draft of the book to Dr. Betty Jones, my mentor and professor emerita at Pacific Oaks College from a dozen years earlier, uncertain that she would have the time to read it. But Betty did not just read it, she made it her own. She wrote the foreword, shared the manuscript with her colleagues, and gave me invaluable and detailed feedback. “I read it a second time out loud,” Betty explained to me, knowing, I suppose, that I would be curious about the way she was able to be so in tune to the rhythm as well as the content of each chapter. It was not just that her feedback made for a more concise, readable, and theoretically sound manuscript, but the warmth and enthusiasm with which she embraced the project made me begin to believe that I was onto something important. As it began to dawn on me that my book might be both embraced and castigated by the early childhood profession, I sent the edited manuscript to friend and mentor Dr. Marce Verzaro-O’Brien, the executive director of Training and Technical Assistance Services at Western Kentucky University, for whom I had been employed for over twenty-five years and with whom I continue to work on a freelance basis. She deserved the opportunity, I thought, to know ahead of time that there might be some serious pushback coming down the pike in the near future. When Marce told me to go for it, the deal was sealed. The actual finished manuscript, however, could not have been possible without the collaboration, support, and very hard work of my editor at Redleaf, Danny Miller, who is as funny as he is patient and insightful. But the story of this book began long before I first put fin- gers to keyboard and hit Save at the end of chapter 1. It is the xiv COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL