DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET importance of creating environments that engage children in complex play that leads to deeper learning for both the children and teachers. Two other significant players and organizations in the adoption of child-centered environments and materials in early childhood pro- grams are Diane Trister Dodge and her Creative Curriculum associ- ates at Teaching Strategies and David Weikart and his colleagues at the HighScope Foundation. In her early years of becoming a teacher educa- tor, Margie became a HighScope trainer. In the process, she learned a great deal about active learning for adults and the potential for children and adults to reflect on their work together. Over the years, both of us as authors have appreciated the dialogue and collegial relationship we have had with Dodge. While Teaching Strategies and HighScope each have different curriculum elements and emphases, both approach children as active, hands-on learners who benefit from an attractive, orderly room arrangement with an array of materials to select from and use in open- ended ways. Because of the widespread work of Dodge, Weikart, and their associates, the early childhood field has moved away from a more scat- tered, informal “toy box” approach to classrooms with designated interest areas or learning centers, each stocked with well-organized materials in labeled baskets on shelves. Long before we heard the Italians of the schools of Reggio Emilia refer to “the environment as the third teacher,” Dodge and Weikart had set up training programs and demonstration classrooms to show teachers how to design environments with the potential to engage children in self-initiated play. While we are not without concern about the standardization that has resulted in the rigid adoption of their curricu- lums, we recognize their initial work helped to make environments and routines more child-centered than adult-centered, with a strong emphasis on developmentally appropriate practices. When we read Alerta: A Multicultural, Bilingual Approach to Teaching Young Children by Leslie R. Williams and Yvonne De Gaetano in 1984, we learned how to move away from a superficial multicultural approach and toward cultural relevancy in setting up environments for children. In Alerta, the authors emphasize the need to reflect the lives and communi- ties of the children and families in teaching environments, which pushed us to develop concrete strategies to that end. Other pioneers who stressed the importance of cultural relevancy in the social-emotional environment include Carol Brunson Day, Louise Derman-Sparks, Janet Gonzalez-Mena, Janice Hale, Lily Wong Fillmore, and Gloria Ladson-Billings. J. Ronald Lally and his colleagues at WestEd Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) have been vital champions of the important idea that working with infants and toddlers involves more than caregiving; it is a place where identities are being shaped. In our own city of Seattle, Sharon Cronin and COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Introduc tion  ]   5