MEET
DOCTOR LAUREN
Dr. Lauren Loquasto is an expert in early childhood education. She currently serves as the Chief Academic Officer for Goddard Systems Inc. In this leadership role, Lauren continues to shape the premier educational programming and proprietary curriculum for the Goddard system of nearly 650 schools. In her prior role, Lauren held the position of vice president of early childhood education for Primrose School Franchising Company, where she supported curriculum development, implementation, and evaluation. Prior to that she led the early childhood education department for a private education company, authoring their proprietary early childhood curriculum and leading professional development creation and delivery.
Lauren has worked at every level of early childhood education. While she began her formal career teaching at the university level, she has prior experience teaching within preschools, consulting and serving as a support professional for children with autism, and serving as an embedded instructional coach for preschool teachers. She has worked as a school principal for multiple schools and remains actively involved as a voice for early childhood education in various professional associations. When not working, Lauren enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, and cheering on her sons in sports. She lives with her husband and family in Roswell, Georgia, near Atlanta.
Why
These Books?
The year was 2013, and my two young sons stood before me. My then 5 year old son had a large book of published photographs in his hand and placed it on the table in front of me. With his then 3 year old brother standing by his side, he asked me, “Mommy, what happened on September 11th?” I swallowed hard, unsure of what to say to my two young boys who looked at me with trust and curiosity in their eyes.
“What do you think happened on September 11th, Braden?” I asked my oldest son, probing to see what he knew. With a look of shame in his eyes, he looked at me and then looked at the floor. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I saw the picture in the book and I asked my teacher today. She said we don’t talk about that at school… Why, Mommy? What happened?”
I pulled him close to me and welcomed my younger son into my embrace. I then proceeded to give a very simple explanation of September 11th based upon the photo he was pointing to in the book. “We live in the United States of America. That is our country. September 11th is a sad day for us in our country. That day, September 11th, some people who did not like America flew airplanes into these two large buildings in New York City and knocked them all the way down. A lot of people got hurt and even died that day. There were lots of helpers. You can see all of the firefighters and police in this photo helping to get people safe. It was a sad day because people got hurt, and it makes me feel sad to think about, but it also makes me proud that there were so many helpers. I’m proud to live in a country where we help each other.” I paused.
My younger son with pure innocence and childhood naiveté smiled. “It’s ok, Mommy. It was an accident,” he exclaimed with forgiveness in his eyes. My older son looked at him with tears in the corner of his eyes and said, “No, Gavin. No. Things like that do not happen by accident.”
Here was my child at the age of 5 who had not only stumbled upon one of the worst terror events in American history, but he understood the complexity of the situation at a level of maturity far beyond his years. Equally as striking was the fact that he showed embarrassment and shame in asking me the question, as the silencing of his question at school made him feel he had done something wrong.
That day, I mentally committed to write these books. Every topic covered in these books is based upon real experiences with young children in preschool, elementary school, or other settings and is based upon authentic questions children have asked. The goal of the books is to undo the silencing, embrace the questions, provide age-appropriate responses, and ease young children’s anxiety about the world around them.