Diversity and inclusion (DNI) are terms very much in vogue now.

While many are familiar with the various forms it takes amongst adults, few know how it is amongst preschooling tots who are still learning how to tie their own shoelaces and string together full sentences.

Good Start SG is a movement about creating inclusive preschool environments by introducing and advancing evidence-based best practices in classrooms.

“It is not a faith-based movement, but the inception of it is motivated by a love for God and the desire to share God’s love,” said Lim Ee Tuo, who is involved in the group of early childhood practitioners and early intervention professionals. He is also the Executive Director of Presbyterian Preschool Services, the preschool arm of Presbyterian Community Services.

Staff from Presbyterian Preschool Services, Presbyterian Community Services, and volunteers who helped out at the Good Start SG conference held earlier this year.

“Presbyterian Preschool Services has tasted and seen God’s glory in the every day, when children learn to articulate to their friend that there is a staircase ahead with seven steps, or when they clap with encouragement when a classmate completes a task independently, albeit taking a longer time.”

The hope is to “flip the cultural norm in Singapore”, he added, where instead of a foundation of meritocracy laced with  compassion almost as an afterthought, there is a foundation of compassion blended with elements of meritocracy.

He shared his thoughts on the movement with Salt&Light and what it means to be truly inclusive:

A good start for all children

Good Start SG wants to celebrate the life of every child. When we acknowledge that every child is valued, and we embrace them the way God created them, we trust that God is good. We love the children, regardless of their abilities, because God is love.

Not every preschool teacher is a Christian, but the principle that every child can have great aspirations and is capable of living out their fullest potential, can be transferred.

Most of us are familiar with Psalm 139:13-14: “For you formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”

But do these verses also apply to children who are non-verbal? Or the child who has attention deficits? Or the child who has visual impairment?

When we consider children who have added needs and differing abilities, do we trust that God, in His sovereign goodness, formed their inward parts, knit them together in their mother’s womb and made them wonderfully? Do we praise God for who He made them to be in spite of the challenges that come with parenting and teaching them?

Is a child who has impairments still God’s wonderful work?

When we seek to create inclusion preschool classrooms, do our hearts grumble because it is extra work or do we praise God for those little ones, and be content in knowing full well that God is still good when He created them?

Little Heroes of Inclusion

Our Little Heroes of Inclusion are not necessarily doing “extraordinary things”, but are doing ordinary things with extraordinary love.

Little Heroes of Inclusion 2022 Award Finalists: These children went beyond being kind and charitable helpers to their special friends. Instead, they saw their special friends as equals, respecting their preferences and ways of doing things, accepting them as they are.

These role models tell the story that everyone can do it, and inclusion starts with looking to our special friends as individuals who are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Our experience working with children is that they do not see differences between themselves and others. While they are able to pick up misbehaviours and quirks that other children may have, they pick up discriminatory attitudes, behaviours and language from the adults around them.

Most children grow to see their special friends as peers and equals deserving of the same respect, until an adult models otherwise.

As much as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a child to transform a village. We wanted exemplars whom others could look up to.

We hope our efforts will inspire more preschools will open their doors to children with additional needs, giving them an opportunity to live their lives to the fullest.

A believer’s tension between inclusion and meritocracy?

Being a Christian and embracing or advocating for inclusion are two sides of the same coin.

We cannot claim to love God and others without embracing those who have added needs, and making seismic changes in our attitudes, behaviours, policies and training.

In Singapore where meritocracy was and continues to be the recipe for our national success and security, the bar the Bible sets for love and compassion for our neighbours is counter-cultural. A Christian who seeks to love and show compassion the way the Bible does, will struggle to be meritocratic.

Society today is fragmented and there remains a high calling to bring everyone closer together, to see value in everyone’s meaningful participation in our community. Ideas like self-preservation and “whatever-ism” (nonchalance/indifference) may work for some, but we want to see the good of our nation.

More importantly, we want our nation to be good.

Front row seats to glory

Creating inclusive preschool environments is costly because living with disabilities is costly. They not only drain resources, but also our emotion, physical and even spiritual strength.

We also seldom see God’s goodness and purpose in the face of real, every day challenges.

Ask the teacher who has to handle 18 preschool children in her class daily. If just one of them is visually-impaired, the additional work that goes into making the classes engaging becomes infinitely multiplied.

As our children learn to lay down their lives sacrificially for their special friends, God is also teaching them about His love and glory in the midst of their obedience in the face of suffering. God gives us the front-row seat to witness His goodness in ways we would otherwise not seen.

We may never understand why God chose to do what He did. But we can teach children that God is good nevertheless and everything exists for His glory and for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28).

Our life on earth as Christians is transient, but while we are exilic people here, when we seek the welfare of Singapore, we will find our welfare too. (Jeremiah 29:7)