In an ongoing series, the Daily spotlights Tufts administrators and professors who also attended Tufts as undergraduates.
When Tufts alum Janet Zeller began her work with the Tufts Educational Day Care Center in 1983, she realized immediately that something was missing. While her alma mater's day care had taken many steps to create a diverse environment that included families of all religious, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds, there was no appropriate setting for children with special needs.
For the past 20 years, Zeller (LA '65) has created just such a setting, one that's inclusive for children with a variety of developmental disabilities. She's also been a longtime advocate of fighting for causes you believe in.
"While my interest in children, and especially in children with special needs, didn't emerge until several years after my graduation, Tufts was always in my mind and heart as the place where I became an adult with a clear sense and appreciation of my own intellectual power," Zeller said.
"With four undergraduate years as an active member of the Leonard Carmichael Society, Tufts was also the venue for my first serious social action through advocacy," Zeller added.
Between graduating from Tufts and returning to head its day care center, Zeller got her master's degree at UCLA and her doctorate of education at Harvard. She also worked as the chair of the special education department at Wheelock College.
"The greatest lure for my return [to Tufts] was Tufts' decision to expand the mission of the Day Care Center, so it could serve children and families from all kinds of under-represented groups," she said.
According to Zeller, integrating typically developing youngsters and those with individual learning needs creates an environment of understanding and growth. "Children can learn about all kinds of people, become acquainted with and comfortable with differences, yet at the same time find bridges of similarity," Zeller said.
For example, Zeller said, a girl with mild asthma was afraid to use her inhaler. After befriending a classmate who suffered from severe spina bifida and used a machine to mechanically assist her breathing, the asthmatic child learned to feel comfortable using a breathing aid.
While creating a diverse environment introduces both children and their teachers to new people and experiences, Zeller says it is not enough. The Tufts Educational Day Care Center (TEDCC) strives not only to include children who are different, but also to take away their minority status.
"In the outside world there is diversity, but there is always a minority whispering into a forest of majority," Zeller said. "No one should be whispering. No one should be screaming."
To aid in this process of equalizing the classroom, Zeller is working towards a goal of teaching American Sign Language to all day care classes. She also seeks to have the children become adept at using augmentative communication devices so that they can communicate with their speech and hearing impaired classmates.
Under Zeller's supervision, the TEDCC also aims to provide a bigger role for adults -- including teachers, parents and Tufts students -- in the education process.
As an administrator, Zeller is focused on continuously developing her staff. She believes that her staff's exposure to such a wide range of students has greatly improved their teaching abilities, and she aims to further their exposure through conferences, training programs and literature.
Along with professionals, many Tufts students, especially those interested in Child Development volunteer and work at the day care as teaching assistants and student teachers. The center covers half of the TEDCC's expenses.
The relationship between the University and the TEDCC is a mutual one: Zeller teaches several Child Development courses, including "The Exceptional Child" and "Children With Special Needs."
Under her guidance, a group of undergraduate students in alliance with LCS sought to include special needs children in Tuft's annual Kids Day. A group of Zeller's students also created a Halloween party that provided the necessary assistance for special needs children to be able to participate.
Zeller believes in the importance of enthusiastic outreach to minorities of all kinds. She says that families with children of special needs, and all families with life styles that differ from the norm often do not feel welcome to participate in every day activities at Tufts and in the outside world.
"They're there -- they're just on house arrest," Zeller said. "With the University's economic, social, and academic support, I jumped at the chance to help create and then nurture a truly diverse learning community. And 22 years later, with Tufts' commitment never wavering, that's exactly what I'm doing."
