Early Education Group Screens Film No Small Matter

The Lehigh and Northampton Chapter of the Pennsylvania Association for the Education of Young Children recently hosted a screening of the film No Small Matter, followed by a panel discussion.

The film, directed by an award-winning team of filmmakers, is the first feature documentary to lay out the overwhelming evidence for the importance of the first five years, and to reveal how our failure to act on that evidence has resulted in an everyday crisis for American families, and a slow-motion catastrophe for our country.

The Lehigh and Northampton Chapter of PennAEYC's mission is to provide an organization in which early childhood professionals can come together to share and explore ways to meet the needs of children that they work with in early care and educational settings. Members in this organization work together to improve professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education, and to help build public support for high-quality early childhood education programs.

Over the last twenty years, a revolution in our understanding of early childhood has led to one inescapable conclusion: the experiences we have in the first five years of life shape our brains and bodies in profound and lasting ways; it’s no longer about “nature versus nurture”, but how the two work together to shape who we become.

This topic was explored more fully after the screening by a moderated panel discussion, facilitated by Lehigh and Northampton Chapter of PennAEYC’s President Michele Hanna. Panelists included Alisa Baratta, Executive Director of the Third Street Alliance for Women and Children; Sharon Jermany, an attorney and the mother of twins who attended a Pre-K Counts program; Anil Saxena M.D., a board certified practicing child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist; and Easton
Police Lt. Robert Weber who oversees the city’s Auxiliary Services Division.

No Small Matter is unusual for an issue documentary in that there’s no real villain—unlike battles against Big Ag or Big Pharma, there’s no “Big Small Child” standing in the way of progress.
Instead, the film is more an investment brief than an exposé, an argument that early childhood education is both the most powerful and the most plausible solution we have to begin to address a host of American problems. Emotional, entertaining, and ultimately inspiring, No Small Matter will change the way audiences see the world, and in the process, help turn early childhood education into the grown-up issue it deserves to be.

The chapter will be hosting another screening of the film at Community Services for Children in Allentown, PA on June 4. Please go to to
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/no-small-matter-film-screening-tickets-59777092894
to secure your free ticket to this event.