Many years ago, a four-year-old girl had a passion for playing tennis. Noticing this, her dad organised a tennis coach to meet her early one Saturday morning. The coach took one look at her and said she was too young. He advised her father to bring her back in a few years. However, the coach agreed to hit a few balls with the girl since she was already at the court. 

After the session, the coach told the little girl he would see her the following week. In an recent interview, the coach recalls how the little girl had excellent hand-eye coordination and demonstrated resilience on the court. The little girl in this story is Ash Barty, who was the Australian Wimbledon winner. This article is not about creating the next elite athlete—the next Ash Barty—it focuses instead on why we should not underestimate very young children. Rather than dismissing them because of their age, we must surround them with passionate people dedicated to their craft.

许多年前，一位四岁的女孩对打网球充满热情。她的父亲注意到这一点，并在一个星期六的早晨带她去见一名网球教练。教练看了她一眼，说她太小,  建议她父亲过几年再带她过来。但是，既然女孩已经在球场上了，教练还是同意与她打几个球。

练习结束后，教练告诉小女孩他下周会继续见她。在最近的一次采访中，教练回忆道，这个小女孩拥有出色的手眼协调能力并在球场上表现出了顽强的韧性。故事中的小女孩阿什莉·巴蒂正是往届澳大利亚温布尔登网球锦标赛冠军。这篇文章不是关于创造下一个精英运动员——下一个阿什莉·巴蒂，而是关于为什么我们不应该低估非常年幼的孩子。我们不能仅仅因为年龄就忽视他们，而应让他们身边围绕着拥有特殊技艺且充满激情的人。

Craftmanship and bestowing one's craft is more than just delivering skills and experience but also dedication, passion, and commitment to the craft. In education, we tend to call such people specialists: PE specialists, music specialists, art specialists，etc. Unfortunately, specialist lessons in many preschools are often relegated to after-school time slots and have an undue focus on entertainment rather than education. 

拥有技艺且传授于人不仅仅是传递技能和经验，还包括对特殊技艺的奉献、热情与承诺。在教育领域，我们倾向于称这样的人为专项教师：如体育专项教师、音乐专项教师，艺术专项教师等。遗憾的是，许多幼儿园常常将专项课程置于次要地位而放在放学后时段，并且过分关注其娱乐性而非教育性。

Some preschools also share their specialist teachers with other divisions across the school. Regrettably, many specialist teachers who work across divisions are not explicitly trained in early childhood development. This can result in a "watering down" of the elementary curriculum. 

一些幼儿园还与学校的其他学部共用专项教师。令人遗憾的是，许多跨学部工作的专项教师并没有接受过早期儿童发展方面的特别培训，而这可能导致幼儿园的专项课成为“被稀释的”小学专项课。

In our program, the specialist team works only within the preschool. They do not entertain nor dumb down the curriculum. Instead, like the coach that supported the little Ash Barty, our specialists focus on what children learn and how they learn (dispositions for learning). It is more than skill development; the key is how a child approaches their learning. 

在我们幼儿园，专项教师团队只负责幼儿园内部的工作。他们不会让课程变得娱乐化，也不会对课程进行简单意义上的简化。相反，就像支持小阿什莉·巴蒂的教练一样，我们的专项教师关注的是孩子“学什么”和“如何学”（学习心智倾向）。它不仅仅是技能的发展，更重要的是孩子如何学习。

幼儿园实景照