My (Jonathan Silin) first encounters with RECE were at the second conference, Chicago, 1992. Two of my new Bank Street Colleagues at the time, Harriet Cuffaro and Steve Schultz, suggested that I attend with them.Three memories from the conference:

1) As we entered the opening reception, before we even crossed the threshold, Mimi Bloch greeted us with out stretched arms and proclaimed, “Here comes Bank Street.” These words ring in my ears today as they signal the warm and welcoming posture that characterizes RECE.

In 1985 I had left ECE because no one wanted to take a chance on hiring a scholar committed to a radical critique of developmental theory. Now Mimi’s greeting, RECE’s promise, finally offered a home in the world of ECE.

2) Later that night I found myself seated in a circle of 25 or 30 next to Sharon Ryan, then a brilliant doc student at Teachers College. When responding to the group query about our reasons for attending the conference, Sharon quipped “to meet “megas” in the field like Jonathan Silin.” 

Needless to say, Sharon’s comment took me back. Having spent much of the preceding decade outside the field immersed in AIDS education and advocacy I hardly considered myself a “mega” in ECE. But unbeknownst to me, I was known to others.

3)  The next day I met Joe Tobin through his heated exchange with Sue Bredekamp, author of the 1987 NAEYC DAP document, captured for posterity on Mimi Bloch’s video. Joe would become a wonderful friend and colleague to say nothing of the amazing graduate students who I came to know through him (See RECE 1994, Durham New Hampshire).