I fly often and last weekend I had a new experience. I was taking the red eye home from Phoenix and had the whole row to myself (thanks to a colleague’s suggestion to change my seat). Wonderful for a late night trip however, not my first experience. About an hour into my flight the sky began to change and went from sun setting oranges, pinks and purples to a wall of blackness. The clouds were thick and black, and starting to light up. It was like watching a pinball machine in action, with all the bumpers and lights and every once in a while a wild streak of bright color. I turned off my overhead light and watched as the plane flew parallel to the storm. I asked myself, “is this cool, or should I be scared?”

 I decided it was both, cool and scary. The storm was one of the most wonderful sights I have ever seen. Seeing the clouds light up from a totally different vantage point, above the clouds rather than from below was very cool. I also was a little frightened when the plane attempted to land during the worst storm southeast Michigan has seen this spring.

The same can be said for improving child care quality; it is both cool and scary. Cool, because it is an opportunity to make significant changes in the system of child care and early learning that have significant impacts on children. New is very cool. Scary, because in order to change the system, it will take new paths, new resources, new partners, and new ways of thinking. New is scary.

Take a chance and let scary be cool. Learn more about child care quality improvement and ask yourself, “is this cool, should I be scared?” I hope the answer is cool.