Canadian Children direCtions & ConneCtions

45FALL / AUTOMNE 2013 Vol. 38 No. 2

To Be...

To be in the place
Is to relate to others
In the external objectivity.
To be in the place
Is to embody the experience
And to establish identity.
If there is no relation to others
Then no relation to self exists either
For to be in the place
Is to encounter the world.

 We Are Places

The place in which we begin
The place in which we question
Is the Place in which we stand and discover ourselves.

In finding ourselves
“in” the world
We find ourselves
“in” a place
Already given over to
and involved with “the other.”

Place does not gather
But is gathering itself

So we don’t merely belong to a place
But we are places themselves.

Ana Vojnovic is an early childhood educator who is in the process of completing her BA in early childhood education at Capilano 
University. With her educational background in philosophy and fine art techniques, she discovered a passion for the concept of 
being in a place and what it means in the context of these disciplines. She situates her work within existential phenomenology as she 
critically examines the role of the child care centre as a place of childhood.

Place
Ana Vojnovic