Education advocate Baji Rankin reflects on career in early childhood learning

The weekly schedule of education advocate Baji Rankin would make anyone second guess the fact that she just turned 80.

Rankin, who celebrated her birthday on Feb. 1, works as a consultant at East Gate Kids Early Learning Center and Pando Little School, both in Southeast Albuquerque. When she is not at either school, she organizes professional development workshops for teachers. As if that weren’t enough, Rankin loves to pore over the education bills going through the Roundhouse, which she visited last week.

Rankin, who has spent decades fostering the Reggio Emilia approach to learning, said as long as she is alive, she never wants to stop seeing children learn.

“To me, that brings me joy and happiness, because I’m learning and growing at the same time,” Rankin said.

Rankin’s birthday came as she was honored with the Legacy Award by the New Mexico Early Childhood Association.

Rankin, who holds a Doctorate of Education, has been involved in education for over half a century. Originally from California, she got her start in early childhood education in the mid-1970s as a teacher at a nursery school in the Boston area, where she lived and worked for 25 years.

“Children absorb a lot, but they’re not just sponges,” Rankin said.

In the early 1980s, she heard about the Reggio Emilia approach, a learning philosophy named after the Italian city where it began. The approach’s basic philosophy, Rankin said, is the belief in the competency of all children, particularly those with disabilities. The approach has been adopted by some schools in New Mexico.

“Reggio educators say, ‘No, these aren’t children with special needs; these are children with special rights,’” Rankin said. “’These children have the right to an education that will help them develop their full potential.’”

A short film from 2014 featuring Rankin and educators statewide said the Reggio Emilia approach centers around children learning through their own interests as opposed to a teacher’s formalized instruction. When a Santa Fe teacher’s pipes froze during cold weather, her students dismantled an early learning center’s water fountains to learn how pipes worked.

Rankin visited Reggio Emilia several times in the early 1980s before moving there by the end of the decade. While overseas, she played host to numerous U.S. and Canadian delegations wanting to learn more about the Reggio Emilia approach.

Even when she lived overseas, Rankin continued her work as a professor in Boston, teaching early childhood education teachers. When she moved back to the U.S. in the early 1990s, Rankin became a college professor and taught the Reggio Emilia approach in Ohio and Oregon.

Rankin moved to New Mexico in 1995 to help establish the Reggio Emilia approach in her capacities as a University of New Mexico professor and a coordinator of various exhibits.

“It was a great job because it brought me all over the state to do PR about the Reggio Emilia approach,” Rankin said. “What is a more perfect job for me than that?”

In the late 2010s, what began as “just a brainstorm” with Rankin and other education advocates to consolidate state entities resulted in the Early Childhood Education and Care Department in July 2020.

“Early childhood was all over the place without a clear, guiding aim for all of early childhood,” Rankin said.

Rankin said the creation of the department has “meant the world” for early childhood education in the state. She applauded the leadership of state Early Childhood Education Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky, whom Rankin met at the Roundhouse last week.

Gabrielle Wheeler, executive director of East Gate Kids, described Rankin as sage, altruistic and a great mentor. Wheeler’s staff said her staff celebrated Rankin’s birthday with cupcakes and a book about her life.

During an interview with the Journal at East Gate Kids on Monday, Rankin pointed to artwork students made of themselves with their friends.

“I love the way children learn,” she said.