International Contacts - Finally the last week of class!

 

I have enjoyed learning about the international aspects of early childhood.  I believe that my favorite was the video from World Forum Foundation with the speaker from Afghanistan.  She spoke so eloquently about the troubles facing the Afghan children and families. 

This week, I was finally able to correspond with one former Walden student from Nigeria and working in South Korea.  She discussed with me the reason she is a former student – her country has no assistance for continued education, so she has to pay for it by herself.  Thank goodness we are in America; if there were not grants and student loans, so many of us would not be continuing our education in early childhood studies.  Elizabeth is hoping to continue her studies in the future.

She told me in Nigeria there is no early childhood education.  They basically teach obedience to teachers, families, and other adults.  Then if they are able to go to school, the children were taught basics.

Ironically, in South Korea a Nigerian woman is teaching English to 4-12 year old children because it is required for them to know it.  She teaches nothing else, no developmental activities or anything; just English (sit down and learn it).

I found new resources and organizations that will allow me as an administrator, teacher, and mentor help other EC professionals, families, and children.  I know where to go for research about diversity and cultural issues (World Forum Foundation), poverty and low-income help (NCCP and local organizations) and developmental help with infants and toddlers (zero to three).  I also am beginning to realize how important it is to be involved with community and parents. 

I also feel that I have discovered the one thing that every developed country is having issues with is Funding for early childhood.  Many countries accept that this is an important issue but have no idea how to rectify it. 

I also feel much pride in my home state of Mississippi.  We may be at the bottom of a lot of charts, but the amount of Mississippi girls and guys in this class is a testament to what we want for the children in our state.  Mississippi has come a long way with early childhood education – Early Learning Standards, Quality Rating and Improvement System, Resource and Referral (resource center and training), all of the Technical Assistance, several professional organizations, voluntary state pre-k, Early Childhood Institute etc.  And rumor has it that there are many more early childhood grants and movements in store during this year.  I feel we are on the fast track to moving up the charts! 

My one goal for the field of early childhood is to find a few friend from other countries and stay in touch.  This relationship can depend the understanding of children’s issues and help in becoming an advocate to further the cause of quality early childhood education. /The friendships can also be a great way to increase cultural responsiveness and better understanding of diversity in the classroom and get cool items for activities and centers.  Just remember it is a 2-way street.  Share and share alike./

To all my classmates:  Thanks for making this a great class and cannot wait to work with you again!  Your comments have given me the incentive to strive and achieve more than I thought possible.  And Gena, I can't wait to meet you in October at conference!

International Contacts Part 3

I received several e-mails from international early childhood people saying they wanted to converse with me, but that was as far as it went.  After I responded to their e-mails thanking them, I never heard anything else from them.  So, I did the alternate assignment.

Since the 1945’s, UNESCO has been supporting and advocating for the world’s young children and early childhood education.  Over 193 countries work with UNESCO for recognition of the importance of early childhood education for children birth to age 8. 

I found it ironic that all countries, even those wealthy countries, have trouble allocating monies to fund early childhood programs and standards.  I also saw the term “holistic development” once again.  This term is fascinating to me and is something I want to study and learn more about.  Holistic development is dealing with the positive development of the “whole” child: health, nutrition, education, parent support, equity and social protection, and alleviation of poverty. 

Most importantly, this site works diligently to advocate for “high-quality” early childhood education.  Countries are beginning to commit and have committed to expand and improve comprehensive early care and education for vulnerable and disadvantaged children.  High-quality early childhood education promotes cognition and language, school readiness, motivation to continue and perform well, and confidence in young students, especially those with disadvantaged backgrounds.  Because there are so many different government sectors concerned with young children, the ability to coordinate an effective program is still very difficult.

 

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources

I am continuing my research into the http://www.worldforumfoundation.org website.  This week we were asked to follow an outside link and search that area.  So, I followed a link in the media & resources area to a website entitled Alliance for Children or http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/. 

This is a great resource for all early childhood people, educators, policy makers, and parents alike.  There are articles on development, reviews of books, listings of new articles and publications available, and they also provide links to other early childhood education online magazines and sites. I really enjoyed browsing this site and getting to know what they have to offer.  This group is very advocacy-based on many things, such as play, playgrounds, common core (against), media, obesity, and standardized testing.

I found a link to a video from the National Alliance for Early Childhood in Brazil.  They country has launched “National Plan for Early Childhood.”  The video is basically a promotion to entice participation in communities.  If you want to view the video, click on the link.  Clicking on CC will provide you with English subtitles.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfBJmlefQKA&feature=youtu.be.

Brazil has over 20 million children under 6 years of age.  Many of them lack housing, sanitary living conditions, medical care, minimum living standards, no child care, and are malnourished.  The National Alliance for Early Childhood is a collaborative effort between families, the State, and communities to bring awareness and solutions for the countries youngest citizens.  They wish to guide, promote, and ensure the rights of all children in every town in Brazil.  The goal is to provide health care, education, sanitary living conditions, playgrounds, and transportation to make each and every town – child-friendly.

I did gain new insights into the childrens’ lives in Brazil.  I visited the National Plan for Early Childhood site and found out startling information.  Rio de Janeiro has instituted a harm reduction strategy in over 150 schools there to help children who have witnessed or been a victim of violence.  Many children have seen murders right in front of them due to gang violence.  Many more of them have been sexually abused – the 2^nd most common type of violence among young children.  The children there have been suffering with post-traumatic stress and delay of brain development due to the huge amount of violence going on in Brazil.  How do you combat such horrible acts of violence?  What is the solution? 

Week 5 Blog Assignment Part 2

The International Efficiency of American Education:  the bad and the no-so-bad news

The Bad News

US schools have declined in quality OR they have been beaten by school systems from different countries.   US schools are not efficient anymore.  America spends the most money per child cumulative for education, but ranks 16^th in scoring.

One very interesting hypothesis is a low demand to learn.  This theory suggests that the achievement gap is not due to race or poverty, but the lack of the demand to learn from social group to social group – I’m interpreting the demand to learn as ambition or want, maybe even need.  The article also says that teacher training, different curriculum, and longer school days will never have an effect until the demand to learn is trait or attribute of all social groups.

The Not So Bad News

The US scored 15^th in math, 19^th in science, and 14^th in reading, but 6^th in civic knowledge.  The US is not on top but by no means on toward the bottom.  The educational systems that are on the top are the countries (China, Japan, Singapore, Korea) that have “cram schools” that teach primarily for the test.  Parents even have private tutoring for their children to tutor for the test, placing a huge financial burden on families from 6.3% - 28% of a families’ income.  Memorization has also been shown to have a low impact on productivity in workers.

 The really bad news would be if we decided to go the way of these countries.  These countries do not have freedom of choice of education, some do not even get to choose their careers.  The children in these countries are experiencing stress, depression, suicide, personality disorders, and a dislike of academics.  All American schools are not poor or inefficient; many are high-quality schools.  And in terms of the study time spent during the school year, US schools are not nearly as inefficient as led to believe.  Before we criticize our schools, we need to think about the other countries in which we are comparing ourselves.   We do not want to become a communistic society or even a socialized society with very few choices for our futures.  We want our children to be raised to think for themselves and to be independent and be able to choose how to lead our nation in the next generation.

 Heyneman, S.P. (2013). The International Efficiency of American Education:  the bad and the no-so-bad news. Retrieved June 7, 2014 from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/i/a/document/30413_16_1_Stephen_Heyneman.pdf

 

 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 2

While I am waiting for my International contacts in both the Netherlands and Nepal to answer some of my questions about excellence and equity of care…….I found a great piece about such a fun subject.  I hope that you all will be able to take part in this FUN day!

JUNE 29 IS INTERNATIONAL MUD DAY! Organized by the World Forum Foundation, Nature Action Collaborative for Children.  You are urged to spend sometime in the MUD WITH your children.  Make mud pies, splash, build, slide, roll, and squish; learn about mud, earth, and the science of it.  There is even a Mud Day Facebook page!  World Forum Foundation has a resources page with pictures, books, and articles all about mud to use with educating your children (World Forum Foundation, 2014).  There are also logos to use in your newsletters.

Mud Day was organized in Nepal in 2009 with 58 orphanage children in mind to acquaint them with Mother Nature.  This was their big chance to interact and learn about soil, mud, water, earthworms, and everything they experienced.  However, some of the children could not participate because of a lack of clothing.  Bishnu Bhatta (organizer) told of this problem to a World Forum Friend – Gillian McAuliffe from Australia.  This friend asked her class of 6 & 7 year olds, “Imagine if you could not play in mud. Imagine if you could not have fun” (McAuliffe, 2010).  They immediately began to offer their clothes for the orphans.  They began to collect clothes and money to send to the orphanage.  The money was also used to give the children a meat meal (they had not had any meat in over 4 months)!

Bold Park, Australia – 2009. The Australian children were able to participate in their own mud day experiences like their new found friends in Nepal.  In doing these things the Nature Action Collaborative for Children (a project of the World Forum Foundation) was established and International Mud Day was born in 2011.

 

McAuliffe, G. (2009). The Wonder of Mud: Reflections from Australia. Retrieved June 7, 2014 from http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/wfwp/mudday2011/downloads/Wonder_Mar10-Mud-Article.pdf

World Forum Foundation. (2014). International Mud Day. Retrieved June 7, 2014 from http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/working-groups/nature/international-mud-day/

 

Sharing Web Resources

I have continued to visit http://www.zerotothree.org a couple of times each week.  The articles and publications on this site are great for parents, policy makers, advocates, and other early childhood educators.  Really, it is a site for anyone who is interested in infants and toddlers and how they develop.  This would be a perfect site for new infant/toddler teachers and expectant mothers.  They have such great advice and tips on this site.

For professional development, the sections on brain development, early development, and language and literacy are a must read.  Even if you are a tried and true I/T teacher, there is always something new to learn.  A responsible teacher knows that she will continue to learn with each child she cares for.  Sections on play, social/emotional development, nutrition and health along with challenging behaviors and mental health are definite subjects that need to be explored.

I did not find any controversial issues on the site, but the presentation of maltreatment of young children and their development issues was an eye-opener.  Child abuse and neglect of infants and toddlers account for over 3/4 of child deaths.  We know that the first three years really mold the child into what he will be.  So the area of maltreatment in these years would be devastating for development, but intervention at this age would most likely be successful.

I found several videos that teach how early childhood can be advocated during federal budget development.  They gave facts about why investment is so important and offered materials and steps to help advocate to congress.  An additional fact for increased investment to several we learned in class readings was the biggest expense of federal dollars is more dependency on public assistance.  We are living this now in so many areas of our country.  It makes sense to spend those dollars on young children to give them the skills, motivation, and confidence to become successful working adults.

One of my favorite things I have found so far is the handouts for parents to download and print.  These handouts are all concerning the things we have been talking about when we speak about investments in early childhood, i.e. the workforce skills that are developed in early childhood.  The subjects these handouts include are development, health and nutrition, language and literacy, thinking skills, self-confidence, and self-control.  Every one of this items have been mentioned as a benefit of the investment into early childhood programs.  So I believe these are a must read for everyone, including policy makers, business leaders, and everyone else who invests in early childhood education programs.

Getting to Know My International Contacts - Part 1

I have made more than 5 new friends from the World Forum Foundation’s WoFo Net, however, none of them responded to the emails I sent them yet.  So I went to the WFF’s WoFo TV to view a really eye opening presentation about children & poverty in Afghanistan by Skeena Yacoobi.  This is an amazing telecast, please click the link and watch it yourselves.

Skeena Yacoobi established the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) in 1995.  She was a presenter at the World Forum Conference in 2011.  She said that life is not beautiful in Afghanistan but it is hopeful.  A real teacher will make children her work; be part of the life of the children; and bring a smile to children.  That is what she set out to do while working in the refugee camps in Pakistan with the children and families of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has been at war for 30 years.  The families fled to refugee camps with horrible conditions: no food, no water, no place to play, no learning, no place for calm or quiet.  The camps were full of disease, and poisonous and venomous scorpions and snakes.  Children had to sleep on the dirt among these creatures.

As the new Afghani government took over, children were able to go to school.  Before, schools had to meet in secret because the Taliban did not allow education.  Skeena opened her first school in a tent around a tree.  That spread to several tents because the children had to bring the parent to school with them – the thought being this would help the children feel safe.   Skeena and her volunteers began to educate the parents as well as the children.  They taught mostly mothers (because most of the fathers had been killed in the war or murdered) health education, sewing, reading, and life skills.  Skeena knew that she would need to build a program with teachers that would give love and teach children peace words and loving words then the children would begin to have hope.

Skeena said as the health education progressed, sick women began to feel better then they began to learn better.  Once they were learning they began to ask questions this led to greater confidence.  She said we have to teach the women to be happy, to provide for their children, and to give the ability to say no to the abuse they have been suffering for so long.

In 2011, Skeena’s AIL supported 350,000 women and children.  In the 10 years since the new government took over, 6 million children are attending school.  The schools are teaching critical thinking and participation, not rote memorization.  She said in the video, once the environment is happy and safe, people will grow better, get stronger, and learn faster.  Children in her preschool learn and know 3 languages by age 6: Parshto, Farsi, and English.  Her schools go from preschool through 12^th grade.

Skeena said of poverty in Afghanistan, that 5% of people have the money and 95% of people have very little and are struggling.  The money that goes into the government does not get to where it should because the government is corrupt.  There are over 160,000 people on drugs because of being out of work, impoverished, and depressed.  Children have to be street vendors during the day to make money for the family to have food.  She even told a story about one father selling one of his 6 children for 2 bags of wheat so the other 5 children would be able to stay alive during the winter.  There is no electricity, no water, very little food and the government does not support many. 

But there is hope she said.  Women are becoming very strong and educated; some have jobs and work long hours.  Some are even going to schools to become nurses and doctors.  Many want a part in politics, to be in Parliament, and to be community leaders.  They do not want to go back to how it used to be when the Taliban took over.

Insights gained with this presentation:  1. Afghanistan has come a long way; but it has a long way to go.  2. Poverty destroys everything. The only way to break it is through education.  3. Even though the people of Afghanistan are broken, war-ridden, and destitute, they have hope.  Children and adults have the capacity to learn once they feel safe, become healthy, and have someone to care for them.

Poverty is cyclical. Without education and ambition, it is hard for a person to overcome poverty; but because of poverty, people lack the education and ambition to be able to overcome it.

 

http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/media-and-resources/wofo-tv/

http://www.afghaninstituteoflearning.org/