When I think of early childhood education, I always think of it in my worldview and how it affects me on my level... on my home turf.  I think that we are all very insular in our thinking of early childhood development and don't tend to really consider very far outside of our own programs.  I remember reading on one of our assigned websites to view a statistic about how many children have access to secondary education and the percentage was so low that I, for a moment, felt that it had to be incorrect.  I then realized that if that statistic had only included the United States, the percentage would have been very high.  However, the statistic was WORLD WIDE.  I rarely consider things on a world wide level.  Learning about early childhood education in the world taught me:
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1. That I am really very small and the world is very large.  My day and my life is such a tiny little sliver of what goes on in the world.  My program and the children in my program are just one little, very tiny, piece of early childhood education across the world.  We are not the entire world; we are just a small part of it.

 

 

 

2. That not all programs around the world look like mine.  Not all classrooms look like the classrooms that I picture in my head.  Not all children have supplies and shiny, pretty classrooms.  Many children never even get to see the inside of a traditional, United States cookie cutter type classroom.  I feel that I had never before even considered that education is not just a given around the world like it is here.  It is not a requirement or a right, like it is here.

I have always pictured this...

 

 

But not this...

 

3.  Something must be done.  Early childhood development programs have been shown to be the fundamental building block to future success.  We must work to ensure that every single child has access to this building block to success.  Early childhood education programs should be a right.  It should be a requirement.  It should be something that every single child has access to without question.  This means every single child in the WORLD.  We must work to see that this happens.

 

 

 

My goal is to start to make the steps and to put myself in the position to start working to make this a right and a possibility for every single child born to this world.

 

 

     This week, I looked into the UNESCO website to get a look at who they are and what they do.  I literally knew nothing about this organization, so I felt that I needed to start at the very beginning.  I didn't even know what the acronym stood for.  I learned this week that UNESCO is the United Nations Organization for Education, Science, and Culture.  The headquarters for this organization is located in Paris and there are fifty field offices around the world.  In the USA, there is an office in New York. 
     UNESCO does many different things for many different sectors involving education, science, and culture.  However, this organization also addresses early childhood care and education specifically.  UNESCO advocates for early childhood programs and works to ensure a holistic program that addresses development, health, nutrition, security, and learning.  It's goal is to work to see that all young children have the ability to develop to their fullest potential. 
     UNESCO works to gain access and equity in early childhood programs by expanding and improving early childhood programs especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations of children.  UNESCO works worldwide to first help the countries recognize the importance of early childhood education, and then to mobilize the resources to provide early childhood education.  UNESCO's stance is that all countries should view early childhood education as part of a basic education.  The greatest difficulty is not convincing countries of this, but in mobilizing the resources to provide it.
     We often see the way that early childhood education works in our country, but seldom think of how it is provided in other countries.  The UNESCO site helps one to get a worldwide picture of early childhood education.  There is even a calendar of events that gives dates and locations for meetings and conferences regarding early childhood education all across the world.

     I have spent the last few weeks looking deeper into the NAEYC website.  I still haven't received a newsletter from the organization, even though I have signed up for it several times.  I spent some time this week looking into the links on the NAEYC website that take me to outside places.  I think that my favorite link is the one that helps me to find accredited programs.  This is such a great tool, especially for parents.  It can help them to find programs that they can be sure follow certain expectations and guidelines.
     I mentioned before that although my program is NAEYC accredited, I really didn't fully know what that meant to me or to my families.  I felt that exploring the NAEYC website could give me a better knowledge of this and that it would help me, not only for this class, but for my job also.
     While exploring the site this week, I did find information that helped me in both areas.  NAEYC has 10 standards and accreditation criteria that must be met by all programs that wish to be NAEYC accredited programs.  These 10 standards were updated in 2006 to not only address programs serving children birth though kindergarten, but also to make sure that standards were more evidence based on what early childhood programs need to be in order to be most effective.  Reading through all of this really helped me to make a connection of equity and excellence and how the NAEYC standards help to ensure both.  The 10 standards address 10 different areas: relationships, curriculum, teaching, assessment of child progress, health, teachers, families, community relationships, physical environment, leadership and management.  Reading through these helped me to understand that if all programs started following standards such as these, it could create a united force that would all be on the same page of providing equity and excellence to children.  These standards and criteria help to ensure best practices in our field.

This week, I explored Harvard University's Global Children's Initiative.

     Harvard has partnered with different programs in different countries to help with the Early Childhood Education Initiative.  Their site talks about how there are gaps in education and health care for those children in the lower socio-economic brackets.  They state that the early childhood years are critical building blocks not just for school readiness, but for lifelong health and success.

They have partnered with a program in Brazil 

and with a program in Canada 

and with a program in Mexico   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In each of these programs, the goal seems to be very similar.  Harvard's Global Childhood Initiative helps to bring science to policy.  It trains scientist of how to measure gains and apply them to early childhood education.  It trains policy makers on how to apply the science to programs and policy to ensure that the children are getting these critical building blocks to lifelong success.

I gained many insights from reading this.  One, I didn't realize that other countries were not already on the same page as the United States with regard to early childhood interventions for health and education.  It was a bit of a surprise to me that Harvard was working so hard on spreading this initiative to other countries.  Also, with some of the reading this week, I just had an insight on what this means for children who are not lower income children.  A lot of work had been done here in the U.S. to ensure that low income children have access to health care and education.  All of the children in my center have Medicaid and can go to the doctor for the slightest case of the sniffles.  They all also have access to a wonderful education because they meet the low income qualifications for our program.  Children from higher income families have access to health care and education because their families can afford to provide these things for them.... but what about all of the children in between?  What about the children that don't have Medicaid and their parents can't afford to take them to the doctor?  What about the children who don't qualify for free educational programs, yet their parents can't afford to pay for them to go to another early childhood educational program?  What happens to these kids in the middle?  Does Harvard have a plan or an initiative for them?

     I have signed up again for NAEYC's newsletter.  We will see if the third time is a charm!  I did more exploring this week on their website.  I was specifically looking with poverty, research, economics, and policy making in mind.  I really didn't find any easy tabs for poverty related information.  There was an "issues" tab that had obesity and things like that listed, but not poverty.  However, when I typed the word poverty into the search bar, the site gave me several articles written in regards to poverty and early childhood education.  There was a lot of research and information available to me through the search bar.
     There is a public policy tab and I did find a lot of quick and easy links under this tab.  There were subheadings such as take action and advocacy resources.  There a person can find just about anything that they would like to know about current policies related to early childhood and how they can get involved.  Although there is information on research, economics, policy, etc. it all seems to be left completely separate and there isn't a lot of information that ties all of these areas together.
     I know that NAEYC is a wonderful organization and our school is even accredited by them.  I feel like it's blasphemy to even say this, but the more I explore their site, the more put off I am starting to feel towards it.  It seems like so many places on the site are wanting money from me.  I get excited about something I see and it turns out that it is something that is sold by NAECY that one must buy.  I get interested in information and once I get into it, I can't go any further without purchasing a book or a booking a conference or something.  I know that there is a lot of great stuff, especially under the parent tab, but I sometimes feel more like I am being sold to, rather than gathering free information that can help the early childhood field.

     I have sent out over twenty emails to early childhood professionals outside of the United States and have not received a single one back.  I loved reading the things that my peers have learned from their contacts from other countries and I gained a lot of insight from reading about their conversations.  I have been really disappointed that I have yet to establish a contact like I was hoping to.  I have noticed that those who do have that outside connection gained it because of a previous relationship that was already established.  The only thing that keeps me from being really jealous is the fact that I love reading about their conversations with their contacts!
     I also chose to explore the NAEYC website this semester.  I signed up for a newsletter on week one.  I still hadn't received one on week two, so I signed up again for the free newsletter.  We are now on week three and still no newsletter.  If one ever comes, I will be happy to fill you guys in on it!


                                           

     I decided to look at Jamaica this week on the UNICEF website.  My family will be going there this summer.  I know that Jamaica is a popular vacation site with beautiful resorts and vacation spots.  However, I assume that there is the Jamaica that us vacationers get to see, and then there is the other story of Jamaica.  I assumed correctly.  The national gross income in the united states is about $50, 000.  It is $5,000 in Jamaica.  I also compared the educational statistics of Jamaica and of the USA.  Although Jamaica's were lower, they were not as drastically low as I would have suspected.
     Child molestation is a huge problem in Jamaica.  The UNICEF website stated that a large number of men in Jamaica felt that it was their right to have sex with children under their care.  This is something that is not talked about.  Jamaica residents know that it goes on and that it is very prevalent, but it is just swept under the rug, or accepted as one of the ugly parts of every day life.  This is speculated to also be one of the reasons that the HIV rate in Jamaica is so high.  People and organizations have started to campaign for Jamaicans to start speaking out against sexual molestation and to start fighting against it.
     There has also been many years of civil unrest in Jamaica.  Children in this country have been exposed to horrific violence, fighting, and gun fire.  This has resulted in many social, emotional, and behavioral problems in small children.  Teachers in Jamaica have recently started to be trained in play therapy, art therapy, and other interventions to use in the early childhood education field in order to help children learn to deal with the violence that they have been exposed to. 
     The rate of violent discipline in Jamaica is also very high.  The rate on the UNICEF website is 88.9%.  I wanted to compare this to the USA rate, but there was not one given.  This high rate of violent discipline of children made me think of another problem in Jamaica, which is the incarceration of children.  Many children in Jamaica are imprisoned for "uncontrollable behavior".  They are incarcerated at young ages in the same prisons as adults.  As a resident of a country that does not incarcerate their children, this is quite a shock to me.  Again, people and organizations are starting to fight against this and are looking for alternative ways to work with the children that do not include putting them in prison.  However, it remains a problem.

     I have decided to further explore the NAEYC website this semester.  The program that I currently work for is NAEYC accredited and it seems like we are always referring to NAEYC and reading articles by them.  However, I really don't know a lot about the organization.
     I signed up for the NAEYC newsletter, but have not yet received it.  I will keep you guys posted when I get my first newsletter as to what it was about and my thoughts on it.
     I knew that NAEYC provided resources to professionals.  However, the website has several different books and resources that can be purchased.  I realized that we have all of these at our school and we use them.  The curriculum promoted by NAEYC is the same as what we currently use.  I guess I didn't realize this or make the connection to us being accredited and using the curriculm promoted by NAEYC.
     I also wasn't aware that the website provided assistance to parents.  Families can go onto the NAEYC website and find accredited providers and also get resources to help them promote learning at home.
     The NAEYC website has many articles and links that address changing demographics and diversity.  They have a complete tab on family engagement and engaging diverse families that offers many different resources to help with this.  It also gives the profiles of 10 centers and how they do this.  Also, they have an article right now about the holidays approaching and how to offer fun holiday times and how to do so while being fair and unbiased.  I found this to be quite interesting.
     I have learned how to navigate this site a lot better this week and it is my hope that by the end of this semester, I will have a good understanding of NAEYC and be able to effectively and confidently use it as a professional resource in my daily operations.