Getting To Know Your International Contacts-Part 3

After viewing the webpage from UNESCO “Early Childhood Care and Education “what I found out that was interesting was……………………………….


“The mission of the UNESCO Education Sector is to:

• Provide international leadership to create learning societies with educational opportunities for all populations.

• Provide expertise and foster partnerships to strengthen national educational leadership and the capacity of countries to offer quality education for all.

• Work as an intellectual leader, an honest broker and clearing house for ideas, propelling both countries and the international community to accelerate progress towards these goals.

• Facilitate the development of partnerships and monitors progress; in particular by publishing an annual Global Monitoring Report that tracks the achievements of countries and the international community towards the six educations for all goals. ”

However reading, Dakar Framework for Action Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments discusses, six education goals and strategies that is designed to enable all individuals to understand their right to learn and to fulfill their responsibility to contribute to the development of their society focuses on these six goals and strategies as follows:

• “Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.



• Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality.



• Ensuring the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills program.



• Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.



• Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.



• Improving every aspect of the quality of education, and ensuring their excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills.”



With “Dakar Framework for Action Education for All: Meeting our Collective Commitments” focusing on the six education goals and strategies is an essential tool that will make a better future for young children as well as addressing appropriate learning for young people and adults.

Reference:



Retrieved from: (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/),

Retrieved from: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf

Sharing Web Resources

In viewing the e-newsletter from Harlem Children Zone (HCZ) website, I just learned that they are building a new school and community resource center in New York City. “The Obama administration’s vision for community revitalization challenges housing authorities across the country to undertake comprehensive plans for neighborhood development that integrate housing, schools, commercial corridors, community facilities, improved infrastructure and transportation.


Through a partnership with the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ), NYCHA is taking on this challenge to transform communities, and empower and engage residents. The Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ)/ Saint Nicholas Houses Project will bring to the community:

• A new charter school, operated by Harlem Children's Zone, will be located on the grounds of Saint Nicholas Houses. HCZ's Promise Academies have outgrown their current facilities and they have been looking for a location within its Zone to build a new school building.

• Building a school at St. Nicholas Houses also provides an opportunity to re-introduce West 129th Street between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell Boulevards. Building a school and community facility at St. Nicholas Houses meets the dual goals of NYCHA revitalizing public housing neighborhoods and HCZ expanding services to families in public housing.

• No residents will be displaced or buildings demolished as part of this plan.”

Education is not depending on a child’s family background. Student learning is fostered by policies that consider the strengths that each child brings as well as being active, engaged, and supportive to meet the expectations for each student. Giving low-income and minority children a challenge and rich learning opportunity can have a profound positive impact on their lives, and that is what Harlem Children Zone does.

New insight for this week from the e-newsletter is “for children to do well, their families have to do well. For families to do well, their community must do well also. That is why HCZ works to strengthen families as well as empowering them to have a positive impact on their children's development.”

References:

http://hcz.org/

http://www.hcz.org/images/stories/pdfs/St.%20nicholas%20groundbreaking.pdf

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

“The Center on the Developing Child has launched the Global Children’s Initiative as the centerpiece of its global child health and development agenda focusing on approaches to child survival, health, and development. The Center’s commitment to global work represents both an acknowledgement of moral responsibility to meet the needs of all children and a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations, from the poorest to the riches. The Global Children’s Initiative seeks to advance the Center's core mission globally by implementing a compelling research, public engagement and leadership development agenda in child health and development that is grounded in science and engages researchers, public leaders, practitioners, and students from a wide range of institutions around the world. Specifically, the global program will focus on three strategic areas:


• Reframing the discourse around child health and development in the global policy arena by educating high-level decision-makers about the underlying science of learning, behavior, and health, beginning in the earliest years of life;

• Supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects to expand global understanding of how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed, and how to get it back on track; and

• Building leadership capacity in child development research and policy—focused on both individuals and institutions—in low- and middle-income countries to increase the number and influence of diverse voices and perspectives that are contributing to the growing global movement on behalf of young children.”

Retrieved from:

Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/),

Sharing Web Resources

“For children to do well, their families have to do well. And for families to do well, their community must do well. The Harlem Children Zone (HCZ) works to strengthen families as well as empowering them to have a positive impact on their child’s development.”


In reading the article from Harlem Children Zone (HCZ), “Winning the War on Poverty through Education” by Geoffrey Canada sparked my interest. What seemed relevant to my professional development are his thoughts on how we could abandoned poverty and overcome it. Starting now to the next five years Canada believes we need to reform the bureaucracy, end the public school monopoly, attract and retain more great teachers, make teaching and learning full-time jobs, and create incentives for excellent teachers. Through Canada beliefs, Canada states “the casualties and ghosts of the abandoned war on poverty sit in our classrooms, walk our streets and waste away in our prisons. This is truly the American Nightmare: impoverished, uneducated and unemployable amid a land of plenty. What made me think about the issue in a new way is that we can continue to ignore them and pay the price or we can call up the nation’s capital and resolve the country’s war on poverty. In relation to the economics, science and policies, if we win poverty we could eliminate crime and violence, drug treatment and welfare and focus on the getting families and children out of poverty. New insights about issues and trends in early childhood field that I gained from exploring the website is HCZ continues to offer innovative efficiently programs that are aimed at doing nothing less than breaking the cycle of poverty for the children and families they serves.

Child poverty in Kyrgyzstan

The article on Kyrgyzstan saddens me. I was unaware of the poverty this country faces. I thought child labor was diminished, but reading this article it still continues. Children in Kyrgyzstan are working to benefit the needs of their family, instead of the parents working and the child attending school. The situation for these children will only get worse. After reading this article I’m afraid the risks of poverty will develop for the children to pass that poverty on to their children. “Until 1991, Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union. At independence, Kyrgyzstan was one of the poorest ex-Soviet republics with an estimated 32.9 per cent of the population living below the Soviet 'poverty line'. In the early 1990s, as Kyrgyzstan suffered a series of economic shocks, the proportion of people living in poverty rose to over 60 per cent.  By 2001, 47 per cent of the population lived below the government poverty line, while 13 per cent were living in extreme poverty.” Unlike other countries, Kyrgyzstan has much higher levels of health and education than many higher-income countries. Though health and education levels are still much higher than in countries with a similar income, there are some signs of a decline in school enrolment.  “In 1999, UNICEF estimated that while 2-3 per cent of children have dropped out of school completely. In 2001 an estimated 7 per cent of children were malnourished, and approximately 14 per cent of the population had no access to health services.” A disease called of tuberculosis has re-emerged and taken a toll on teenagers in Kyrgyzstan.“These declining levels of child welfare are related to both to pressures on families who may not be able to afford the costs of education or health care, and due to a massive decline in the resources available for these key services. Poverty has also led the to children work a range of jobs, from working on family farms, to agricultural labor for others, domestic service, selling or working as porters at markets. Recent research estimate that approximately 24 per cent of children work either full or part time, similarly since transition there are now homeless or 'street' children in Kyrgyzstan's cities, and some reports of child prostitution and trafficking.”

What I learned so far from the website is that these children living in poverty are the ones who lack  the resources they needed to survive as well as  enjoying their rights as child so that he or she can live and achieve their full potential by becoming  equal members of their society. These children deserve a proper education, and we need to provide and honor that.

My new insight about the issues of poverty is that poverty is not only based on family income but the parent’s education. Poverty affects a family’s ability to provide for their children in many areas. For example, if the parent’s cannot afford proper healthcare a child could become ill or malnutrition if the parents cannot afford the basic needs for food. The challenges the children face is inevitable.

Retrieved from:

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo#12

Sharing Web Resources

The name of the organization I selected is Harlem Children’s Zone. The goal for HCZ is to prevent generations of children from Harlem from being in poverty. HCZ is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive network of education, social-service and community-building programs servicing children from birth through college. The program is offered free to children and their families who need assistance to getting out of poverty. Just this week, the president and CEO, Geoffrey Canada of HCZ spoke with Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News about Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) and education reform as a part of their weeklong coverage of education discussing education, poverty and the budget. A quote I like about this organization is “whatever it takes”. When I think of this quote, I think about what extremes do I need to take for this child to succeed.

An issue/trend I will discuss is the interview with the president and CEO, Geoffrey Canada with Brian Williams. Geoffrey Canada mentioned high quality teachers being the number one ingredient as a drive source for performance in the schools. In response to this comment I agree however, tough choices are made in reference to get rid of teacher based on seniority and not based on teacher effectiveness. There is not enough money to keep teachers who are ineffective; I guess that might explain furlough days. Geoffrey Canada also mentioned how children are struggling and failing in the education setting and not providing enough support and funding in order to prevent this disaster from happening. I loved his interview because he touched so many points about the education of our children and the effects of being a teacher.

You may watch the interview by clicking msnbc.com and watch Geoffrey Canada on the education reform.

The link for the website is http://www.hcz.org/home

Establishing Professional Contracts

In trying to contract two professional educators outside of the United States was hard for me. I sent out two letters to brasilia@unicef.org  and cario@unicef.org informing them of the school I attend and the interest in meeting two professionals outside of the United States. My goal is to grow and understand the issues and trends explored in another country besides the United States. After waiting two full days, I decided to take the alternate assignment in part one. In selecting one of the early childhood settings, I chose to read each episode of the individual. I decided to choose someone who interest intrigued me, who shared similar values and the steps he or she took to become an advocate. I chose Delfena Mitchell program, Liberty Children's home, because I am interested in the way she is able to receive children and what precautions she takes in order to break the ice with children and nurture them. I also chose TJ Skalski program, called the Mother Earth's Children's Charter School (MECCS) because she relates to my story in so many ways, however I never left the United States. Her passion and ambition to provide and build children's dreams similar to what I want to do.

My question and concerns for this assignment is "What is the most challenging thing that happened thus far in regards to getting information from early childhood professionals in other countries you have? Can we choose an early childhood professionals from the World Forum episodes as a contact to get to them and their passion of work for our assignments?