International Contacts-Part 3

I haven't heard from my international contacts in the past couple of weeks, so I chose to look at the UNESCO's Early Childhood Care and Education website. One insight I gain this week that is governments that participate in UNESCO are committing themselves to expanding childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantage children. Governments are being urged to expand equitable access to quality early childhood services to help the poo (UNESCO, 2014)r. Another insight I gained from the website is that they support early childhood care and education programs should emphasis the child's development and extend beyond assisting the child's transitions to formal schooling. By advocating for high quality childcare it is going to promote motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness (UNESCO, 2014). The last insight I gained from the UNESCO is that many governments are partnering with private sectors in order to help fund early childhood care and education for those who are at risk are disadvantaged (UNESCO, 20014).

This insights relate to my professional goals because one of my goals is to advocate for the importance of early childhood education. The information I learned from the UNESCO website showed me that we need to advocate for our children not just in the United States, but worldwide. The website also showed me that there are many organizations out there that support early childhood education, and advocate for our children so they can get high-quality education to help their development and succeed.

Resources:
UNESCO, (2014). Early childhood care and education. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources #3

When explore the Save our Children website, one of the outside links I explored was to the giving page of the organization. I found this very interesting because you can choose what gift you want to donate. You aren't just donating money and the organization decides what to do with it, you get to decide what you want to with it. For example, for $30 you can choose to donate/sponsor art and music supplies and for $120 you can donate/sponsor 2 goats. You could also sponsor a child for only $28 a month, and the child can be someone in the United States or in another country. 

While searching the site, I came across one of the Save the Children's initiative to advocate for better funding for our children and early childhood program. Something new I found was the letter below that people can send to our government in order to address the concerns of lack of high-quality programs for low-income families (one of our big topics this week).  

Subject: Support the Strong Start for America's Children Act

As a citizen concerned about the well-being of our nation’s children, I ask for your support of H.R. 3461 / S. 1697, the Strong Start for America's Children Act.

Every child deserves a strong start in life -- and that includes quality early education. Yet many babies and young children lack the early opportunities they need to support their development from birth to kindergarten. In the United States, nearly one in four children live in poverty, and millions of low-income families lack access to high-quality, affordable preschool programs. Research shows that four-year-olds from poor families are an average of 18 months behind other children their age -- the developmental equivalent of middle-income two-and-a-half year-olds.

Studies have found that high-quality preschool leads to a wide range of short- and long-term benefits, including better educational outcomes, stronger job earnings, and lower levels of crime and delinquency. In fact, a Brookings Institution study found that a comprehensive national early childhood education program would add $2 trillion to the country’ annual GDP within a generation.

That is why I support the Strong Start for America's Children Act. It is a bold, 10-year innovative federal-state partnership to expand and improve early learning opportunities for children from birth to five. The legislation would also create a new Early Head Start partnership with child care to improve the quality of care for infants and toddlers.

I urge you to cosponsor this commonsense bill. I look forward to your response on this important issue.

This helped add to my understand that there is a professional organization that is lobbying and advocating for our children and their right of having equal opportunities to attend a high quality early childhood program regardless of the income. this initiative will also have a long term plan in helping our children expand early learning opportunities for our children. It also gave me the insight of that as early childhood professionals, we aren't alone in this field, and that there are organizations out there that are in this fight with us to improve the quality of early childhood education.

Save the Children. (2015). Advocate for our Children. Retrieved from http://www.savethechildren.org/

International Contacts Part 2

Since this week I focused my discussion board topic on the changes of kindergarten, I decided to ask my contact Mia how kindergarten was in Australia. The biggest difference is that their kindergarten is what we consider preschool. Children are allowed to enter kindergarten if they are 4 by April 30 of the year they are starting kindergarten (school years run for January to December). Another difference was that families have to pay for kindergarten, although those who can't financially afford it, can receive government assistance. In the United States, as long as children are attending a public school, kindergarten is free. Although, we do have to pay for preschool. After students complete kindergarten they then advance to Year/Grade 1. I also learned that each territory in Australia has their own set of rules as far as when students can enter kindergarten and such. 

After talking to Mia, I realized that our preschool programs are very similar to their kindergarten, and they offer many of the same benefits our preschool programs offer our children. The children are given time to play, develop social skills, but also learn what they need to be learning. Although I found it interesting that in Australia each territory has their own set requirements, where as in the United States is pretty uniformed throughout the country. I was also aware of the fact that the school went year round. When I was in Australia, I remember talking to my host family about this, and how they the just have longer breaks throughout the year. Overall, I enjoyed learning form my contact, and look forward to when we can talk again. 

Sharing Web Resources #2

The information for the Save the Children website (savethechildren.org) that seemed relevant to my current professional development is that the Save the Children site also strives to better the education for the children. They mention that children around the work don’t get quality education where they can learn and develop. The organizations trains teachers to engage their students through more effective teaching practices, they coach parents and caregivers to help their children learn early on, so they are prepared to enter school, they offer ways for parents and community volunteers to get kids reading and doing math outside of school hours, they introduce children to the power of artistic expression to help them heal, learn, and do better in school, and they make sure that children don’t stop learning during a crisis (Save the Children, 2014).

While exploring the site I can across an article I taught was controversial. I can across an article where U.S. Representative Paul Ryan talks about how he supports early childhood education and think it is important for children to have access, yet he proposed a budget that would cut/eliminate Head Stare slots for 57,000 children and cut another 20% from the Head Start budget, which would estimates about another 200,000 children would lose their spots (Shriver, 2013).

I found this information interested because the government will say how they are looking after the children’s best interests to hopes to get reelected, and then they go pull something like this. This shows you that they are more worried about saving money than they are of the actually benefits these programs have for children. So the economists, neuroscientists, and politicians aren't necessary looking out of the best interests for the children

I found that there are celebrities that are helping advocated for the children through Save the Children Organization. Those include Jennifer Gardner and Mark Shriver (whose mom is Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the founder of the Special Olympics). I think that by having these people advocating for the children, that the neuroscientists, economists, and politicians will start looking at the true benefits for early childhood education.

References:

Save the Children. (2014). The power and promise of education. Retrieved from http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6153015/k.E633/Education.htm

Shriver, M. (16 Dec 2013). Invitation to a dialogue: Children and poverty. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/18/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-children-and-poverty.html?emc=edit_tnt_20131217&tntemail0=y&_r=2&

Poverty in Australia

This week I was able to make contact with Mia Cox is the Youth Participation Officer for Australia's UNICEF organization. She informed me that 1 in 8 Australians lives under the poverty line, despite the years they have had growth and wealth creation. That is even with their publicly funded health care and education, and booming resources sector. She talked about how the poverty cycle is hard to break, thus families pass down poverty to their children. Mia also mentioned that poverty areas in Australia often have extreme conflicts going on as well. To help the children that are hit by poverty, UNICEF and another organization ensure that the government upholds its commitment to children and looks out for their best interests. Mia also talks about her work she does with some children who live in poverty, and how she is trying to help them.

I found the information from Mia very interesting. I had the opportunity to visit Australia in 2008, and was able to stay with a host family for a few days, and learned somethings already from them. I remember the host dad and I had a conversation about the health care program. In Australia it is a universal health care program in which the government occurs a majority of the costs on hospital visits, and thus patients don't have to pay much out of the pocket. I found in surprising that even with the universal health care program and the economic growth, still 1 in 8 Australians live in poverty, and that is affecting those children. I am excited to hear back from Mia again as we continue our discussion on some of the trends and issues that happen in Australia.

Sharing Web Resources/Save the Children

The organization I chose to look at is Save the Children (http://www.savethechildren.org/). The focus of Save the Children is to invest in childhood-everyday, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, this organization gives children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn, and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, they are changing the course of the their future and theirs (Save the Children, 2014).

One of the issues I found on this site that Save the Children has been working hard to raise funds for is the Ebola Outbreak.The organization states that an estimated 10.3 million children and adolescents  under the age of 18 are directly or indirectly affected of this outbreak. Children and their families are being exposed to extreme distress due to loss, family separation, isolation, and the overall disruption of society. Children are being frighten with confinements to homes, seeing health workers dressed in protective gear, and witnessing the suffering of family members. There are at least 3,700 children who have lost one or more of their parents to Ebola since the start of the crisis. The organization also looks at how school closures are impacting children's education as they lose out on the critical months of learning, and how once children are out of school, that many never return, and instead become at risk of child labor or other exploitative situation. Even though the outbreak has shown to be declining, there are still some areas that are still dealing with the outbreak. Save the Children has been working around the clock to help stop the spread of the virus and check its catastrophic impact on children and their families. The organization continues to identify, triage, test, and refer patients to beds in Ebola Treatment Units in those hard to reach remote communities in the affect countries. With other organizations and individual donors, the organization continues to protect thousands of vulnerable children, and have saved countless lives (Save the Children, 2014).

I found reading about the Ebola Outbreak issue was quite interesting, and learned about how this issue has impacted children. Children are losing family members which can cause a lot of stress on children. I also found it interesting on how the schools have been closed since the outbreak started, thus children are missing out on valuable education time, thus hindering their development. The organization has been doing a tremendous job to help the children and families that have been affected by this outbreak, and hope to the children to reach their full potential development.

Reference:

Save the Child (15 Dec, 2014). Ebola Response in West Africa. Retrieved from http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.9208421/k.244F/Ebola_Response_in_West_Africa.htm

Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Part 1
So far, I have sent quite a few emails with many of them coming back saying the email couldn't be delivered. I have contacted Australia UNICEF and have sent an email to Blesida Rios who works at the Center for Early Childhood Care and Development in Philippines. I am still waiting to hear back from this people and organizations.

Part 2
I chose to look at Save the Children website (savethechildren.org). This organization was created to help raise money to help children that are dealing crisis. The money will give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn, and protection form harm.  So far the organization has reached for 143 million children worldwide, and that number continues to grow.