: Issues and Trends: Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for Children and Families

http://www.naeyc.org/

I tried to find an outside like through this website. You have to be a member to access a lot of this information. But while I was exploring the naeyc website I did come across an article they posted by Deborah J. Leong and Elena Bodrova.  The article is titled Assessing and Scaffolding Make-Believe Play.

After exploring Young Children January 2012 issue, I found out that there are five stages in a child’s make-believe play:

1.  First Scripts

2.  Roles in Action

3.  Roles with Rules and Beginning

4.  Mature Roles, Planned Scenarios, and Symbolic Props

5.  Dramatization, Multiple Themes, Multiple Roles, and Director’s Play

I receive weekly emails but it does not any links about issues I have been studying.  It does however information about joining their organization and would like me to give them feedback about a program alignment project.

The Naecy website has an abundance of information about equity and excellence in early care and education. This website is for improving early childhood education and making sure each daycare is continuing to deliver a high quality Early Childhood Education.

After exploring the Naecy website more thoroughly I have gained more insight about children and play. It is so important that we allow children to play and explore their surroundings. It is important for us to fight those who want to take art, recess, and music out of public schools.  I know some who regulate the public school districts and those who own daycares really need to evaluate the importance of play. 

“Many of the play skills that children learned in the past by observing and imitating their older playmates now have to be taught directly by teachers or learned from behaviors that teacher’s model.”

Knowledge for Tackling Childhood Poverty

After reading “Knowledge for Tackling Childhood Poverty”, I was in shock. I was unaware how many children grow up living in poverty.  1 out of 4 children will experience living in poverty worldwide.  That is over 600 million children in this world.

When a child grows up in poverty they often will repeat the life of their parents. They will continue this same system and continue this horrible circle. A child growing up in poverty will start life at a disadvantage. Most children living in poverty will not have a high quality childcare center in their area. They will not have a good school district that will have additional resources to help children do better in school.

I heard this saying “Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn’t commit”. These children grow up in poverty and it is not their fault. I know you can’t solve poverty in a day but after reading this article I do feel I can make a difference.

After reading this information, I have learned that as an educator we need to understand what the cause of poverty in an area is. Try to get to the root of the issue then tackle it head on. We should not treat every child who lives in the poverty the same. We should do our research and inform others like policy makers, congress, etc…

We as a people, we should want to change the life of a child. I stated this before, it is not their fault but we can help create a better life for them day by day. Children are our future and we need to invest in them now so they can change tomorrow.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resrouces

Trying to contact two professionals and establish communication was harder than I thought. I have continuously sent emails from our resource list that was given to us. A lot of email addresses were not working. After a long disappointing search I came up empty handed. I have come to the realization choosing the alternate assignment. 

During my undergrad I took some Early Childhood classes and one organization was always a topic of conversation.  The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) http://www.naeyc.org, this organization has been around since 1926.  We never talked about this organization in a whole and I’m curious of everything it offers.

I would like to know if anyone has contacted any professionals overseas.  If you were able to connect with anyone, can you please give me any suggestions how?

International Contacts

After exploring the Harvard website http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/. I’ve learned that the Center for Developing Child at Harvard has launched a Global Children’s Initiative and they are focusing on three main objectives:

1. To Reframe public discourse about the early childhood period.
2. To support innovative, multidisciplinary research and demonstration projects in selected countries or regions.
3. To build leadership capacity in child development research and policy among individuals and institutions in low and middle income countries.

What I like about this center is that they are morally committed to all needs of children globally.   For example the new Brazil Initiative is for highly motivated students to participate in the Executive Leadership Program in the Early Childhood Development for Brazilian policymakers. 

This website is very informative and is committed to connecting with other countries and learning from one another.  Harvard is using their knowledge to create a better early childhood program globally.   Overall I have gained that Harvard has created a program to connect globally to increase the knowledge of child health and development agenda’s beyond the Harvard community.