Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

This week, I was fortunate to communicate my contact that is stationed in Italy. In my conversations, I learned that Italy provides a 3-year preschool program free of charge called The Scuola Materna. It is clear according to my contact, that Italy and perhaps most of Europe, places high priority on early childhood education and that early childhood is viewed as a way to reduce poverty, foster development, and academic skills, and increase the quality of life, even by parents. This is a stark differences to what many parents view early childhood as in North America, childcare. Yet, while there is a lot importance place on early childhood, many feel the same inequities as we do in North America, not enough funding, lack of appreciation, and lack of qualified staff. Lack of funding often means long hours and volunteers who are not as qualified, lack of materials and supplies, and inability to provide professional development for staff.

My contact in Japan revealed the same feelings of inequity, which has provided me with the understanding of why there is need for universal standards, a global approach perhaps. Most countries understand the importance of early childhood and many support such endeavors, the support is simply not enough and the expectations inconsistent.

I was left with this quote, “It is sad that we, early childhood professionals, are at the forefront of our worlds future, holding future leaders in the palms of our hands, but we are the first to be forgotten, the first to be cut, the first to go unnoticed and the first to be blamed when generations do not succeed” (anonymous).

SHARING WEB RESOURCES

The Children’s Defense Fund website provides a plethora of information that is particularly relevant to my current professional development, as there is an entire section under the Policy Priorities link, called Early Childhood Education and Care. Within that section is information about Home Visiting Programs, Head Start and Early Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grant, Quality Rating and Improvement Systems, Early Learning Challenge Fund, Advocate & Family Resources, Legislative Update, and Promising Approaches.

While none of the information was controversial or made me think about an issue in a new way, the information in the section Legislative Update exemplified our readings and discussion this week and added to my understanding of politician’s support of the field of early childhood. Within the page for Legislative Update, was a link to an article about a bill introduced earlier this month, designed to provide support to states to aid in funding high quality early learning programs for low-income children. The article continues to describe the benefits of investing in early childhood, stating, “Investing in early learning pays off. Economists have estimated a return on investment for early childhood education programs of approximately 16 percent,’ said Senator Casey. `This legislation will establish a one-time investment to help states raise the bar on program quality and provide more children with early access to high-quality education.’” (Children's Defense Fund, 2011).

While I did not gain any new information, I did find several reminders throughout the website, such as the ratio of children who are Hispanic or Black living in poverty is 1 to 3 while the ratio for Caucasian children is 1 to 10, and 8.1 million children are uninsured. (Children's Defense Fund, 2011) The astounding statistics reiterate the importance of advocating for the needs and rights of children and families.

Children's Defense Fund. (2011, March 3). Casey Introduces Bill to Help States Invest in Early Learning. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from Children's Defense Fund: http://casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=63d1e85f-e3db-4ad5-9b4a-23afad9b6142

Children's Defense Fund. (2011). Policy Priorities. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from Children's Defense Fund: http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

I have been communicating with Rebecca White from Aviano Italy, Carrie Manning from Incirlik Turkey, and Lisa Parsons from Kadena Japan. I have particularly enjoyed my conversations with Ms. Manning, who has not only described her personal perspective on poverty affecting her surrounding communities, but has also enlisted the help of a coworker, who speaks the language, to gain a perspective from the Turkish people. In my communications with Ms. Manning explains that the families serving in the military are screened for financial soundness prior to being able to move overseas. However, families do occasionally have financial difficulty and are then provided supports from the base.

Poverty in the surrounding towns is a different story, according to Ms. Manning, as children are frequently found begging in the market, and teen boys often seek work from the military members, to help support their families. Most interesting to me, is that she emphasized boys, in her email, and went on to explain that Turkey has extensive gender disparities, and it is rare to see a teen girl working. She is currently conducting research about early childhood programs in the area and will provide information as she finds it.

In communicating with Ms. Parson, I did not learn much about poverty, except that while it is well hidden, there are people in Japan who live in poverty. According to Ms. Parson, who will provide more information when things in her area of Japan have slowed, said the Japanese are very proud people. I am still waiting from information from Ms. White.

I have found the information about the issue of poverty in other countries very interesting. I was saddened to hear of children begging in the market and the inequities towards gender in Turkey. I look forward to learning more, as the knowing the struggles of other countries can help to indicate a global problem and learning the attempts to diminish poverty by other countries can provide means to success.

Sharing Web Resources

Throughout the past week, I have been focusing on the Children’s Defense Fund website, at http://www.childrensdefense.org// . The focus of this organization is to ensure that all children are provided with a great start to life and to strive for equity for all children. Their mission, according to the website, states

"The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective and independent voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble or suffer family breakdown.” (Children's Defense Fund, 2011)

The organizations current focus is on policies that support the following.

• End child poverty;
• Guarantee every child and pregnant woman comprehensive health and mental health coverage and services;
• Protect every child from abuse and neglect and connect them to caring permanent families;
• Provide high quality early childhood care and development programs for all children;
• Ensure every child can read at grade level by fourth grade and guarantee quality education through high school graduation; and
• Stop the criminalization of children at increasingly younger ages and invest in prevention and early intervention. (Children's Defense Fund, 2011)

It was difficult for me to pick one that was of particular interest, as all have such relevance to the field of early childhood. What I did enjoy, was that the website provided a brief overview of each of their most urgent missions, complete with statistics. I was amazed to learn just how many children, 8.1million children are uninsured and well over 500,000 pregnant women.
Additionally, I found the article, Homeless children: The Hard Times Generation, a news story about homeless children, focusing on a family living not more than 2 hours from me. The article was very heart wrenching, as the interviewed family, and other children openly discussed living in cars, their hunger, and their embarrassment. (CBS Interactive, 2011) The article definitely inspired me to investigate further, not only for additional information on the trend in my state, but is being done and can be done.

CBS Interactive. (2011, March 6). Homeless children: the hard times generation. Retrieved March 11, 2011, from 60 Minutes: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/06/60minutes/main20038927_page2.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Children's Defense Fund. (2011). About Us. Retrieved March 9, 2011, from Children's Defense Fund: http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Military life, is a culture all its own, a culture that is extremely close knit and supportive, which made it easy to locate and contact early childhood professionals in other countries for part one of this blog assignment. I was able to make email contact with many early childhood professionals stationed in other countries, but have chosen to communicate with an early childhood professional stationed at Aviano Air Base in Italy, one at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, and one at Kadena Air Base in Japan. I am very grateful that all three professionals were eager to support my continuing education and professional development.

For part two of the blog assignment, I have decided to study the website Children’s Defense Fund at http://www.childrensdefense.org/ After viewing several early childhood related websites, I decided that the Children’s Defense Fund as it’s goals included addressing current issues in the field of early childhood, as well as promoting quality care, increasing academic access, and reduce family violence.

MY SUPPORTS

I feel quite fortunate, as my daily environment is full of support, emotional, practical and physical. First, I have a very supportive family, both immediate and extended, who provide emotional support through unconditional love, acceptance, and understanding. This has been especially evident recently, as they have been both accepting and supporting of my internship, which has caused us to live thousands of miles apart. My immediate family also provides practical support, as we work together to maintain the house, and complete house chores. I am also very fortunate to have a supportive work environment and supportive friends, who offer any support I should need. The people in my life who provide emotional support are most important, and life without the emotional support would make life empty.

Physical support from people is not something I require much of in either my home life or my work life, but I am hearing impaired and rely heavily on my hearing aids. My hearing aids offer physical support that allows me to hear, which in turn allows me to complete tasks. Additionally, as I am away from my family, and hearing impaired, I rely heavily on texting and email to communicate, and receive support from both my cell phone and computer. While I could survive without both, I believe we all rely on objects and tools to support everyday life, such as mops, pens, computers, phones, etc., and those things make life more functional.

As a hearing-impaired person, it is easy for me to sympathize with and imagine the hardships faced by someone who faces a challenge. Because I rely so heavily on my sight, I would imagine being blind would require substantial support, including materials, training, and assistance to be able to function and participate without injury to one’s self. Adaptations would need to be made to everyday objects so that sound or feeling would allow operation rather than visual cues, adaptations and accommodations would need to be made to living and working areas and emotional support from family and friends would be essential. I believe it would be quite difficult to function in a world where most things depend on site, without the aid of supports.

My Connections to Play

“Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs.” ~James L. Hymes Jr.

Our play was free and easy, and very much left to our imagination. Fromt that, we learned to think outside the box.

"You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again.” ~Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

As a child in my generation, we spent our free time engaged in play that simply made us happy.


Play was an basic part of my life, and something my parents encouraged. Perhaps that was because of the times, no computers, cell phones, video games; in fact, we did not even have cable television. I am not sure I can actually say my parents supported play by providing materials or initiating it, as play was not considered an oddity or a privilege, rather, an expected behavior. We were expected to do our chores, we were expected to finish homework, and we were expected to “go play.” Unlike the children of today, it was rare to find children in my generation, inside on a nice day, or glued to a television. We played dodge ball in chase instead of dodging bullets in a video game, we rode our bikes to our friend’s house, instead of phoning, and we swung on swings or climbed trees to talk about our days and plan our futures rather than posting them over the internet. It was through play that we learned to socialize, to converse and to engage with others, and it was through play that we learned responsibility, self-regulation, and negotiation. Most importantly, I believe that through play, we learned to problem solve by thinking outside the box and we learned to enjoy life. I would hope opportunities to play would be returned to today’s children, so that they too may learn to enjoy life.

Play, an essential component of life for both children and adults, is self-initiated activities that are designed for amusement, but have a direct influence on psychosocial and biosocial development and can help reduce the symptoms of stress. Play is living in the moment, free of self-consciousness, and totally engaged in the process. Adults and children alike need opportunities for expression and engagement, with total enjoyment.