Learning about International Early Childhood

Learning about the International Early Childhood Field made me realize alot. The first thing that I learned was how important the filed of early childhood is around the world. Such as UNESCO, The National Center for Children in Poverty,  The Global Chidlrens Initiative.  I honestly thought that this was only in the US. There are so many organizations that focus on children and their early learning. This was a surprise to me since I had never really been exposed to it before.

The second is that all across the world early childhood education is very similar. Most educators have the same goals and there seems to be an agreement among everyone of what is important to teach in the early childhood field.

I also learned about poverty, diversity, changing demographics. I realized how important all of these are to teaching children. Having this information has made me understand everything better. I look at every situation different, and I feel that in the short 8 weeks of this course I have started a journey that has led me around the world and given me a wealth of information that will make me better.

Although in the beginning of this course I did not fully understand the point of issues and trends and how it would help me teach, I learned more than I though I would and will follow many of these issues during my career.

UNESCO (wk 7)

The UNESCO is an organization that works to create "the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values".
They have 2 global priorities:
*Africa
*Gender Equality

The Issue in Africa is one about a population that is not as educated as they need to be. There are more children now going on to secondary education than ever before. UNESCO wants to continue to make sure that the African government and development partners maintain education among their priorities. The sub Saharan Africa is home to "almost 43% of the worlds out of school children"(UNESCO). They have the worlds largest amount of people with HIV, 90% of the worlds 2 million children are living with the virus in sub Saharan Africa. The UNESCO education mission is to ensure all children receive a free education. "UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to cover all aspects of education"(UNESCO).

There are 4 ways that UNESCO supports the right to education:

*Monitoring the implementation of the international normative instruments in this field.
*Building and strengthening capacities and mechanisms and reporting
*Assisting Member States in reviewing and developing their national frameworks
*Mobilizing, developing and fostering global partnerships to raise awareness on key issues relating to the implementation of international normative instrument's on the right to education.

This web page had so many different links to many different topics. Definitely an organization to follow.

References:

UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education” web page (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/)

Four ways UNESCO supports the right to education

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I explored the site titled National Center for Children in Poverty, www.nccp.org I had never visited this site, and found the information to be relative to our current topic and very interesting to me. I was surprised by what I read and would like to share it with everyone.
The article I read was titled, "More White Chilren in low income families than any other racial group". After reading this article I learned that "America has more white chldren living in low income families than any other race"(NCCP). This surprised me greatly because all you ever hear about is povety in neighborhoods that are mosly black and hispanic (at least where I live). This information on this website opened my eyes the huge problem of not just poverty but the affects of low income families as well. These families seem o.k on the outside but are actually living within a low income society. I wonder why these statistics surprise me. Do white families hide it more than other races?

Some statistics I would like to note are amazing to me these were from the National Center for Children in Poverty, they are:

21 million white children live in low income families
10.7 million hispanic chilren live in low income families
6.5 million black children live in low income families
1 million asian children live in low income families
400,000 american indain children live in low income families

Another statistic is "among all children under 18, 44 % live in low income families and approximatley one in every 5 live in poor families"(NCCP).
This percentage is rising, "40% in 2005 to 44% in 2010"(NCCP).

The Federal poverty levels according to the NCCP are:
$22,350 for a family of 4
$18,530 for a family of 3
$14,710 for a family of 2


Although I understood that poverty was an issue, I honestly had no idea how severe it was. It saddens me to realize how many children do not have what my childre have taken for granted. The NCCP recommends helping parents succeed in the labor force will help with jobs. This will help, but will not solve the problem. Our unstable work environement has lead to many people losing there jobs due to the economy.

The only solution to this, is jobs!!! Our country and many other countrys are struggling and our people and children are suffering. We need to pay attention to politics and our current leaders and make educated decisins to help everyone live comfortably. The only way to do this is to make changes in our government and althoug I have always voted, but have never really followed politics closely, I have gained a new understanding of the power of voting!!!!!

References

National Center for Children in Poverty; retrieved from www.nccp.org