Contact with international contacts continues to be a problem. After not hearing back from the many professionals from NAEYC's list that I contacted in week one, I managed to establish contact with a professional through an international early childhood group on facebook. However, after a few initial conversations, she has not been responsive. Not yet wanting to use the podcasts for assignments, I talked with a teacher from my daughter's former daycare. This teacher, Astarte, spends part of the year teaching in Illinois and the other part of the year living with her family in Egypt. Prior to living in the United States, she taught at a nursery school in Cairo. In Cairo, children had very different early childhood experiences based on their family's wealth. Wealthy families sent their children to well-funded private schools that were almost always English language programs. Families who lived at or below the poverty line sent their children to publicly funded schools that were often dirty, under-funded, under-staffed, and inconveniently located...or they didn't send them to childcare programs at all. She mentioned that at all times of the day, hungry, poorly-clothed children would be walking the streets of Cairo instead of attending school. This was also true of younger children whose families could not afford to send them to even the public programs. In Illinois, she notes that there can still be differences between private programs and publicly-funded programs, but the disparity is nowhere near that of what she witnessed at home. She also sees a difference in the government's willingness to fund early childhood experiences.
Poverty is a definite issue in my town, as it is nationwide and globally. I am happy to have a community with many resources available to support families in need. I have used these myself throughout the years and this personal experience has allowed me to also become a source of knowledge of community resources for the children and families I serve. I hope that my colleagues are able to do the same for the participants in their programs.
I think having resources is very important and thankfully they are offered in many parts of the world. However, I can only imagine what it must be like in some parts of the world where the resources lack. This is a very important issue, an until this course I did not know the extent of the this issue. I really only had information about the community I work in, in regards to families living in poverty.
ReplyDeleteYes, I totally agree its hard getting in contact with them. I think poverty is a very important issue in all areas and it needs to be addressed. If sending children to different schools due to there financial situations is not solving the problem. I think that is not fair and all children should receive the same type of education.
ReplyDeleteI am extremely grateful living in the United States where my son is offered a good education. I work in an upscale early childhood school where almost all of my coworkers have a Bachelor's degree in early education. The amount parents pay for their children to go to my school is ALOT. The more money they have, the better education their children get. I don't necessarily think this is fair. All children are equal in my eyes and deserve the same educational experience. Children learn from the second they are born and it needs to be continued throughout their lives.
ReplyDeleteThat is saddening to hear about how children walk around. It is always interesting to hear how things are in other countries. You are probably the only one who have made any type of contact.
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