Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

One new insight that I got from reading the Harvard website was that the issue with childhood development and growth is a worldwide issue. It’s not just one nation struggling to figure out how to handle childhood poverty, or early childhood programs. I feel that it should be a unified national seminar to take place so that we as a nation can get things right for our young people.   After reading the article on global child development my thoughts are that if we can stop coming up with so many theories and work the ones that are already there to find a answer we might have to progress with early childhood.

After reading the article on the Harvard website National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs I sat and wondered about why investors have to see the payback before they decided whether on not it is beneficial to invest in early childhood programs. I wonder if these investors have children of their own and how important the early childhood years were to them.

(http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/),

Sharing Web Resources

The website of an organization that I have been studying is http://www.dec-sped.org/, The Division of Early Childhood. The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) is an international membership organization for those who work with or on behalf of young children with disabilities and other special needs.  I have been studying the website because it really touched home with me. I own and operate a child care center and when I first started out I had a lady to call for care for her 5 month son. He had several disabilites. At the time I did not take him, it was not because I was discriminating but due to my lack of knowledge with working with chidren in their early years with disabilities. After finding this site I felt that many children with disabilities probably go through the same thing this little boy went through. And this is probably very stressful for his mother. This website overs parents, and caregivers a place to go to get information or chat with one another for support.
I gained more understanding for how they view ealry childhood and disabilities one of the enew letters for this week was Department Announces New Effort to Strengthen Accountability for Students with Disabilities

Moving from Compliance-Focused Approach to One Driven by Results

March 2, 2012 they stated that with all the funding that is going into these programs children with disabilties should not be treated any differntly or held to lower standards.

China and poverty

China is the the world's most populous country with a population of 1.27 billion and has the highest percentage of  people suffering from poverty. Somewhere between 15 and 31 million people live in poverty.  This could be the result of many factors.  One of the main reasons could be because the national poverty line is low by international standards, meaning that many more people live close to poverty.
China's transition from a centrally planned to a globalised market economy has helped reduce chronic poverty and disadvantage, but also created new forms of vulnerability and poverty. Although they are coming up with ways to reduce the percentage of people on poverty, it is only benefiting parts of China.
Another reason for China having such a high poverty rate is the ongoing restructuring of state-owned enterprises. The state sector lost 31 million jobs. Not enough new jobs in the non-state sector have yet been created and an estimated 14.6 million are without a full-time job - an unemployment rate of 12.3 per cent
4.2 million Chinese children live in absolute poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantaged conditions. Many parents can not afford the cost to send their children to school or medical insurance or medical bills.
Poverty is really hindering children from being able to develop. Many countries are too busy focusing on the dollar amount that parents bring home that they are failing to look at the children.

References
 Poverty Among Children in Urban China: A survey of poverty-affected families in three cities

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

It is so neat to get to meet and talk to other early professionals in other parts of the world. Unfortunately for me at this point I have not been able to make contact with any professionals yet. But I feel that by Monday I will have contact and talked with someone.  My first contact that I am waiting to here from is from The Global Alliance of NAEYC out of the African region his name is Rev Charles Arko-Nunoo. I selected him for two  reasons, One because he is a male and two because he is a Rev. and I really want to get to know a lot about his work with the early childhood field. The second professional is Garderai Essaada from Morocco. I feel that I have a better chance hearing from the female. I really don't know why though.  I am prepared to do the alternate assignment (which I did) but I am really looking forward to hearing back from one of the other professionals.
I selected this website for part 2..
National Black Child Development Institutehttp://nbcdi.org/
(Newsletter: http://nbcdi.org/support/sign-up-for-nbcdi-newsletters/ ) not because I am an African American but because I love to read about the diverse way in which people from the same race think and act.