Saturday, June 8, 2013

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2



After reviewing the podcast with Barbra Jones, I now have a deeper understanding of how monastery schools system operates and how she founded the monastery school Pine Grove School in Falmouth, Maine. Ms. Barbara mentioned that her student teaching experience a public school teacher did not speak to her and how she then made efforts to gain employment in the monastery private sector of education. Similarly, Ms. Barbra shared her traveling experience abroad in order to obtain the necessary level of education and certifications to be a monastery educator with credentials. Ms. Barbara believed that obtaining her degree in monastery education would provide evidence to those she desired to work with that she was serious about working in that particular division of education. I find Ms. Barbara’s desire to open her own school very insightful. As a Child Care Center Director for a private based child care center, I can relate to Ms. Barbara professional development experience. I find this Ms. Barbara’s experience is a trend among many educational professional with regards to reaching a level of ownership in the field. I find that my desire to own my own Child Care Center is very similar to Ms. Barbara’s story, which is one of the reasons why I am pursuing my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education, (World Forum Foundation, 2013).
After reviewing the Harvard, Center of Developing Child website, I found the following items most intriguing. The Center’s commitment to global work, which represents both an acknowledgement of moral responsibility to meet the needs of all children and a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations, from the poorest to the most affluent. Furthermore, the three strategies that the center focuses on such as: (1) reframing the discourse around child health and development in the global policy arena by educating high-level decision-makers about the underlying science of learning, behavior, and health, beginning in the earliest years of life; (2) developing supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects to expand global understanding of how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed, and how to get it back on track; and (3) building leadership capacity in child development research and policy—focused on both individuals and institutions—in low- and middle-income countries to increase the number and influence of diverse voices and perspectives that are contributing to the growing global movement on behalf of young children,(The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2013). Lastly, I believe that the Director Jack Shonkoff’s article, Pediatrics reveals that new knowledge in the biological and social sciences, which offers a unifying framework that can inform innovative strategies to improve both child survival and early development as well as adult outcomes in health, learning, and behavior, (The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2013).
After reviewing the Pre-K Now website and the video Pre-K Now: Marking a Decade of Pre-K Milestones. I feel so inspire and have a greater appreciation for how scientists, economists and politicians work together in order to enhance the quality of Pre-K service nationwide. I am completely concur with the message unveiled in the video with regards to ensuring that parents and their children have the opportunity to access quality Pre-k programs. I am very certain that quality Pre-K program will only help better prepare students for higher setting of education and support their overall development. The video also mentioned how an increase of interest and funding has generated from policymakers, which is certainly an success story for the field. I do believe that Pre-K is important and research supports how important it is for children between the ages of birth and 5 to be giving the opportunity to learn in adequate and structured atmosphere, (Pre-K Now: Marking a Decade of Pre-K Milestones, 2012).

References:
Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States. ( 2012). Pre-K Now: Marking a Decade of Pre-K Milestones. http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID=31672 (Newsletter: http://www.preknow.org/signupform.cfm ).
The President and Fellows of Harvard College. (2013). Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/)
World Form Foundation. (2013). Barbara Jones. Podcast retrieved from, http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/world-forum-radio/  


  


   

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