Childhood Poverty in India

I have been attempting to reach early childhood professionals from a variety of countries including Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Singapore, and Myanmar. I have not had a response from any of these people yet, but I am still hoping to hear from someone soon.

Since I have not been able to reach anyone yet, I decided to visit the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/). I chose to study the country of India and how their country is dealing with such a high poverty level.

• 1.03 billion people live in India; 260.2 million of those people live in poverty. This is about 25% of the population living in poverty.

• Almost one half of all children under the age of 5 are malnourished.

• Girls remain having limited life chances: declining sex ratio (there are more males than females, and the gap is widening), neglect of the girl’s childhood, lower school enrollment, and a high maternal mortality rate.

There are some policies and programmes being reformed to respond to changes in the country, but from what I have learned more aggressive techniques are needed. However, the programmes that are listed on the website are all approaches that teach people how to improve their lives instead of the government changing their lives for them. I think this is an excellent approach because people who are given handouts learn to rely on them instead of learning to earn those things themselves. This country may need some more support in order to get all of their citizens on solid ground, but the progress they are making is much better than none at all.

NAECTE E-Letter

http://www.naecte.org/

The National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators’ website is a great resource for obtaining current issues and approaches, and recommendations for what to do in an early childhood classroom. Their current E-letter can be found under the Main Menu. The most recent issue from the Summer of 2012 discusses two topics that stood out to me; Learning Stories and Growing Up WILD.

Learning Stories are popular in New Zealand where the country honors the indigenous culture and all other cultures equally. They are a record written by the teacher, the student, or parents that captures a small activity. The author has the freedom to include or leave out any details, but can focus on the students strengths and achievements. I think that early childhood programs should definitely include these assessments, but I think that other assessments that allow less interpretation would be necessary still.

Growing Up WILD is an early childhood program curriculum that involves children in a variety of activities to get them moving, exploring, and discovering nature. I think the curriculum would be a great addition to a summer program and could be manipulated for fit a variety of centers.

NAECTE and professional contacts

I chose to review the website of NAECTE (National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators). This group supports the early childhood community by providing a place for professionals to communicate with one another worldwide. They also publish a Journal regularly in which different issues, research, and practices are discussed and promoted. Their website offered many resources. They publish their journal regularly, have an e-letter 2-4 times a year, and offer a page with 16+ related organizations listed.

This week I began contacting different professionals worldwide. I have contacted professionals in Sri Lanka as well as Venezuela. I sent both of them emails to the addressed I found on the UNICEF website. I gave them the options of replying to my email or contacting me through this blog. I also gave the option of speaking over the phone, but I saved sharing that information until they inform me that they would like that option. I am hoping to hear back from them soon so that we can begin sharing information with one another about our growing and changing profession.

hello out there

Welcome to my second blog on my journey to obtaining my Master's degree in Early Childhood Education! My goal with this blog is to connect with teaching professionals both in my area as well as worldwide. I would like to broaden my knowledge about education to include how other countries have built their own professions. I then would like to bring that information back to my area to share with my peers. I hope that we can all learn a little bit about one another and about the profession that we have chosen to nurture and help grow. Please leave me a little note about yourself and feel free to ask any questions or comment on anything that is mentioned!