Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 3

This week, I reviewed the World Forum Radio podcast featuring TJ Skalski (http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/). She is the principal at the Mother Earth's Children Charter School in Alberta, Canada. Skalski mentioned that while growing up, she never believed that she would become a teacher, but her grandmother had always envisioned her as one. She eventually realized that her grandmother's vision for her life was correct. When she took over the position as principal for MECCS, she realized that she had entered an environment that faced a lot of opposition. The staff turnover rate was extremely high, resulting in a lack of leadership for the school. However, as Skalski continued to work with the students at the school, she quickly identified that the children lacked backgrounds in family values and strong work ethics that she experienced while growing up. It quickly became her mission to instill these values in these children so they could learn that they can pursue their hopes and dreams. Skalski's story reminded me a lot of my experience working for Head Start. We come across many children that come from impoverished backgrounds. These families struggle to put food on the table and many have experienced homelessness at one point. The hardships carried by the parents are often passed on to the children, making it difficult for the children to discover their aspirations and dreams. It is our responsibility as educators to provide the children with the resources that they need to not only succeed in the classroom, but in their home environment as well. We work closely with the families to assist them with providing a nurturing home environment, which is a key component to healthy childhood development.

I also took the opportunity to explore UNESCO's Early Childhood Care and Education webpage (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/). Under the Access and Equity tab, I found an article about the home-based programs in New Zealand (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001373/137381e.pdf). This caught my attention because part of our Early Head Start program is home-based and it is the sector of EHS that I am least familiar with. I had assumed that "home-based" for New Zealand meant the same thing to them as it does here, but I was wrong.  Home-based services in New Zealand is the equivalent to family child care services to us in the United States. One similarity between the two programs is that there is a coordinator overseeing the homes that are participating in the program. One major difference that I noted was that their home-based programs are heavily regulated by the government, where family child care centers in the United States are rarely regulated with many of them not being licensed. New Zealand's home-based programs follow a curriculum for instruction for the children. Family child care centers in the United States can sometimes reflect group babysitting services, where little education is offered to the children. I would strongly like to see the United States to move toward regulated family child care centers, similar to New Zealand's home-based centers. Many families are leaning toward family child care because it tends to be a cheaper alternative to placing their children in a regular child care center. If the government begins to regulate family child care centers, then the children attending these centers may not miss out on valuable learning opportunities that often come from attending quality child care centers.