I have been watching the podcasts for the alternative
assignment. This week, I watched TJ
Skalski. Skalski is the principal of
Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School in Alberta. Skalski describes the community as one with
damaged, depressed, and hungry children who display feelings of
worthlessness. No wonder the school has
had 5 different principals in 5 years.
Skalski was the first principal in the history of the school to remain
for more than 1 year. She has a vision
of reinvesting in the kids, focusing on making culture and language a priority. TJ Skalski explains that many of the families
in the community feel caught in a trap, she hopes to inspire the children and
families to want more for themselves and to follow their dreams. It seems like such a massive task to change
the way of thinking of an entire community that has been feeling worthless for
years. I love that TJ Skalski feels that
this is her calling and she is willing to do whatever it takes for the children
and families of the community. It is
inspiring to me to hear of one person making such a difference.
The
website offered much information about global issues. Harvard University’s, Center on the
Developing Child has started the Global Children’s Initiative. This Initiative promotes child health and
development around the world. The
Initiative uses scientific studies and research in order to advance the
Center’s mission. They focus on three
main areas. Most importantly, they aim
to educate decision makers about the science behind how children develop
hopefully encouraging the decision makers to make developmentally appropriate
decisions for young children. Also,
the Initiative focuses on developing understanding of how healthy development
occurs as well as increasing the number of perspectives and advocates that are
speaking on behalf of young children.
One
global issue is the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project. The Zambian Ministry of Education, Harvard
University, and several other organizations have developed the Zambian Early
Childhood Development Project. This
project aims to develop more understanding of early childhood experiences on
developmental, health and educational outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. While much research has been conducted in
developed countries, little has been done in this area. The Project has developed an instrument for assessing
the physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development of these children
before and during their education. This
type of assessment has not been conducted before and the Zambian Early
Childhood Development Project hopes to use the data to better understand early
childhood development in the country.
Resources:
Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/)
World Forum Foundation Radio.http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php
You are really gaining wonderful insights into the international Early Childhood community. From Canada to Africa this critical work for young children is taking place. I am wondering what ethnicity the children and families are in the area of Alberta you are referring to, are they native Indians?Great post , thank you
ReplyDeleteResearch has shown that a great number of children are living in poverty in Alberta. Interestingly, while single moms are still twice as likely to live in poverty as women living with partners, the poverty rate has doubled among children in two-parent families. I hope that the government of Alberta will implement an effective poverty reduction strategy and eliminate the scourge of child poverty.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. I would like to further look into Mother Earth's Children Charter school. I am always curious as to the different curriculums and strategies various schools use to run their programs. My most recent interest was the Waldorf school's where people from various countries put their children (when they are infants) on waiting lists to attend some of our Waldorf schools in the U.S. Happy studies. :)
ReplyDeleteVery good post! I enjoyed viewing the podcast with T.J. Skalski of Mother Earth's Children's Charter School. It seems as if she has brought stability to the school and community. I sent an email to her when we first started but have never received any correspondence back yet.
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