Equity and Excellence in Early Care and Education

This week I listened to a podcast by Maysoun Chehab is the Regional Early Childhood Care and Education Program Coordinator, at the Arab Resource Collective (ARC), a not-for-profit non-governmental organization based in Beirut, Lebanon to  raise awareness of child rights and providing training early childhood caregivers on best practices.  She described her most rewarding projects as the psychosocial support project after the war in Lebanon in 2006.  During the war, 126 primary schools were destroyed.  The ARC trained parents and teachers about the children’s post conflict emotional and social reactions.  Maysoun commented that they found that they had to provide the parents and the teachers with support first so that they then would be better equipped to support the children.  It is important that parents of young children are taking care of themselves so that they can better care for their children.  This reminded me of Head Start and Early Head Start program in the United States.  In HS/EHS, parents and families are provided with supports because they are viewed as the child's first and most important teacher.  Parents are encouraged to acheive family goals which support the families economic and social well being and ultimately supports the learning and develop of the children in the family.