Over the past eight weeks I have studied various websites and podcasts about the international early care and education community. In addition, I have reached out to collegues in other countries to learn more about early childhood education as it exists around the world. This has been an eye opening and rewarding experience to learn about how other nations view childhood and provide early care and education to young children. It has given me a glimpse into cultures and experiences that are very different from my own and expanded my knowledge about how issues like poverty, equity, excellence and diversity, affect children around the world and how early care and education programs worldwide have addressed these issues. In addition, I have also gained knowledge of resources and information that I can use in my work. But most importantly, I have recognized that the early childhood communtiy worldwide is more alike then different. We share similar goals and we have a wealth of knowledge that can be shared with each other to benefit all children. So while there are better educational systems than ours in the United States and many that suffer greater challenges, I believe there are lessons we can learn from the successes and failures of other countries and in turn much that they learn from our successes and failures. My goal for the field of early care and education is to consider what we have in common with early care and education professionals around the world and to find ways that we can provide better early care and education by sharing our experiences and learning from each other.
Terri,
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading your post, I have similar thoughts about "we are more alike than different". I think so too. I see all these issues around the world, affecting children's development. We also see professionals in the field, just like us, that are passionate and dedicated to work in this field for a better future for the children. It does not matter how far we go, we are not going to find a paradise yet, but we can find motivation, passion, and energy to work in eradicate issues and trends in the early childhood field. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Terri-
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed learning from you these past eight weeks. I agree that internationally, we can all learn from each other. You are right, even though as we all live in different areas and have different experiences with early childhood, our hopes and dreams as professionals tend to be the same. I wish you well in your new course. Thank you for helping me to grow during this past course!
Victoria