Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

The person I choose is Almeta Richards Keys, a former Head Start parent and the executive director of the Edward C. Mazique Parent Child Center in Washington, DC. I can relate to Ms. Keys professionally and personally. As she pointed out, she started out as a parent first and became involved in the policies council of Head Start. I was not a parent of a child care program but was a parent of a sickly infant when I started an in-home child care program over 20 years ago. I was literally forced out of my corporate job to stay at home and care for my child. I then went on to do some research about child development and went to earn an Associate, Bachelors and now finalizing the Master’s degree in early childhood education. This new knowledge about child development gives me the momentum to expand my in home program to a child development center offering care to a larger group of children and families.

As she stated Head Start empowered to do something different about the local program she was involved in. I strongly believe that parent needs to be involved in the education of their children. From experience I know that when a program has a good parent involvement policy where parents have the opportunity to share their opinions the program is very successful and the children are happy. As Almeta stated, she felt that as an empowered parent, she received the tools to go out into her community and work on the behalf of Head Start and the children and families they served… She believes that with the encouragement and opportunities afforded to her from Head Start allowed her to earn an Associate degree all the way to a Master’s degree.

The story shared by Almeta as a parent and now an executive director is one that transcends across the Head Start community. I have been in the presence of many Head Start and child care teachers/administrators who started off as parent’s volunteers and saw the importance of becoming involved in the program to the point of becoming employees. I believe that we as early childhood professionals hear these stories just about every day and it shows how effective parent involvement is valued in an early care program. Head Start has a great parent involvement policy that certainly empowers parents to get involved in the care and education of their child. I believe that the public, policy makers and government officials should listen to these stories to gain some insight as to why it is important to continue funding Head Start and all early childhood education programs.

Reference

http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/hs/about/stories/pfs.

Quality Programs for All children

Quality Programs for All Children

Early Childhood education is one of those issues that have good and not so good public opinions. There are the professionals, parents, advocates and providers who are voicing their opinions for the increase awareness, regulations and funding for early childhood education. While on the other hand we have policy makers and others who feel that early childhood education is not as important as the kindergarten through 12 grade school system. As the resource states in the 1930 and 1940’s the government policy on supporting child care were limited and the needs of the people was based on the economic crisis at that time. Some of the same policies exist today in the house of congress where the President’s early childhood education agenda is still on hold and only portions of the initiative is being looked at or discussed.

There were various policies that were put in place in past years that had various benefits for women because of the need for women to enter the workforce. Although, in the 1990s there were increase concern for quality of care provided out the home that spurred mandated regulations for operating child care programs. Today, federal and state government involvement in childcare focuses on regulation and limited economical support. These regulations are governed by states agencies that focus on license requirements. Most states are aligning themselves with NAEYC’s standards so that every childcare facility follows the same rules and regulations.

Early Childhood education is taking on a different role currently; there are many professionals, educators, policy makers and parents that are fighting to improve the quality of affordable education for all children. Every state has their own rules and regulations as far as licensing and teaching credentials but there is still a great disparity to many providers. Most of the federal funding is rewarded to nonprofit organizations that pick and choose which child care program to assist. I believe that all centers should have the same equal rights to be awarded funding regardless of the size of the program. I believe that if they are caring for young children they should be assisted with accreditation which will improve their learning environment.

As a previous owner/director I have experience that early childhood education is on the minds of everyone because of the gap in our educational system and our place in the world. The united stated education system is far behind therefore, the focus is to ensure that our very young children are adequately educated so that they will be successful in the future. My hope is for us as educators to continue advocating for more funding to educate the teachers and parents so that early care can be successful. I hope that state, federal and funding organizations provide funding to every child care program so that they can be as successful as the well-connected program. I hope that the disparity among the have and have not’s be dismantled because the only people that it is affecting is the children and families living in poverty and low income neighborhoods. My hope is that every child regardless of their race, culture, socio economic situation have the opportunity to attend a quality early childhood program.

Reference

Laureate Education Inc. (2010). Historical Overview of Early Childhood Systems. [Multimedia

presentation]. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-

Welcome to the blog for the Early Childhood Systems course

I choose public policy and advocacy in early childhood education because I believe that there are children, families and communities that are voice less.  I believe that I can be that voice to speak up and share their needs and expectations. This specialization resonates with me because I believe that policy makers are making decisions for early childhood education without listening to the voices of the professionals, children and families who are the true experts on how to care and educate our very young children. 

I am very passionate about ensuring that all children in my community are provided with the highest quality of early care and education.  My aspirations are to be in a position where I can be a resource for the younger early care professionals to learn from.  I want to be able to pass on my experiences, resources and knowledge to others.  I believe that because I am very passionate about early childhood education because after operating a child care center for many years; I realize that there are areas that must be addressed.  Also that child care teachers are glorified baby sitters who are not respected by the public and also by policy makers.  Children and their families are struggling to find high quality programs and many teachers are not properly prepared to work with the children. My aspirations are focused on advocating for the well-being of children, families and the early childhood field so that early childhood education will become the most important years for every child in my community, state and country.

 

 

I believe that becoming a skilled and confident advocate is crucial for early childhood professional because there are many discrepancies when it comes to the care and education of young children.  I believe that when early care professionals have the resources, knowledge and education, they become the voice for the voiceless children and families.  They become the advocates that can work with the local and state public policy makers on what is the appropriate and best practice for early childhood education.

 

At this point in my coursework I would like to learn how to use my knowledge to communicate with local state policy makers.  Next, I would also like to learn strategies on how to coordinate and implement advocacy projects.  Finally, I would like to get on a board with an organization that provides resources to public policy decision makers so that I can have a voice.