Chalk Dust Runs Through My Veins

I am happy to announce that I have finally made contact with an Early Childhood professional located in Mexico.  Her name is Liliana Cosio Molina who specializes in special education.  I was able to find her on the International Society on Early Intervention web page (special thanks to MaryJo).  I have been in contact with her through email.  She has not been able to respond to my latest email about her thoughts and insights on poverty.  As soon as I receive her email and information I will update this post. 

In the mean time I have been listening to podcasts through World Forum Radio.  This week I have been listening to George Forman, PH.D.  Dr. Forman has over 33 years of experience in university teaching, cognitive research, multimedia design, and educational consulting in the area of early childhood learning and development.  He has written 7 books, 3 videotapes and many research articles on how children think and how teachers can help children reflect on their work through drawing, video feedback, and play with objects.  Past president of the Jean Piaget Society, invented The Gravity Wall for children's museums, founder of The School for Constructive Play, and Co-founder of Videatives, Inc. 

Dr. Forman's podcast, episode 8, was about how he became interested in children's thinking.  He mentions having an epiphany while watching a 2 year old walking with a log.  The 2 year old had stopped to see something and placed the log vertically.  When he let go he was surprised and amazed to see the log still standing and not on the floor where he thought it would end up.  Dr. Forman's interests are Piaget, Montessori, and play.  He talks about children learning better through acts and events as opposed to nouns.  Influenced by Reggio Emilia, he discusses teaching children to think about thinking and solving problems at a higher level. 
The Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Center (CHIP) web page gave me some new insights to childhood in other parts of the world.  The research is intended to be a resource for policy-makers, practitioners, and activists who are concerned about childhood poverty.  They highlight important elements of policy change for children in poverty and ways to reach it.  In order to achieve change in childhood poverty you must have:
• positive action at different levels
• positive change in a range of policy areas
• attention to policy implementation as well as content
• effectively using research findings
• targeting key fora and institutions/departments who make and influence policy

I then read a case study on children in rural eastern Mongolia who talk about their lives.  The CHIP Mongolia Team talked to a group of out-of-school children to find out more about their lives and their views.  The group was made of 5 boys and 4 girls between the ages 11 and 15 years.  The majority had now started school recently, either having dropped out previously or never having attended school to start with.  As I read about the children's daily activities it became clear that carrying out their household responsibilities was an important part of their routine. All the children in the group fetch water and firewood and collect dung for fuel.  This is a part of their daily routine and it is very time consuming.  At harvest time, they all collect berries to eat at home with their families.  These children are serving their families as mini adults with household chores and income-generating activities such as collecting aluminium waste for selling, and during harvest time the older boys collect berries for adults who take them to sell.  These children don't have the time nor do their parents have the means for their education.  So sad to read about these children and the trials they face on a daily basis.  They would love to be in school and learn but they are forced to help their families with earning income.  This situation takes place all over the world and needs to be changed.  I do understand that these children are in need of helping their families but they are in dire need of education so that they may break the poverty cycle. 

Resources:
http://depts.washington.edu/isei/
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/
http://childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=casestudy&id=201