Week 5 - ALTERNATIVE

          For this week's assignment, I chose to explore the Harvard's University, "Global Children's Initiative" website.  In the Global Children's Initiative, three different countries were discussed, Brazil, Zambia, and Chile.  In Brazil, there is quite a bit going on in the early childhood field.  The project, Nucleo Ciencia Pela Infancia, is making astounding progress in the field.  Policymakers, civil society leaders, and scholars are all included and working in this project.  I did not so much as get a new insight from this section, rather than a reinforcement of an insight I had already gained.  Brazil is looking at early childhood development at a scientific standpoint.  Using this point of view they have been able to increase the overall interest in the early childhood field.  In Zambia, there is a lack of knowledge of the early childhood development in the Sub-Saharan Africa.  Because of this lack of knowledge, the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) was launched.  The main goal of this project is: "a collaborative effort to measure the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development in Zambia."  One insight that I gained from reading this section was a thankful insight.  I am so thankful that the children in the United States does not have to worry about or struggle with malaria.  I am also thankful that Zambia is working to help the children in Zambia with this struggle.  They deserve a childhood where they can learn and be free to be whomever they want to be without having to worry about malaria (Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, 2012). 
          In Chili, the project Un Buen Comienzo (UBC, "A Good Start"), and the purpose of the project is "to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development."  The project reinforces the importance of including the family in children's education.  Their major focus is education offered to four-to-six year old's particularly in the area of language development.  The insight that was reinforced for myself while reading this section is the importance of including family in the child's education.  When I open my daycare in the future, my goal is to make it family-oriented and hopefully give the children that go there the best beginning they can get (Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, 2012).

References

 





Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University. (2012).  Global Children's Initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/