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Overcoming Impact of Poverty
December 29, 2010
Before anything else, a place for childhood has to be a great place to live.
-Jim Greenman, educator, designer, author, 1949-2009
-Jim Greenman, educator, designer, author, 1949-2009
However, Espinosa points out that these adverse effects of poverty can be overcome when children have the opportunity to participate in high-quality early childhood programs. Based on research reviewed in her book, Espinosa outlines the characteristics of early childhood settings that best serve children from disadvantaged settings. Here are a few examples...
"Children are respected, nurtured, and challenged. They enjoy close, warm relationships with adults and other children in their classroom. They frequently interact and communicate with peers and adults; they do not spend long periods of time waiting, being ignored, or isolated. Children enjoy and look forward to school."
"Children have ongoing opportunities to learn important skills, knowledge, and dispositions. Classrooms are busy with conversations, projects, experiments, reading, and building activities. These materials and activities are individualized and challenge children's intellectual development."
"Children are able to make meaningful decisions throughout the day. They can choose from a variety of activities and decide what type of products they want to create, engage in important conversations with friends, and exercise their curiosity."
"Children's home language and culture are respected, appreciated, and incorporated into the curriculum and the classroom."
"Children participate in individual, small-group, and large-group activities. They learn important social and self-regulatory skills through adult guidance and appropriate discipline. Not all children are expected to develop at the same rate; individual needs and abilities are accommodated in all learning activities."
Intellectual Emergencies: Some Reflections on Mothering and Teaching is a special contribution to the field by Lilian Katz. She has spent many years conducting workshops for teachers, parents, and students all over the world. During those workshops, she often refers to her son Stephen, and what she has termed the "intellectual emergencies" she experienced during the years he was growing up. Her responses to these "emergencies," the moments when he analyzed her actions and challenged her decisions as a parent and a teacher, are presented in this insightful, witty book.ExchangeEveryDay
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsA Stepping Stone Foundation
Phoenix, AZ, United States
Dear Exchange Every Day,
I forwarded your article (above) to our active supporters, letting them know what you have described is exactly what A Stepping Stone Foundation does in Phoenix, Arizona. We have a small initiative here called "They Talk About It; We Do it!". A Stepping Stone has provided quality early education (preschool M-Th daily during the regular school year), home visiting (on Fridays), adult education (ESL/GED) and parenting classes for more than 20 years. Early Childhood programs for disadvantaged children are becoming increasingly scarce in Arizona in spite of our First Things First Agency created a few years ago--and it is nice to be affirmed such as we were by the article. Thank you!!
Cindy
Cynthia Gattorna, Executive Director
A Stepping Stone Foundation
Educating Two Generations Together for Twenty Years
www.asteppingstone.org
United States
The very most important thing we can do to reduce the negative impact of poverty is to provide children with life skills and a positive sense of personal responsibility. A person is far more able to withstand the normal ebb and flow of economic conditions if their dependence on others for physical sustinance and emotional fulfilment is limited. A person who can grow their own food, raise their own animals, fish or (heaven forbid!) hunt for game will not be hungry. A person who can build their own shelter will not be out in the weather. A person who can recite poetry or sing songs from memory always has comforting words with them. A person who has a deep love of reading can always find enjoyable ways to spend leisure time. A person who can play an instrument will always be able to entertain others. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide lead long, healthy satisfying lives with none of the things Americans hold in high regard.
To limit the effect of poverty, early childhood programs should focus efforts on creating as much personal responsibility in each child as possible. Gardening, carpentry, poetry memorization and musical instrument mastry should be included in every program.
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