Advocacy In Action

My name is Charlene Montgomery and I was a preschool teacher for twelve years.  I received a promotion with the agency I have worked for since 2004 in August of 2010.  I am currently a parent educator for the same agency and thoroughly enjoy my job.  I advocate for parents everyday by collaborating their success with other members of my team, going to trainings to enhance my facilitators skills and gain updated information on how to provide effective services for the children and families I serve.  I plan the groups using a specified curricula and work hard to help parents understand and learn new ways of communication with others and their children, address stress and anger issues and learn child development and positive discipline strategies.  This job is very challenging and is constantly teaching me new things about myself and pushing me to do more and do better to help decrease instances of child abuse for children.

Reflection

I've learned that there is a breakdown in the cohesiveness of early childhood systems.  There needs to me more people involved who understand the develpment of children.  Another point I learned was that the policies in place do not completely reflect the needs of children and families.   Early childhood systems are important so that children are receiving the care and education they need to succeed in school and in life.  Parents also need to be involved so that they understand how important their involvement is to their child's development and their education.

My goal is still to open my own child development center.  I want children and families to have such a complete educational experience that when they are ready to enter kindergarten parents are able to further advocate for what their child needs, understand how their children learn and be able to articulate what they know is best for their child. 

My Family

My husband and I just found out the my infant daughter will be born with down's syndrome.  This is our first child and my husband's English is not so good yet.  He was born in Nigeria and we've only been married for two years.  The doctors say they will not know the level of her abilities until she is born but gave us some information and options for services.  They told us to expect poor muscle tone, delayed development, speech delays, some distortion in her features such as slanted eyes, small ears, short neck, and a small head.  They say there are therapists who will be able to help us but there are fees.  My husband works two jobs and I work part time as a waitress so I do not have any benefits, but through my husband's jobs we manage to make ends meet and have a small savings.  I'm not sure where to go for childcare once the baby is born because we need all the money we can get for therapists and services for our child.  I don't think we can afford for me to be a stay at home mom right now.  I was planning on starting school once the baby was in childcare but now I'm not sure I can do that now with all of the financial obligations we will have.  We will need to have early intervention services available through an agency in our state.  From what we have gathered, we will need speech therapists, physical therapists and will work will physicians for any health concerns.  She may have a low resistance to infection and a possible heart defect.  We have more options than we first knew of and have to take them all into consideration for the best outcome for our child.

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

One of the strategies that I saw being utilized was the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems also known as the QRIS.  This works towards improving the quality of our early education systems as a whole.  It focuses on improving and supporting the development of children.  The QRIS seeks to emcompass all facets of early childhood edcucation including assessments and monitoring, providing easy consumer understanding of quality eduation settings, aligning program and professional standards, and professional and program supports.  By developing a more comprehensive system for early care programs, this will ensure programs are providing the quality of services they are designed for.  Monitoring all these aspects of early education can give childrne and families that type of services they need in order for their children to be successful in school. 

There is a significant gap in how parents understand quality care and quality care programs.  By providing a more cohesive system of monitoring quality programs, teachers will have the appropriate qualifications and the type of support they need to continue providing high quality educational expriences.  Programs will maintain a level of quality the will ensure families have continuous positive eduacational experiences. 

Parent, Family and Community Engagement

Hearing the parents' stories helped me to really see the value in what I do and how much people believe in early education.  It has become even more important for me to understand and learn how I can inspire parents to advocate for themselves and their children.  Personally, I felt very inspired by how these parents really took advantage of their experiences and turned them into success stories.  It made me want to inspire my own success stories.  Professionally, I was again inspired to continue on my path of completing the Master's program and opening my own child development facility. 

The value of hearing such stories are priceless.  These stories really attest to how head start can achieve what it set out to achieve.  Costing less money in the end for the economy.  These parents accounted how they benefitted from the program and how their children benefited from the program.  How they ended up furthering their education and inspiring their children to do the same.  Policymakers, government officials and even early childhood professinals need to know how Head Start can impact lives, save the economy money, and break the cycle of poverty  when they are provided with the necessary tools, training and opportunities to touch lives.

Quality Program for All Children

At the beginning of the recession, I began watching the news on bated breath as so many educational programs were being eliminated.  Working in the field of early childhood, it seems that this is one of the first areas to be cut because our children families are not seen as important.  Many feel that  a young child's education does not matter until they enter Kindergarten and we begin paying thousands of tax dollars for children to be in special education classes and receive other services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy and even physical therapy.  People do not take into account the research that has been done proving the value of quality early education in our society.  Many seem to be under the mistaken  impression that all children can just "catch up" to others that can afford quality early education when this is not the case.

Within the next five years, I expect that people will see the effects that closing down PreK programs and other early educational programs and begin trying to find solutions for those children who were directly effected by these closings.  The idea of universal preschool will have caught on and policies will be put into place to make this happen.  Programs such as head start and early head start will be able to meet the needs of the community they serve by being able to include all children who qualify and their families will also receive the wrap around support needed to help themselves as well as their children.  Preschools will be governed by standards that all teachers have an educational background to support child development and inclusive education in the classroom. 

Young children and families will benefit greatly from these services because all children will have a chance to begin school on the same level with the same experiences as middle and upper class counterparts.  These valuable experiences expose children to a variety of educational and developmental issues that will help them become successful in school as well as in life.  The field of early childhood will be able to provide services and care for all children needing those early educational experiences.  Universal preschool, head start, early head start and special education services will provide inclusive education so that by the time children reach school age, they will already have the support in place they need, and extensive services will not be required.

What Resonates with me about Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy

1.  I chose this specialization because I realized that I am passionate and dedicated to children and families.  I realized many years ago that there are many families that do not know their rights or options when it comes to their children's early education.  I hope to open my own child development center and give families the tools they need and experiences that they will carry with them throughout their child's edcuational experience.  I want them to take with them a lifelong experience that they'll pass on to their children so that their children can continue to pass it own.  Public policies play a major role in how children from poverty stricken families are served and families need to be involved in how these policies will affect them and their children.

2.  Becoming an advocated in the field of early childhood is essential because there is a need for people to intervene when it comes to how our children are receiving their education before they enter school.  They need teachers who understand the importance of early education and how to provide valuable edcuational experiences for not only young children but their families as well.  Many people do not understand that families also need to be involved in their child's educational experience in oder for it to be effective and meaningful to children.  Advocating for positive educators who understand and are willing to implement strategies that are effective for families.

3.  One goal I have is to learn policies that will help me to effectively support to children and families with special needs and who are poverty stricken.
Another goal is to become a more effective advocate for this issues that parents face when trying to obtain a better education for their young children.
A third goal would be to advocate and provide community based support for those children who are poverty stricken but may not be in childcare and  still need to have the skills necessary to succeed when they enter Kindergarten.