My Own Capacity

There are two main issues that fuel my passion in the field of early childhood.  One is the quality of care that parents are receiving in early educational settings and the other is access to quality care that children from low socioeconomic backgrounds have.  I feel that my knowledge and experiences throughout my early educational career and my understanding of child development and issues surrounding this gives me more fuel behind my passion.  The fact that I am a continuing learner in that I always want to know more about the issues children and families face and the best ways to serve them also gives me more ways in which to help children and families.  I will use these skills when I open my own child development center to provide high quality care, resources for families such as parenting classes, connections to speech therapists, physical therapists, maybe even job trainings where they can learn a skill to help them become the best they can for their children.  Understanding the challenges that families face and helping them understand how these issues will impact their children is very important.  In order to be more effective in my advocacy efforts, I hope that I can gain a good understanding of how to inform the public about major issues that our young children and families face.  I also would like to learn how I can go about helping set up public policies that will benefit not only children and families but public interests as well. 

My Role as an Advocate

        I started advocating for children and families when I noticed the level of quality that children were receiving varied across the board.  Some teachers really went out of their way to ensure that children received the best early education experiences, others just showed up for the pay check.  The teachers that were more vested in their classroom, children and the curriculum had more knowledge of child development and an understanding of the issues that children and families face.  They were passionate, attentive and wanted to see children get the most out of their experiences.  They knew how to focus on the individual child as well as the classroom as a whole to scaffold learning and assess how and if children were progressing.  This is the type of teacher that I was and I expect no less from those who work in the field.  Knowing the level of differences in the quality that teachers provide, I want to find a way to ensure that teachers understand the needs of the children and families they serve and know how to connect families to the child’s educational experiences. 

                Advocacy can be an extensive process.  It starts with one person who wants to implement change to benefit children and families in their environment.  This can lead to understanding how services can impact children and families in a broader context.  It is important to acknowledge all efforts to improve the quality of services for children and families because not every issue is known to the public.  To be a community leader on early childhood issues, you have to have knowledge of the issues and want to initiate change for children and families.  Having passion and commitment about early childhood issues is also essential.  Becoming educated on the issue, researching the issues and being a part of a community to want to elicit change is what it takes to be a community leader.

                In order to be a state leader on early childhood issues, it takes being elected by the public “to represent the ideas and interests of their communities; therefore the public has the right and the responsibility not only to know their elected officials’ position on pending policy legislation but also to communicate their ideas, therefore influencing the way they are represented” (Kieff, 2009).  Money is the main resource that a state leader needs to advocate for issues in the community and is in a position to pool other resources and work with organizations to bring light to early education concerns.  Helping others understand the importance of these issues by passing on information and having real life situations that people can relate to helps others get involved.  Understanding the concerns of stakeholders and being able to connect the concerns to the appropriate individuals. 

                Building relationships to connect with others who have the same passion and establishing strong open communication with those involved in the advocacy efforts.  It is important that the messages are the same between advocates and so everyone is on the same page and makes the message that much stronger when it is supported by everyone involved!

Personal Advocacy Reflection

I was a preschool teacher for 12 years and a teacher for the agency for which I am currently employed for 5.  After going through some personal life changes, I decided to apply for an adminstrative position with the agency.  To my surprise and delight I got the job.  When I became a family educator, I struggled with delivering the material so that parents were interested and excited about being in my class.  My supervisor pushed me to do more by believing that I had what it takes.  She helped me set personal goals for myself as well as for my work as a facilitator.  She advocated that our children and families deserved that best services that we could deliver and saw how I could use my background as a preschool teacher to help parents understand the roles they play in their children's lives.  She pushed me to be more responsive, more personable and helped me understand how to challenge the parents to do things that are possible for them but also different from what they've been doing.  She helped me see my role in their lives and encouraged me to keep setting goals for myself.  She's encouraged me to take trainings, continue with school and further my career by asking what I want for myself and for the children and families I serve.  She sets examples by her leadership, persistance, and loving nature to see our team grow and excel.  She often says that she has a hard time letting her brain shut down from thinking of how we can best serve our clients, even when she goes home!  I've never had a supervisor who puts so much faith and strength into her staff and believes whole heartedly in giving our families the best of the best.  This has fueled me to keep striving to learn all that I can, be self motivated to bring my own style to my work and become as resourceful to families as I possibly can. 

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.