Issues Related to Excellence and Equity

Something I found interesting in the podcast was when Vasquez was talking about standards and said: "On the downside, it doesn't take account where the children are coming from, and how much do they know before they enter the preschool programs, and how much they have learned. It only tells you what they need to have, but it doesn't take into account the whole child as we are used to in our field" (Laureate Education, 2011). It isn't a new line of thought for many but when you get pushed into the constant worry about where kids need to be in your program, sometimes it falls to the wayside and gets forgotten when trying to help kids reach the standards laid out for us.

I looked into Mexico, wanting to see how they helped with making sure that children aren't starting at a huge disadvantage when they enter into early childhood programs. One of the pilot projects they have is called "Forming Bonds in Adversity". The program helps to coach parents on attachment and affection enhancement and helps them with home visits, video coaching, and even personalized text messages for the parents and caregivers that live in stressful environments out in rural Brazil. It's such a simple step to help children start their lives with a step in the right direction but it's not something that you see often around the world because many think that such steps aren't needed or don't care enough to bother trying to put said steps into action.

Another pilot project they have is the FÁCIL Mosaic Project. It's another at home visiting program but this one teaches parents about "responsive caregiving, playful learning and domestic violence prevention to empower families to create a nurturing home environment" (Harvard, 2021). Again, this is an important aspect of helping families in the early years. Having prevention steps in place can help to make sure that a child isn't being left behind when they reach ECE classrooms because of something that could have been helped to some degree prior to them entering. Domestic violence is a difficult subject to talk about and isn't something that is always avoidable, but having prevention steps and having help for when those situations do crop up can be incredibly helpful.

The last one I looked at was called "Time to Play" which was another home visiting program but this one was centered around play and worked with a largely rural community. Many of the children that are behind when entering early childhood programs are often those from more rural areas in the country they live in. The ones that can't afford to live the high life found in many of the cities. This project wants to help improve the quality of interactions that caregivers and children have by giving them resources that will help them to understand why play is important to a child's development. Play is not something that is often seen as a part of development for kids, especially younger ones that don't have siblings or other children their age to hang around with. Parents that are able to bring play into the lives of their children when they are able is an important step in the direction of prepping kids when moving into ECE programs.

Excellence and equity are things that can be helped and improved upon when people are given the right resources to help them out. When families are left without any outside help, often their children end up missing fundamental parts of development that can make it harder for them to reach standards that teachers need to meet within their classrooms. Hopefully with projects like those in Mexico and in other countries, children can all start life on equal footing even if they come from different backgrounds.

Resources

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Issues and trends in the early childhood field: Excellence and equity of care and education for children and families—Part 1. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Partnerships in Early Childhood: Latin American Innovation Clusters. (2020, November 13). Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/innovation-application/innovation-approach/latin-american-innovation-clusters/