I found two people who were motivated to advocating for young children by being parents of young children and seeing the pervasive needs of early childhood education, how it:” …benefits children for a lifetime and strengthens the community today and tomorrow (Sherer & Norton, 2006).
According to Sherer & Norton (2006) interview with Brian Spicker and Robin Roberts:” …public policy decisions made at the community and state levels affects infants, toddlers, and their families as much, or sometimes more so than those at the federal level”. Which means people who are advocate leaders have a great impact on the future of young children education.
Brian Spicker is not an educator, he has a bachelor’s in business, and Robin Roberts use to be a Parent as Teacher (PAT) educator, now both are advocates one a state level, and the other community level (Sherer& Norton,2006). Being an advocate for early childhood is a calling, no matter the profession, something that makes a person care enough to fight for children.
Both people worked and volunteered in different capacities as they fought, lead, and advocated for early childhood (Sherer & Norton,2006). Some ingredients they both shared were “passion”, “commitment”, “relationships” and the determination to stand up (Sherer & Norton,2006).
Spicker strategies to increase early childhood was by:” …mobilizing the caring power of the community (Sherer & Norton,2006). And Roberts worked herself into a position on the state advisory board where she can:” …secure and maintain funding for state-level advocacy work” (Sherer & Norton,2006). Robert’s other strategy was distributing information, she used workshops to help parent educators understand advocacy, how it works, and the public policy mechanism (Sherer& Norton,2006). Roberts’s challenge is to get others with no experience to be advocates, and Spicker challenge is getting people to recognize the importance of early childhood (Sherer & Norton,20016).
The part that appeals to me is the challenge of the community leader; sharing information that opens minds in the community how essential is early childhood. Spicker’s advice is to:’…take on a leadership role….be an inclusive convener and facilitator” (Sherer & Norton, 2006). Because I think the more people know the more, they will care about early childhood education, and it will become a concern for us all, and all will fight for the rights of the young children.
Reference
Sherer, A. & Norton, Y. (21 August 2006). Advocacy strategies to improve outcomes for
very young children: Interviews with leaders at the state and community level.
Zero to Three Early Connections Lasts a Lifetime, Advocacy Strategies to Improve
Outcomes for Young Children. Retrieved from
outcomes-for-young-children
No comments:
Post a Comment