Advocacy Action Overview

In the “Advocacy Training Guide” in Module 1: What is Advocacy? Sharma(n.d.) explained what it takes to be an advocate, and having people who support your cause, and “making persuasive presentations” are essential. I am an advocate for free early childhood care for America, just as we have public schools for Americans.

I have done some research about universal early childhood care and there are countries who agree, and their results from this service have advanced their countries to believe that all children deserve a head start. According to Mongeau (2010-2018), it is time to rethink how we look at early childhood education. In the article “Time to change how we think about early education, international study finds”, Mongeau (2010-2018) that there are several countries who have changed how they look at universal care; Australia, England, Finland, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore. I am sure you have heard about Finland from me in previous blogs and discussions on how Finland’s educational system puts America to shame. These countries are taking the responsibility of educating their young children, some start at three, and others from infancy (Mongeau, 2010-2018).

I believe that once we have early childhood education available for all children, we can focus more on our profession. Today every child I turn away from our center who cannot afford the tuition is a thorn in my heart.  Because a parent wanted to give their child a head start in a high-quality facility and they were denied, I always wonder what will happen to that family. I know that universal early childhood care will not be problem free, because our public schools are not, nevertheless it will be better than nothing. It will give our children an equal opportunity to have universal free early childhood education. Perhaps, it will also help early childhood educators with fair compensation, because if we value our children ‘s education it is possible to value their teachers.

Please investigate Finland’s educational system, and if you have time to read the article “Time to change how we think about early education”. The more we talk about universal care for early childhood, the more people will be informed and hopefully care.

References

Mongeau, L. (2010-2018). Time to change how we think about early education,   

    international study finds. The Hechinger Report. Retrieved from     https://hechingerreport.org/time-to-change-how-we-think-about-early-education- international-study-finds/

Sharma, R.R. (n.d.). An introduction to advocacy: Training guide.

      Washington, DC: The Academy for Educational Development, SARA Project

       Module 1, “What is Advocacy?”