Words of Inspiration and Motivation

When I taught at Carden Heights elementary school, teachers were encouraged to write weekly quotes on the blackboard to engage children in reflection and discussion. Periodically throughout the year, a student in the classroom would refer to a particular quote, giving life to the powerful words.

Here are two quotes from two major contributors to the field of early childhood.

First, thoughts from Marian Wright Edelman, president of Children’s Defense Fund:

"The outside world told black kids when I was growing up that we weren't worth anything. But   our parents said it wasn't so, and our churches and our schoolteachers said it wasn't so. They believed in us, and we, therefore, believed in ourselves."

Keywords: “Parents, churches, schoolteachers believed in us” Believing in a child is the first brick to build their foundation.

"You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation."

Keywords: “enough committed fleas” As one expects to be a superhero; one misses the point and ends up doing nothing. Marian Wright Edelman’s words emphasize that there is no small effort and that, in fact, any change starts at the individual level.

References:

African American Quotes. http://africanamericanquotes.org/index.html)

Second, quotes from President Clinton, major contributor to Head Start:

"I've been struck by the upside-down priorities of the juvenile justice system. We are willing to spend the least amount of money to keep a kid at home, more to put him in a foster home and the most to institutionalize him."

An incredible amount of money is spent on fixing society: it makes more sense to extend a hand when it is needed, and multiply preventive programs that help youth grow with dignity.

The following is a short compilation of President Clinton’s thoughts:

"The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people."

"Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all."

"There is nothing more precious to a parent than a child, and nothing more important to our future than the safety of all our children."

"Everybody counts, everybody deserves a chance, everybody has a responsible role to play and we all do better when we work together."

"By lifting the weakest, poorest among us, we lift the rest of us as well."

"The inability to get health care because people lack insurance, kills, less traumatically, and less   visibly than terrorism, but the result is the same. And poor housing and poor education and low wages kills the spirit and the capacity and the quality of life that all of us deserve."

I chose these quotes because they address concerns and goals set by organizations that help children and families. Presidents’ words weigh a lot and may have more impact in the resolution of childhood and families’ issues. I am thankful for Presidents who believe they are part of the whole and who think that “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

References:

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/mental_illness_is_nothing_to_be_ashamed_of-but/337019.html

Finally, here is an excerpt from a conversation between interviewer David Boulton, “co-producer and creator of Children of the Code, a learning-activist and technologist”, and Arthur Rolnick, “senior vice president and director of research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and an associate economist with the Federal Open Market Committee” (Children of the Code), and major contributor for Public Early Childhood Education and advocate for universal preschool movement (Walden):

               

 David Boulton: Excellent. Do you have any sense of what we're investing in birth to five?

 Arthur Rolnick: In pre-K, I don't. You know, the big investment, of course, is Head Start and Head Start averages about $8,000, per kid, per year. There is no funding for about forty percent of the kids who are eligible for Head Start. Eight thousand dollars per kid, we estimate, based on the studies of high-quality early education is about twenty-five to fifty percent below what it should be to get the kind of quality we need on average. So, it's way underfunded from a research perspective. It's focused on at-risk children, and there are some very good Head Start programs. But on average, Head Start is not getting the returns because the Head Start program is not well funded and it is not embedded in the type of market environment that we're suggesting with scholarships and mentors for at-risk parents.

                …

 Your original question was: How did I get involved in the economics of ECD? The answer is through the back door, looking at economic development and realizing that most of the economic development that is publicly funded in this country is counterproductive, that is, it is over funded. However, there is an area in which we're under funding, and it's ECD birth to five. And ECD should be viewed not just as education, but as economic development.

Thanks to this week’s assignment, I discovered “Children of the Code” whose mission is to make progress in the understanding of the whole child:

"The Children of the Code is an entertaining educational journey into the challenges our children's brains face when learning to read. The series weaves together archeology, history, linguistics, developmental neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, information theory, reading theory, learning theory, and the personal and social dimensions of illiteracy. "

References:

Arthur Rolnick. The Best Investment We Can Make.ChildrenCode

http://www.childrenofthecode.org/interviews/rolnick.htm

Personal Childhood Web

At the center of my childhood web is my mother “ma maman.” My feelings for maman were so strong; I can now say that I was in love with her and felt an excruciating pain when I was away from home, from her. Finally, at the age of fourteen, I overcame this feeling as if I had symbolically and secretly celebrated a Bat mitzvah propelling me into the adult world. Of her three daughters, she could see herself in me because I had her features and looked Spanish. Perhaps, as my second sister observed, the third child was still not a boy and carried exotic traits that were not well accepted then. Perhaps, times were confusing with my father and my mother’s feelings were passed on to me. My mother started to put on weight after my birth and I was and continued to be a “plump” baby and child.  Somehow, through this childhood snippet I am trying to explain the deep relationship with my mother. Identity is a very complex thing! My mother is the positive pole in my life; she encouraged my endeavors, sometimes against my father’s wish, because she understood my need to grow into a happy and fulfilled young woman. In other words, she gave me the understanding of what is unconditional love.  I was nineteen when she died and she had been sick for five years. It took me a long time to “recover” and to allow myself to be a mother, a spouse and a woman. My mother taught me that here is no such thing as too much love. This helped me raise my daughter. Even though she never knew her grandmother, the stories she heard about her have made her grandmother an intrinsic part of her life. I am sure the pain I felt impacted my daughter when she was a child.

I remember looking up to my father, loving my father, trusting my father, but I did not really know him. On her death bed, my mother asked me to take care of my dad. I am sure she meant while she was sick but it became a mission I set forth on. On one of her last days, half conscious, she remembered the day when my father returned from Austria after WWII; for the first time I understood the deep love that was binding my parents. This event that I was the only witness to, helped me remain at my father’s side when things got rough for him. In those years, a wonderful man fully unfolded and I could explain why without knowing my father, I had these feelings when I was a child. My father taught me to take what people say with a grain of salt, to be cautious with whom you share your trust, and that leading a simple life being true to oneself brought a lot of happiness. In later years, my father proved his unconditional love for his daughters, never taking sides, and showing great tolerance. This helped me raise my daughter. Her grandfather is a pillar in her life. In honor of him, she had a tattoo reproduced that my father had tattooed on him during WWII honoring my mother. 

My oldest sister played several roles in my childhood. After babysitting a few years, my mother started to work outside the home. She also worked on Saturday mornings when I had school. My sister stepped in as my surrogate mother, helping me when I was seven or eight to get ready for school, making sure my scarf was protecting my ears and that only eyes, nose and mouth were allowed to show in the winter mornings. Later on, I loved it when she took me on outings with her friends because they made a point to make me feel special, a feeling that I was craving for. As well, my sister knew my parents would be more inclined to say yes to her if she took her baby sister with her; but what I received in return was more important than the possibility of having been used.  From these memories, my sister and I have developed a very solid relationship, fully accepting of one another, where no questions are asked, respecting the woman we have become and are becoming. Of course, we are very different from each other, and the link between us has been tested many times and has made our bond stronger. 

My middle sister has a difficult position when a princess was born five years before and a competitor three years after. Just a little older than me, we shared play time; the only downside was that she had the upper hand. She was the merchant when I was the customer, the school teacher when and I the pupil, and her husband had a high ranking job when mine was a garbage collector.  This describes our relationship as I recall and as she also recalls and makes amends to. The best time I had with her as a child was during adolescence where, at the dawn of womanhood, some kind of collusion bound us, of secret understanding that, to this day, is alive. In retrospect, she taught me the real world, the healthy world of growing up with parents and sisters with whom it is okay and necessary to disagree. I looked up to my middle sister and wanted to attend the same schools. Although seemingly having the upper hand, she looked up to me too, encouraged my undertakings, and helped me more than once especially when I had my first boyfriend that secretly she wanted to have but did not allow herself to show. It took me a long time to understand that she speaks her mind with assurance but she can quickly change her mind. This quality took me aback many times because I stand on the opposite side of the spectrum. Above all, my middle sister speaks the truth in the moment and she is my connection to the world.

Another important person in my childhood is my aunt Lily, my mother’s older sister. As children, there were things we were not aware of. Her husband, whom we thought was very mean at times, had undergone some horrific treatment during the Second World War. Lily stood by her husband’s side throughout her life without ever complaining that she was childless. We were her children! Every Christmas, we were so excited because we knew that beautiful gifts were awaiting us there. Lily always showed great love to the three of us and we intuitively knew that she loved us like a mother.   She is the only one in the family who supported me the best she could. Aunt Lily was my daughter’s grandmother and for four years gave my daughter unconditional love. She is part of many conversations where we reminisce the past and when we need support to deal with the present. We miss her very much!

More About a Quote

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat . . . We must find each other.” Mother Teresa

            Our foster son, who has been with us four years, is still exhibiting reactive attachment behaviors due to his abusive and very unstable environment of relationships. Before entering the social welfare system at age 6, he often wandered the streets, foraging for food. He has been able to overcome this trauma. However, maltreatment and lack of love in his early childhood may be insurmountable feelings to heal. When he joined the ranks of foster children, our son was placed in foster families that had not received specific trainings in the handling of traumatized children. Our son bounced from one family to another until his “luck” turned out and he was placed in an intensive treatment foster care agency which specialized in turning around extreme behaviors. Not unlike the story in the movie “Nikita” where Nikita is saved from death by someone who believed in her potential and by showing her love to her, in turn allowing her to fall in love with a “normal” man, and find the unearthly strength to come back to life; this agency saves children from doom. Love prevails!

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes and my foster son

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes is my favorite children's book.

It invites young children to a magical journey through life. The readers discover extravagant characters through whom they can explore their wild side. The stories also develop a love for language: sounds, syntax, semantic, music and rhythm. Every child can learn a rhyme and the rhyme will help with help children with the acquisition of a new or native language.

I wish that my foster son had been exposed to many more sessions with this book because he would have developed language in a more sophisticated way, and would have access to a much broader vocabulary.

Hello Beautiful Women, Happy Mother’s Day

Here are two of my favorite quotes about children:

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat . . . We must find each other.”

Mother Teresa

The key word in this quote is LOVE!

“ …the experiences and illuminations of childhood and early youth become in later life the types, standards and patterns of all subsequent knowledge and experience, or as it were, the categories according to which all later things are classified—not always consciously, however. And so it is that in our childhood years the foundation is laid of our later view of the world, and there with as well of its superficiality or depth: it will be in later years unfolded and fulfilled, not essentially changed.”

 Joseph Campbell

The key word in this quote is FOUNDATION!

The Soothing Effect of Drawing

I chose this picture from Google Images because it illustrates the power nature has on children, and how it drives them to express their feelings. Probably using a twig found on the ground, the child in the picture, totally absorbed in his art, meticulously traces a straight line, contrasting with previous round shaped lines on the ground.  This picture illustrates how drawing helps the child focus and creates a connection to his secret emotions and thoughts.

Farewell Maurice Sendak!
I remember Where Wild Things Are that children and parents enjoy reading.
When interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air in 2003, Sendak said "I've convinced myself — I hope I'm right — that children despair of you if you don't tell them the truth." It has also been my observation that telling the truth provides the tools to heal.

In this blog, I will respond to questions asked in my assignments, gather classmates’ contributions, and other crucial determining information concerning early childhood education.  

I am excited at the perspective of building this blog. I hope to experience the same feeling I had when I recorded with a camcorder. When I played back the movie, I was surprised by images I did not remember taping, and it always led to questioning.

Welcome to an adventure in early childhood studies