Getting To Know Your International Contacts-Part 2

These are the exact words of my conversation partner, Gem Munro in Bangladesh. I wanted to share his exact words as our communications are sporadic due to where he is at the moment. He emailed this to me just a few days ago. This may not speak to typical early childhood education or the typical education system at all but it does address creating an equitable situation for families in the poorest slums of Bangladesh and how one man is making a huge difference in the lives of children and families. He is making schooling possible where it would ordinarily be impossible as these families are too poor to attend school. This is equity. This is making a change to better children and families. This is affecting positive social change for the betterment of a society.

Please excuse my delay in answering your last email; travel in Bangladesh is quite hazardous these days, and I've been stuck in locations where internet access can be difficult.

As you are familiar with the work of Amarok Society, it won't come as a surprise to you that we don't treat our "clients'" poverty as their core problem. We regard ignorance as their core problem. It may seem a bit of a chicken-or-egg question, and it's true that poverty has been an impediment to them gaining the education they need, but the conditions that trap them in poverty are all products of ignorance: lives of disorder, filth and disease, lack of valuable abilities, over-reproduction, underdeveloped powers of thought, crippling customs such as early marriage and household slavery (for girls and women), mistaken expediencies such as child labour, pessimistic fatalism and the inability to envision anything better. Providing the mothers of our slums with education (primarily for the purpose of them, in turn, educating the children of their slums) creates the conditions permitting them to climb out of their poverty. Their lives become ordered and purposeful, health improves, they develop self-confidence and optimism, a sense of independence and individuality, and their view of what is possible in their lives widens. They undertake initiatives they wouldn’t have before, including business ventures. Their (much smaller) families, of course, enjoy these benefits, too. Husbands’ views of their own capabilities heighten, and their (many fewer) children become ambitious where futures were never considered before, and their ambitions are realistic, as they include a commitment to further education.

It’s a fact that the higher a person’s education, the higher her expectations for her life, and the greater her willingness and determination to fulfil those expectations herself. We didn’t create our programme in order to improve the financial condition of the mothers we teach, but we anticipated that as a secondary benefit, and that has been the case. We have plenty of reason to believe, at the ten-year mark of our endeavours, that the children our mothers teach will achieve a dramatic improvement in their financial situation (Munro, G. personal email communication, February, 3, 2015).”

My other conversation partner is Michael Hibblen. He is the principal of the American School of Milan. We had a Skype meeting this week. His school begins in early childhood. His school of early childhood starts with 3 year olds. The preschool sounds very much like my own school right here in Orlando, Florida. He was not able to speak much about issues and trends outside of his school. He did say that a typical Italian school has not changed much. They are very traditional. You will find a teacher in front of the classroom lecturing. The children will be completing many worksheets. He called it “drill and kill”. He said that each subject has a textbook and the children fill in the blanks. He said it hasn’t changed much since the 1960’s. Testing is done in the eighth grade and then again at the end of high school. The test results determine if you are able to attend college or university.

I asked him about standards in his school as far as his schools accreditation. ASM is accredited by the Middle States Association. They come in to reaccredit every five years. I questioned him about standards for his teachers and their level of education. All of his teachers have a Bachelors Degree and at least two years experience when they are hired. No further training or continuing education is required. Teachers do not move around once you are hired that is your classroom for the entire time you work at the school.

I asked him about equitability at his school. He told me that there is none. His school is private and costs a lot to attend.

I asked him about children with special needs that need support. He told me that they can only handle minor issues of children with varying needs. They only offer recommendations and the families can only get support outside of the school. If there are bigger issues, the child and family are asked to exit the school. They are not tied to any state or county laws.

The school is a full English emersion school. There are 52 nationalities represented mostly Korean, Italian and Saudi Arabian.

He described an early childhood classroom. The classroom is divided into clearly defined learning and play centers. There is a Dramatic Play, Library, Math and Manipulative, Art, and Carpet area. The children are given time each day for free exploration and discovery in each center. The teachers set up learning experiences in each center to promote and scaffold experiences to enhance learning in all domains.

When I asked him about excellence, he told me that everyone wants to be excellent. They determine excellence by looking for evidence and proof. They are constantly collected data on the children related mostly to literacy and reading. The data offers students learning proof. In the early learning school, assessment is done three times per school year (fall, winter and spring). In the first and second grade only reading is assessed. Informal assessment on whether they can count one to ten, letters and sounds recognition. They do have a social and emotional curriculum and assess social and emotional development. They have music once a week, PE twice a week in a gym, art, library and free outdoor play 30 minutes per day (Hibblen, M. personal Skype communication, February 4, 2015).

Inside of his school, I feel as though there is a balance between issues of standards and readiness. Yes, they are concerned with meeting standards for literacy but from our conversation, I feel as though they are interested in developmentally appropriate practice. The disparities I see are with children with varying needs. They are not responsive to working with anything other than typically developing children.