I grow more and more convinced that there is no such thing as equality when considering things education more specifically education globally. The bold statement above speaks to my belief.
New insight includes:
- Coordinated strategies to support child development can multiply the effects of investments in child survival, health, education, and economic development.
- We need to protect children from significant adversity, in addition to providing them with enriched learning opportunities.
- The early childhood years are critical building blocks for lifelong health, not just school readiness.
- -Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative
From this week I also gathered that when we focus so heavily on academics it is easy to get lost in academics and disregard or forget about the importance of social development.
Hello Haleema,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you often times as early childhood educators we can forget about the social development components of student growth due to the pressures placed on teachers to meet standards. How have you been able to create a balance in between all the developmental domains?
Haleema,
ReplyDeleteThe new insights you shared hit upon some imperative points. Early childhood should offer enriched learning opportunities every day and throughout the day for all children (birth - school-aged). Nurturing the social development in children during the early childhood years build the foundation for school-readiness and life-long skills. The necessary lifetime social and emotional skills developed during the first years and nurtured throughout the school years do affect child-teen-adult survival, health, educational success and the overall societal economics. To encourage this development of these skills, what would you recommend being the process of developing a safe and healthy balance between the academics necessary for school and the social-emotional development necessary for school and life?
Wishing you well,
Donna
I agree with you when it comes to placing more importance on academics than on social development. I think that social skills help with various aspects in children's lives and shapes the type of person they will later become. What are your views on why social development is important in the lives of children?
ReplyDeleteHi Haleema,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts on your blog. I have to agree with you that it is easy to forget social development when the focus is only on academics. Thank you for that reminder because it is true sometimes we just want to focus on children’s education and their learning, but we leave their social development which is such an important component for their success.