Education Efforts Worldwide

Education is my passion. I believe that everyone deserves an education. The sad thing is that not all children around the world receive the opportunities that children in the United States receive. I thought this would be a good time to talk about just how important education is and how greatly we take it for granted. These are some of my favorite organizations working to give children in other countries less fortune than ours a better life. That opportunity for a better life almost always starts with education.

First, The Central Asia Institute. The CAI's mission is to promote and support community-based education in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Greg Mortenson is the Director of the CAI. He is also the author of the book Three Cups of Tea, which happens to be Auburn University's common book for the year. Mortenson promised the people in Pakistan that he would one day come back and built them a school and he did just that. The CAI goes into these remote areas and builds schools. The surrounding community provides the land and the labor for these schools. In these areas, over 120 million children aren't in school. These children so dearly want to go to school. Since the CAI was established it has built 131 schools that serve more than 58,000 students. You can learn more about this organization at www.ikat.org.

An organization that is part of the CAI is Pennies for Peace. Pennies for Peace allows children in elementary schools to collect pennies in order to fund these schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is designed to educate children about the world and show them that they can make a positive impact with just a single penny. It was the idea of an elementary school boy in Wisconsin. Since it was established, Pennies for Peace has collected over 140 million pennies in over 4,000 schools all over the world. You can learn more about Pennies for Peace at www.penniesforpeace.org.

The Girl Effect is another organization that promotes education specifically for girls. The easiest way to change an entire community is to educate young girls. And by change an entire community I mean.. ending poverty, slowing population growth, reducing the spread of HIV and AIDS, and increasing education. Yeah, it all starts with a girl. Girls who are educated marry later, have fewer children, and invest in her community. There is a quote that says "If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. Educate a girl and you educate a community." You can find out more about The Girl Effect at www.girleffect.org or check out this fact sheet.

Education is so important for helping these communities. Education can bring peace to these countries and help them escape poverty. These children would risk their lives to go to school and we take it for granted so much of the time. I think it's very important that we teach our students about organizations like these and about those children in other parts of the world who don't get the same opportunities that we do. We need to show or students how fortunate they are and how they can make a difference in the world and in these other children's lives.



Video used with permission from www.girleffect.org.

Teaching Students About Diversity

With the continually increasing amount of technology available to students, bullying is becoming a bigger problem in schools. Not only do students tease their classmates on the playground, but they now have a wide assortment of social networking websites to utilize. Cyber bullying has been the cause of many teenage suicides recently and schools are starting to fight back.


Diversity is a growing concern in schools today and educators need to find a way to help students be more accepting of others who may be different than them. As mentioned in the New York Times article, "At A Long Island Middle School, A Course in What Unites and Divides", a middle school in New York is now offering a class about diversity to seventh and eighth grade students. These students are learning about false stereotypes, discrimination against others and how to overcome these differences.

I think that classes like this could really help cut down on the bullying and teasing that students participate in today. Programs like this give students a chance to talk about tough issues and share experiences and thoughts with each other and gives them a chance to better get to know their classmates. I believe that the first step to getting students to respect one another is getting them to care for one another. Sharing with each other is a great way for students to get to know their classmates and once they realize they aren't alone in their differences and that being yourself isn't so bad, these kids will learn to care about one another.

The government is also taking notice. Government officials recently met to create new guidelines for schools and administrators on how to deal with discrimination and bullying in schools. In the article from CNN, "Government Warns Schools That Bullying Can Violate Civil Rights Laws," Cohen writes that "if school administrators fail to properly deal with harassment ... they risk being cited for contributing to a pattern of civil rights violations that could, in extreme cases, lead to a cut in federal funding."

I'm glad that the government has paid some attention to this issue and is making an effort to fix it but taking away federal funding may be a little harsh. A lot of times it's hard for educators to see that bullying is going on in the school especially now that most of it takes place online and not on school property. Instead of being on the lookout for these kinds of behaviors we need to be preventing them. That's why classes like the one I talked about earlier are so important. We have to teach our children that these actions are not ok before they start treating each other this way.



Beth Iseminger. May 29, 2010. Faces in the Flag. Retrieved on October 24, 2010 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/gardenbeth/4673663972/in/photostream/.

Troubled Children Get Left Behind

It's no secret that kids can get themselves into trouble. And that some kids get themselves into a little more trouble than others. Most schools these day have "zero-tolerance" policies, which pretty much means one strike and you're out. These policies are usually aimed at keeping violence, drugs, and weapons out of schools. Don't get me wrong, that's a great thing, but these policies sometimes are a little extreme and hardly ever take into account everything contributing to the situation. Severe punishment does not always mean violence or other bad behaviors will stop.

In the recent article from The New York Times, Ruling Limits State's Power in School Suspensions, a case is discussed that has changed the administration's rights when it comes to punishing students. In this case, two girls who were fighting at school were suspended and denied access to alternative schooling and tutoring at their home. Due to this case, administrators must now justify their decisions to deprive a student of alternative schooling during suspension.

Do I feel that this is a move in the right direction? Yes. Do I feel that we are there yet? No. I believe that no child should be denied access to alternative schooling no matter whether the administration can come up some reason to justify it or not. Instead, I feel that we need a push for more programs that try to understand why these students are getting into trouble. Kids don't fight just for the fun of it. There are reasons behind their behavior. But instead of trying to help them express their anger and frustration in healthier ways, we severely punish them without taking into consideration why they have acted the way that they have.

An even bigger problem with this is how the children who do get into trouble are deprived the education they deserve. Especially in cases like this, children who cause trouble in schools aren't allowed to get the help they need in order to finish their school work. Have we even considered what this does to a child? Maybe the student in trouble is acting out in order to show his frustration with the difficulties he is already having with his school work. If he or she doesn't have the skills to communicate the problems they are having, acting out may be their cry for help. So, instead of listening to and helping this child, we punish them by putting them even further behind their classmates. I think this an issue that really needs to be looked at in order to find a better solution to helping troubled students succeed.


Colleen Bernard. October 3, 2007. Detention. Retrieved on October 10, 2010 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/binkley27/1486633989/in/photostream/.

No More Picture Books?

Are our kids growing up too fast? This is the question I asked myself after reading the New York Times article "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children." The article reports on how unpopular picture books are becoming these days. Bookstores are having trouble selling picture books and publishers are not publishing as many as they used to. Part of this is because of the economy, but mostly it is due to the fact that parents are pushing longer chapter books on their children at younger ages. Parents think forcing their children to give up simple picture books and making them read long chapter books will make them better readers.

As an early childhood education major, I believe that it is important for children to become good readers as soon as possible. But I also believe that to make sure that children continue to read throughout their lives, they must actually enjoy reading. A good picture book can engage children on so many more levels than a poorly written chapter book can. When did creativity, imagination, and thinking become things that we don't teach anymore? Children need to learn to use their brains for exploration just as much as they need to use them to learn to read. I believe that picture books have the ability to teach kids both knowledge and the creativity they need to learn.

In fact, as a teacher, I plan on using wordless picture books a lot in my classroom. Yes, really. I love wordless picture books. They actually let children use their imagination. I believe that reading and writing go hand in hand and picture books are a great way to get kids brains working on writing. The lack of words and abundance of colorful pictures allows children to write their own stories of what the pictures mean to them. Children need a good balance of reading and writing skills. And reading long chapter books with unfamiliar words isn’t the only way to teach vocabulary. Ask a student to write a story and hand them a thesaurus. Let the child be creative.

Really, this all comes down to the fact that we push our kids forward; we want more for them. And then, one day we wake up and its their first day of high school and we wonder where all the time went. Kids like colors, and pictures, and funny stories. They like to use their imaginations and make up stories. Let's not put a limit on their creativity. Let's teach them. But let's let them have a little fun in the process.



John Morgan. May 14, 2009. Reading is Fun. Retrieved on October 8, 2010 from http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/3537327425/.

Singapore Math

Most students in the United States are failing at basic math. Maybe that's because we are teaching it all wrong. The New York Times article, "Singapore Math Adopted in More US Schools", talks about a method of teaching math that some schools across the country are now using. This teaching method called Singapore Math is based off the national math system in Singapore. Students in Singapore continually rank at the top on international math exams. Singapore Math teaches concepts at a much slower pace than we are used to. Students could spend an entire week on just the number 1! But the slow pace allows children to get a deeper understanding of math concepts and will help them master more difficult math much faster, saving time in the future.

So why aren't we already using these teaching methods? Money. Singapore Math can be expensive. With the costs of textbooks, new work books every year, and training teachers. One school district spent over $150,000 on textbooks and training materials. Training teachers seems to be somewhat of a chore, as well. Since most teacher's don't have a strong background and understanding of math, it becomes hard to train them to teach it this way.

So.. it's not a sure fix. But is a little money and extra effort from teacher's too much to ask for when we are talking about our children's futures?



Blumik. November 25, 2007. Calculator. Retrieved on October 2, 2010 from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/910922.

Self-Determination Is Key

Self-determination is using your skills, knowledge, and understanding of your strengths and weaknesses to make and meet personal goals. Individuals with self-determination have the ability to control their lives and become successful in their goals. It is important for students with disabilities to learn skills like goal setting, problem solving and decision making in order to be more self-determined. When students with disabilities show self-determination they can take on more control and responsibilities in their lives. Being able to make some decisions about their own lives, gives these students more self-esteem and self-worth. Like my parents did, it’s important to demonstrate these skills in order to teach students with disabilities how to take responsibility for making decisions.


In another class I learned exactly what self-determination is and how important it is for us as educators to teach students with disabilities the skills they need to become more self-determined. I learned that students with disabilities just want to be seen as another human being and that allowing them to make decisions and set goals for themselves gives them more self-esteem and more courage to go after better things. Students with disabilities who are more self-determined are more likely to get higher paying jobs with health benefits than other students with disabilities who aren’t self-determined. This information makes it very important that we teach students how to set personal goals, advocate for themselves, and create plans to achieve their goals. When students with disabilities use these skills, people and society as a whole will look at them differently.



Stephen Eastop. June 2, 2010. 8 Hands. Retrieved on September 15, 2010 from http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1285842.