Sharing Web Resources (CCW)

The Center for the Child Care Workforce (CCW) has a wealth of information for early childhood educators. Professionally, I want to develop as an advocate for state policies that contribute to the improvement of early childhood education. The CCW provides a link that lists state compensation initiatives for early childhood educators.Some of these initiatives include scholarship programs, apprenticeships, and health initiatives. I was surprised to see that my home state of Missouri participates in many of the initiatives. One initiative that  I would like to advocate for in my state is the mentoring program. A mentoring program would offer experienced early childhood professionals growth, while sharing their knowledge with others. They would also be compensated for participating in the program. New early childhood professionals would benefit from a supportive relationship.

I gained much insight from an article posted on the CCW's website. Heckman's (2011) article, "The Economics of Inequaltiy" points out that high qualtiy education is the equalizer for a lot of children who are a result of low-quality parenting. The economist believes that many children are disadvantaged because single-parents are spending long hours working to provide for their families. As a result, their parenting is not the best to support their child's development. Providing these children with high-quality education will help them develop not only cognitively, but pyschosocially as well. Heckman believes that the economy suffers when children do not learn certain character traits when they are young. These children are likely to grow up not having a good work ethic and impulse control, which would make it hard for them to obtain and keep a job. From this article, I learned that economists are focused on building a strong workforce to secure the future economy. They believe the best way to do this is by providing children with high quality early education because it can correct inequalities from birth (Heckman, 2011).

The most significant insight gained from the CCW website this week is that a quality education includes healthy social/emotional development as well. Many times as educators we focus on cognitive abilities because that is what is measured by state assessments. After viewing the website, I saw many articles reminding me of the importance of a child's mental health. Early childhood professionals must remember that mental health is just as important as physical health and cognitive abilities.

References

The Center for the Child  Care Workforce http://www.ccw.org/

Heckman, J. (2011). The economics of inequality: The value of early childhood education. Retrieved from
http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/spring2011/Heckman.pdf

Supporting Children's Mental Health: Tips for Parents and Educators Retrieved from http://www.nasponline.org/resources/mentalhealth/mhtips.aspx