Parent, Family and Community Engagment

As I was watching the video clips I felt relieved. All I hear now a days about Head Start is that it is just a free day care. After watching all these videos it made my professional thoughts feel so much better. It is always good to hear people talk good about Head Start. It makes me feel so much better to know I am really making a difference in these families lives. 

When we get parents involve they feel like the belong. It is important for them to be involved because what we teach the children the parents can continue at home and in the summer. That way their child is receiving services all year long. 

I feel if more people watched these videos they were better understand Head Start. I think the government officials should watch these. That way they can see true testimony and maybe put more money towards it. 

Quality Programs for all children

Early Childhood is a great debate I believe in the United States. Many people I feel do not know the importance of early childhood services especially preschool. I feel like many people feel that preschool is just a day care. I have received comments many times on when am I going to go to school to become a teacher. I tell them I am and then they say no a real teacher. People do not realize that that is degrading and wrong to say but that is just the view of the public. 

I feel that only a handful of people look for a quality early childhood program. I feel like most parents just put their child in a program that is close to their home. They do not look into the program to see if it is the best. When something happens that is when they complain. 

I feel like funding is a huge issue because people do not feel that early childhood should be given money but then they are also upset when the cost is to high for them. Leaving many of the children in the care of relatives. I feel like relatives are a great source of care but children also need the social side of the child care experience. 

The reason I feel all of the above is just listening to parents and people in the community. 

What resonates with me about early childhood public policy and advocacy.

We are finally at the point in our journey that we are in our specialization courses. We only have three more courses to take and then we are Graduate Students. For my degree I have chosen to go in the specialization of Public Policy and Advocacy. The reason I have chosen this path is because of what I want to do with my degree. I would love to work for the Department of Education to make education better for everyone. I would also like to help stop child abuse and get signs out to all teachers out there. With that being said that is what I chose Public Policy and Advocacy because those jobs relate directly to the degree.  

Everyone can be an advocate but only a few have the passion for it. I want to advocate for the children and families that are not able to advocate for themselves. Advocate are so important because they are the ones that can change something bad in to good. If you want to be a good advocate you need to know everything about what you are advocating. 

For this specialization it is hard to come up with only three goals. I want to learn as much as possible so I can help change the world. I know I will not do it alone or even change the whole world but if I can change one aspect of anything that is one step closer then we are now. So my goals are going to be broad.

Goal one: To become a better advocate.

Goal two: To learn about all the policy pertaining to education.

Goal three: To teach others about public policy and how to become a better advocate. 

Good luck in your courses we are in the home stretch to graduation.