Poverty

I chose to listen to the podcast of Susan Lyon because I have not heard back from the early childhood professionals that I had contacted during the first week of this course. When Susan Lyon first visited Reggio Emilia, Italy she was inspired by the progressive image of children (Kalinowski, 2011). After visiting Reggio, Susan Lyon came back to the States and started the Innovative Teacher Project. This project works to encourage professional development for educators by training them on how to implement the progressive image of the child within the classroom. After developing the Innovative Teacher Project, she then went into a public school system to prove that this type of quality education can work in the public centers.

Even though this podcast was not centered on children living in poverty, it still had some concepts that can be applied to that subject matter. One of the Susan Lyon’s main goals was to find out how children view things and how they understand the world (Kalinowski, 2011). I feel that this is an important concept that educators need to apply to the classroom. If we want to help children who are living in poverty then we need to understand how they view it and others in the world around them. I really enjoyed learning that she wanted to prove that quality education can be conducted within the public centers (Kalinowski, 2011). The majority of children who live in poverty are attending the public centers and public school systems. Studies like this one will help educators to know how they can provide quality education to all students.

I was not able to hear a response back for Susan Lyon regarding child poverty so I research child poverty in India. According to Childhood Poverty (n.d.) about 260.2 million people in India live in poverty. Over half of the children in India are malnourished and about 34 percent of the newborns are born underweight. Unfortunately there are still inequalities for children in India. Girls are more likely to be less taken care off and in some cases neglected. There is also a lower school enrollment for girls then boys due to girls having to work.

I have always had a high interest in the mistreatment of the young girls in India. Due to India’s poverty the girls are forced to experience serve hardships. I would love to be able to go to India one day and apply some of Susan Lyon’s ideas to their school systems. I would enjoy being able to give all children in poverty and equal opportunity to education regardless of sex and race. Reading this information about India helps me to appreciate America. I have a baby girl and it breaks my heart to think that if she were born in India she would not be treated equal due to her sex.  

Reference:

Kalinowski, Michael. (Narrator). (2011, February 10). Susan Lyon [Audio podcast]. Retrieved

            from http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/

Childhood Poverty. (n.d.) Country Overviews. Retrieved from

            http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo

            http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo