EDUC 6163 - week 8

As we wrap up the eight weeks of Building Research Competency, I can not help but think of how much my understanding of research has improved, and that I will always be much more critical of any article I read or any quote of research results.

I want to begin by thanking Dr. Parrish for breaking down the course in a very effective and enjoyable way. It was always interesting and informative, but not overwhelming.

The insight that I feel I walk away with is primarily that there is good reliable valid research, and that there is not so good and doubtful research. So the walk away message is to be critical with every research study we encounter. From my previous career in healthcare, I had some idea of how to read research studies and how to analyze their quality, but with the early childhood field there is an added element of qualitative research which is critical for this field. I realize now that methods can be combined and that validity as well as equity are important. I also realize that consent is also applicable to the children in the studies and not just the authorized adult, and that the ethical issues with studying children is more vast and intense than other fields.

I found the chapters on observation and interviews very interesting and practical. In addition, having learnt terms for the different ways we observe or interview and collect data, made me feel more prepared and resourced for conducting research. The same applies to the concept of sampling and choosing participants.

Being a very practical person, with little affinity for the philosophical side of issues, I had a harder time with chapters that explored equity and ethics. I found them very interesting and important, but not high on my personal priority list. This was a good challenge for me, since they are an integral part of research.

Although I realize that early childhood professionals have a vast range of responsibilities and career paths, adding research to that profession has added a dimension to the field in my perspective. In addition, for those of us not conducting research, I realize now that we are obligated to remain informed of the current research findings that influence our daily work.

I want to thank all my classmates for their comments, remarks and questions to my posts; it is always very exciting to read how others interpret my work. I am thankful also for all your hard work and posts which have taught me so much.

Wishing you all luck in future courses and in our precious field of work.

EDUC 6163 - week 5

I chose to explore the research published by the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA). I learnt that EECERA is a non-profit organization "which promotes and disseminates multi-disciplinary research on early childhood and its applications to policy and practice" (EECERA, 2012), and found out that their journal European Early Childhood Education Research Journal (EECERJ) "is issued five times annually and now is in its 22nd year of publication. It has become a world leader in the field" (EECERA, 2012).

In the October 2014 issue which is their 22^nd Volume and 4^th Issue, there were eleven articles available online but not all of them are research articles. One interesting study is titled Feelings towards child–teacher relationships, and emotions about the teacher in kindergarten: effects on learning motivation, competence beliefs and performance in mathematics and literacy. In reading through the abstract I learnt that the study was conducted using interviews with kindergarten children and the variable found to contribute the most to school performance was competence beliefs (Georgia Stephanou, 2014).  When re-reading their title, I felt that although the issue is quite interesting, the author lost me by not using a simple and clear research question, or hypothesis.

Other articles discuss children playing in the wild woods during child care and how the teacher influences that experience, another article reports on a project that assessed children in Australia as to who and what they perceive as safe.

One interesting review article discusses the research methods and participant-researcher relationship as related to Vygotsky's social constructivist approach. I found the abstract difficult to read, although the research seems to be of scholarly quality.

It was very exciting to read the abstract for a study done in Portugal. All the terminology that was in the abstract is now familiar to me due to our course: the study was cross sectional, and quasi-experimental with a sample of 103 children. The study found that families who did enroll in an intervention program, had greater gains in various variables measured for themselves and their children.

Altogether by reviewing the website and the journal published, and because I live in a multicultural city outside the United States, I could not compare the research emphasis to what it would be like in the USA. The topics all seem familiar. The one thing that was obvious to me is that the research approaches and methodology seems to be exactly the same as what we are learning in this course. This tells me that there is an international/global method to conducting research which makes a study of high quality and when published, scholarly, as well as replicable and valid internationally.

References

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA), 2012. http://www.eecera.org/

Stephanou, G. 2014. Feelings towards child–teacher relationships, and emotions about the teacher in kindergarten: effects on learning motivation, competence beliefs and performance in mathematics and literacy. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, Volume 22, Issue 4.

EDUC 6163 - week 3

A potential positive contribution to childhood is related to their health and fitness. I would very much like to study the effects of technology on the health and fitness of children these days. Unfortunately, my belief is that children are leading more sedentary lives these days partly due to technology and their attraction to television, playstations, X-boxes, ipads and so on. One could measure the fitness level of children at a particular age, by using professional athletic trainers to assess them through exercise routines and heart rate measures. Children that spend less than an hour a day on a screen versus those who spent more than one hour a day on screens. The same comparison will take place for the difference between 2 hours of screen time and then 3 hours of screen time. The fitness assessment is the tricky part in this study, as well as keeping all factors similar for the group studied. For example, a child who spends 3 hours a day on a screen but plays 5 hours of sports on the weekend, is likely to be more fit than the child who spends less than 3 hours of screen time but does not exercise at all.

The fitness level that we are assessing is based on the activity of children as a replacement of sedentary screen time. Free active play, such as riding bikes and hide and seek contribute tremendously to fitness and gives children a sense of autonomy and freedom that also contributes to their overall mental health.

I think the benefits to children are tremendous, that if they spent more time playing actively than on a screen, they would benefit in physical and mental health. Perhaps the lesson is mainly for parents who find it easier to leave their children hour after hour sitting in front of a screen rather than actively engaged in play which stimulates the body and mind. Promoting healthier and happier children is certainly beneficial to childhood, as well as the long term effects on those children's futures.

The challenges to such findings is for parents who have no choice, either because they live in neighborhoods that do not allow for free play, or they work long hours and do not have the capacity to take their kids out accordingly.

To end this thought, I did a google scholar search on this topic and found several research articles that address this topic. The screen time was related to obesity, BMI, fitness level and more. My findings tell me that this is a hot topic, but one that has already been studied and may not need much more investigation; however investigating it further in early childhood may be beneficial.

EDUC 6163 - Week 2 - My personal research journey

I am very excited to be exploring a research topic which I am interested in, as an assignment for our course. There are several topics that I am eager to explore, which include: the way we educate boys and how it affects their experience, the unintended consequences of live in hired help in the UAE on children, are the children of pilots and other careers that demand a lot of time away from home similarly at risk to single parent children?

I decided to explore my first interest and I have narrowed it down to "What teaching methods have been researched and/or implemented that take boys' nature into account? and how has that affected the experience for boys and their teachers?"

The 10 -15 children that are of concern to me annually due to behavior or discipline reasons, turn out to be about 90% boys every single year. So a few years ago, I asked myself if it wasn't our expectation that was the problem and if there was something we could do differently for those 10-20% of the boys at the nursery that struggle with following the routine and expectations.
Now I am very excited that I will research this topic, and it coincides with our monthly staff development workshop and a change I am implementing at nursery as a pilot program.

My two children are also boys and I find that the year their school reduced recess, they struggled significantly. Once it was reintroduced, I could feel their concentration improve. I also have a few theories about boys that we see in traditions in tribes and several cultures globally.

The research will be most interesting, and I would be very interested to get any recommendations from my colleagues and classmates.

EDUC 6162 - week 8

I am a big fan of international experiences, be it through travel, food, festivities, movies, friends or colleagues. So to have been able to connect with professionals in the same field but in other parts of the world, and learn from their experiences, was a real pleasure for me.

When we studied poverty, I learnt very quickly how much it differs worldwide. What we define as poverty in America, may not be poverty in other parts of the world. Similarly, what is acceptable and expected in some parts of the world (such as children working before the legal age) is considered unacceptable in other parts of the world. This leaves us with a great thought provoking exercise of what is right or wrong, and which children are happier, and is poverty a relative term?

Similarly, I found that issues and trends in general, are very different worldwide. We may be addressing diversity and changing demographics in the USA, but in some parts of the world they are simply addressing child survival. Survival from war or disease, but it remains a basic issue that we no longer have to worry about in the industrialized world.

The third thing that is also very evident to me is government policies on childhood and early childhood education. Although there seems to be a global movement towards educating children early, there is a huge variety of support from a government level. Where some nations provide childcare and preschool education to all children, others do not; and just like maternity leave is so different globally, so is child education.

One goal that I would set for all my colleagues is to embrace and learn from the variety of approaches and opinions about early childhood. We have a lot to learn from each other, and so the more open minded we are, the more we can learn. As we prepare ourselves for diversity in the USA, we need to reach out to other cultures and nations to see what we can learn from them. We should always ask ourselves, why do they do things in a particular way, why do their children not attend preschools, why do the grandparents raise the children, and so on and so forth.

 To my colleagues in this course, I would like to say thank you for all your input, discussions, blog posts, comments and questions; because they make the learning process so much more interesting. A big thank you to my international contacts as well, for taking the time to reply to my emails with enthusiasm and details. Dr. Williams, thank you for your teachings on such an interesting course, and all your input on each topic; it has been a pleasure.
I would like to invite all my colleagues to stay in touch and stay connected to the international world, as we expand our knowledge in early childhood. There is so much to learn...

EDUC 6162 - week 7

Juliet Perrin, who is an early years educator in Thailand with the Regents School, replied to this week's assignment with interesting information.

In Thailand there is very little continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers, and so educators struggle to stay current. The schools that are interested in flying in a professional for CPD courses, cannot afford to do so for their limited number of educators, and sadly there is little collaboration between the schools to share costs and resources.
She explained that in order to stay current, teachers have to be self motivated enough to read journals and online resources. Her concern was that there isn't any hands on CPD available. She also explained that they had in-house CPD courses but she was not sure of the quality. 

Juliet had also worked in Turkey and she found that it was the same issue there, where she had very limited CPD courses to attend. Her experience of going back to her native country, England, after her work in Turkey, was that she "was out of the loop".

I would also like to share with you my experience with regards to teacher excellence in an international setting, because I work in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). When we established the nursery that I currently manage, in 2006, there was only one nursery that offered a Montessori certificate but no college, vocational school or any institution at all that qualified teachers or assistant teachers. That was very limiting and we had to recruit, train and develop teachers based on several criteria, but rarely could we demand qualifications.

In addition, there was no professional development opportunities at all, and so we initiated our own monthly courses/workshops to educated ourselves and stay current. We often invited colleagues such as speech therapists, occupational therapists, physicians, and others to share their expertise with us. In addition, if a teacher was passionate about a topic or issue, we asked her to conduct a workshop and educate the rest of us.

Now nine years later, there are two institutions that offer certificates for teachers, in the city. Both institutions offer a large variety of workshops on a monthly basis as well, there are several conferences annually for education and our governing body has required that all staff are qualified and offered professional development  annually.

What a huge leap forward for the early years education sector in Dubai, and how wonderful it has been to watch this happen. Now the task at hand is assessing the quality of these courses, and the implementation in every program of the government regulations.

My discussion with Juliet was that although many criteria for an excellent, high quality teacher are the same world wide (passion, dedication, creativity, patience, knowledge and so on); the professional development aspect of professionalism, in my opinion, should be region specific.

If the UK, or the US has 'hot topics' that all teachers must learn about, they may not be hot topics elsewhere in the world - and vice versa. What may be a current issue in Dubai, may not be so in Thailand, or Prague or the USA.

If I hear from my other international contact in Prague, I will update my blog.

EDUC 6162 - week 6

On the NAEYC website, I decided to search the link titled "For Families", and I found a wealth of information. On the home page of the NAEYC for families, there is a newsletter families can subscribe to, there are topics featured for 'families today', there is a book featured, and there are links on various learning and development issues. Also on their home page are links for families to look for NAEYC accredited programs, and general guidelines regarding what to look for in programs. The word quality is seen repeatedly.

I found this link very much in line with our current studies of excellence and equity. NAEYC seems to define high quality, with guidance for parents and equal opportunity for anyone navigating their website.

I also found several articles featured for parents regarding school readiness, so I feel that it is a hot topic for the NAEYC. It is tackled from various aspects, but with a clear goal of preparing parents so that they can help their children succeed in school. There is a blog for parents which can be accessed through the For Families site, and lastly I was thrilled to see that they had a link for music.

It is obvious to me that the use of Spanish is being promoted by the NAEYC, and so they are setting an example for programs and professionals in the field. This is a great effort that addresses the barrier of responsiveness that we studied this week. Even in the music link, Ella Jenkins songs are featured and one out of the three has Spanish incorporated, and the second out of three has French incorporated. I found those fabulous ways to promote additional languages.

On the NAEYC home webpage there is the link to their annual conference. That webpage has listings of all the sessions during the conference, with details of each one. It is incredibly organized and thorough. There are several sessions that address the bilingualism issue, which is directly related to the responsiveness barrier, once again.

After another fun and interesting exploration of the NAEYC website, I found that they emphasize school readiness, play and nature play, reading, languages other than English and quality of early childhood programs. Most of which are issues we have studied over the past few weeks.

EDUC 6162 week 5

The center on the developing child, at Harvard University has a global children's initiative which is described on their website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/). There are two things that I noticed immediately, upon reading through the webpage, and they are that most of their projects were targeting early childhood, and that child survival was a key issue.

In our study of issues and trends in the United States, something as basic as survival is not a concern anymore for children born and raised in America. This insight is quite an eye opener; to realize that it remains a concern in other parts of the world. So when we are striving for excellence or equity in the care for children in their early years, their survival often takes precedence in a global scenario.

The global initiatives by Harvard University address three issues: early childhood development, child mental health and children in crisis and conflict situations. Children in conflict suffer tremendous consequences, and survival becomes a priority but development, mental health, education and long term effects cannot be ignored either. Two studies are being conducted by a Harvard faculty which study these concerns long term: Adults who were child soldiers in Sierra Leone, and children raised with HIV positive parents in Rwanda. Insight on these realities for children who grow up in conflict or toxic stress, is again an eye opener of the issues globally compared to the USA.

It does not take long to realize that the issues globally are quite varied, and can be very different from the issues in America. In Zambia, the Harvard initiative is studying the impact of an anti- malaria effort, on child development. Another insight on how children in developed countries don't need to worry about such obstacles to their development, but this mosquito transmitted disease can be detrimental in other parts of the world.

Since I had not heard back from my international contacts, I started to study this initiative, as well as the article in the journal Current Issues in Comparative Education, Volume 11. I have learnt that early childhood care and education was the topic of discussion in the 2008-2009 edition of the online journal, and globally we find issues that are similar to the USA, like teacher training, but many issues that are quite different, such as survival.

EDUC 6162 - Week 4

On the NAEYC website home page, we have a few columns to look through. Our week's issue is highlighted a few times in the home page. The News and Highlights column begins with "Child Care and Development Block Grant" where they explain that money has been granted to raise the threshold for health and safety in early childhood programs. The NAEYC applauds that and encourages the senate to do the same. On the Act column, the first item listed is "Invest in Kids… ". By clicking on the link, the following is seen: "Join Us in Supporting a Strong Start for America's Children. Children’s early learning experiences set the course for success in school and life.  High-quality programs benefit everyone: children, families, communities – and because of the return on investment, everyone wins.  …" (NAEYC, 2014). These topics are clearly in line with the trend being studied this week in our course. With NAEYC being the leading organization in early childhood education, it is a strong message of support for these issues.

As a member, I can login and access the online version of Young Children. The September issue of Young Children is described in a previous blog entry, and a lot of it is about diversity in early years programs. Under the Public Policy icon of the website, we see the NAEYC's support and efforts to get more funding for improving quality programs in early years.

My personal favorite section on the website is Topics, where you click to find a list of practical topics for our daily work. The topics listed that are currently important issues (and potentially trends) for my practice include "Anti-Bias education: Holidays and fairness", "Obesity prevention" and "Play and learning".

Working with a huge mix of cultures and religions, being sensitive to holidays and what is celebrated, is quite important. I enjoyed learning about ways to handle holidays that are not bias and that embrace all celebrations. What a wonderful issue to tackle, and the link has a book listed that tackles this issue.

The Obesity prevention link has numerous resources that helps us educate parents and implement healthy eating in our centers. The first parents workshop this year at our nursery will be about healthy nutrition for the children in our care. Once again, this is an important issue for my work, and worldwide.

Once again, the Play and Learning issue is visited annually at our nursery, in order to ensure that play remains the core of our curriculum. This issue is very well resourced and backed up on the NAEYC's topic section.

www.naeyc.org

POVERTY ( EDUC 6162 )

One of my contacts in the early childhood field is in Thailand, and upon emailing her the assignment for the week, I received an incredibly well resourced and thorough reply. I feel that I have not only learnt about poverty in her region, but also about ways educators, schools, students, and communities can help - and have helped.

Let me begin by introducing her again :

Juliet Perrin has been teaching for 16 years and this includes teaching in Australia, Turkey, England and now in Thailand. She is currently the Head of Year for the pre-nursery and nursery section at Regents School, in Pattaya, Thailand. She told me that her experience included working in deprived areas in England and as we know, there is a lot of poverty in Thailand where she has been for 6 years.

Juliet described to me some of the work that the Regents school does to fight poverty in Thailand and this included several community partnerships that were the focus of each age group of students. For the early years, where Juliet is a leader, they partner with Father Ray Day Care Center ( http://www.fr-ray.org/ ). She explained that the children from the center come to visit the early years (2.5-5 years old) students at Regents school, and vice versa. I found that fabulous and certainly a learning process for both sets of children and educators.

The poverty in Thailand can be quite sad, and Juliet further explained that some of the workers from the neighboring countries, who may be there illegally, will often bring their kids and leave them to fend for themselves, in hope for a better life. The poverty that is described is way more severe than the poverty we know of in America. Running water alone, can be a luxury in poor Asian communities, not to mention shelter, food, healthcare and safety.

Juliet listed the 10 organizations that are supported by the Regents school and quoted on of them, and so I quote Juliet's quote:

" I like the quote from Fountain of Life  The Centre believes that “Poverty is the

enemy of our children and education is the best weapon with which to fight it.” "



My second contact had not responded to my email, although she was very prompt when I first contacted her two weeks ago. I can only assume that there is an obstacle with getting back to me.

EDUC 6162 - Week 2

The NAEYC's online journal Young Children is available on their website for members. The main topic for the current issue is diversity in the classroom, and includes everything from immigrant families, to adopted children, gay and lesbian parents, as well as specifically diversity in the elementary school. The title used for the edition, and all the related articles is "Engaging Families: Partnering in meaningful ways". The pictures in the entire journal issue are of diverse parents, children and staff.

Embracing and preparing for diversity, is clearly a 'hot topic' for the NAEYC. I found this edition to be directly related to our course, and this week's topic. On the website itself, there are links to numerous issues and resources, but the message of diversity is clear in their choice of pictures throughout the website. http://www.naeyc.org/

In this edition of Young Children, there were also articles on science, movement and dual languages. What I enjoyed reading about was "thematic instruction for dual language leaners" and in the article, they shared an idea for encouraging language development which I found fun and clever, named Grandma's soup. I liked that the journal included ideas that us educators can walk away with and implement in our classrooms. This puts theory into practice quite clearly.

In Grandma's soup, the children got to taste vegetables, say they names and play around with the names, then they used words related to making soup like chopping, stirring and so on... and actually made a soup. I won't re-write the details, but I am sure you will agree that it is very effective. Once again, diversity in encouraged in this activity/article.

For the first blog assignment (week 1), please click on the "course resources" page on my blog.

Relationship Reflection

It feels like relationships make the world go round. Friendships, marriages, colleagues, family, pets and many more are the drive for humans to perform daily tasks and responsibilities, and look forward to more.

There are several relationships in my life that are very valuable to me, and are a positive drive in my life. These relationships either help me get things done, or help me stay balanced or motivate me to stay on task, as well as put a smile on my face on a daily basis and make me laugh out loud once in a while.

My husband is my childhood friend. He is my partner in life in so many ways and our experiences together are numerous. The relationship I have had with him for the past 33 years is part of who I am. Our two children are our added bond and added commitment to our lives together.

My colleague and wonderful friend is a lady who has an amazing energy, and always a positive attitude in everything she tackles. We are naturally compatible and we seem to bring out the best in each other, so whether we are at work or after work, it is a happy funny supportive time. She is a reliable person, who can take responsibility and take control which makes her very valuable at the nursery. In addition, she is dependable, fun and trustworthy as a friend and often without having to ask her. The relationship is a very positive one in my life today, and essential for my happiness.

Our live in helper for the past ten years is a lovely lady who also has a very positive attitude towards everything in life. She always smiles, laughs and tackles every task with determination. She is so rarely ill or tired, and can take on lots of tasks even without being asked. This is the lady who has helped me raise my children while I live so far from family, and who has supported me in my daily life, which enables me to juggle work and children and now studies - all at the same time. She is a positive presence in my daily life and in my home.

My 15 year old cat is a pure white Persian long haired cat that my husband bought me in 1999 when we were trying to get pregnant. He is a gentle cat who adores me, which makes me feel very special several times a day. I see him getting old now and although it is sad, he still makes me feel good every day.

My parents and siblings, along with uncles aunts and cousins - have been a source of support all my life. With all the baggage and hardship that comes with family, and as far as we are apart ... the unconditional love and support that I can count on from my parents and siblings is irreplaceable and most certainly gives me the pillars of strength that I need to face life's challenges.

I could talk about many more relationships in my life, but I decided to mention the first few that came to mind, and I kept them in the order that they surfaced to mind as well. Relationships vary tremendously over our lifetime, and they depend on timing and needs at a given time, as well as compatibility and priorities.
Surely if relationships can make such a difference in our happiness and our eagerness to thrive as adults, they must make an even bigger impact on a child who is still growing and developing so delicately.

"Children allowed to develop at their own speed will usually win the race of life." by Fred O. Gosman.

Retrieved from:

http://quotes.dictionary.com/Children_allowed_to_develop_at_their_own_speed#YLDPbIRfoVdkfv3g.99

For someone as famous and successful as Michael Jackson, to write so sadly about his childhood, is a confirmation that children need to just play, dream and make choices. Enjoy this sad but strong message by Michael Jackson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puQEcN_iI9o

Childhood development theories and all the contributing scholars are intertwined as seen in this image, but the final product is beautiful, just like this image.

Thank you Dr. Sheri and Walden University for the EDUC6160 course, which was fabulous.
Good luck to the colleagues I have met and had fabulous discussions with over the 8 weeks.

Standardized testing for children ...

Testing is another controversial issue in childhood or even adulthood, in my perspective. The reason being that it can easily label a person one way or another. The benefits are many, such as helping assess teacher's delivery, school curriculum, child performance and so on, but what about the results? Do they describe the entire child? And how does the result impact that child?

I think assessing children is essential but I think it should be an ongoing process with accumulating results and patterns that can be linked to the child's growth and life experiences.  In addition, I think assessing the child should include all aspects of their education and development and social interaction. So rather than focusing on math or reading to assess children's competence, I would like to see assessments done periodically (perhaps twice a year) on a child's knowledge of music, science, geography, math, languages, physical education, art, and social skills. Of course that would mean less tests on paper and more oral testing or observations by educators or even by developmental psychologists, which is more time cosuming but I think very worthwhile. It would be wonderful to find a way to assess creativity and leadership traits as well.

Along with all these assessments, I would like to see a child's life events documented in parallel with these scores, so that we can 'see' that while parents were getting a divorce the grades may have declined a bit, or during puberty or during a house move or a grandparent passing … and so on. Similarly, the ethnic or cultural background should be included in these assessments.

Standardized testing has its benefits but leaves a lot of gaps in what defines the entire child and for those who do not score well, it leave them with a lot of explaining to do and a lot more to prove. In addition, those who do score well have an added stress sometimes, of having to maintain such achievements.

At our nursery, we assess all children three times per academic year (10months), and we do it in all aspects of their development, but we do not share the results with parents. The assessments are for us to catch any areas of weakness within an age group, a teacher or a child. The results help us improve our program for all children, and help us address any concerns without the parents walking away with a label for their child. In fact, they do not even know that we assess them.

Standardized testing in Finland does not exist; or almost so (Taylor 2012). It seems that children have only one mandatory test during their school education, which is around 16 years old or at graduation. Teachers can choose when to give exams during schooling and although there is a national curriculum, teachers are given a lot of freedom in their teaching methods. Starting school age is 7 years old and there is hardly any homework or exams until children are well into teenage (Taylor 2012).

The next question is so what. Are these children happy? How do they compare with other children all over the world and do they go to college? The answers are interesting because Finland scores as one of the happiest nations worldwide, and using the PISA testing (Program for International Student Assessment) they score amongst the highest worldwide in Math, Reading and Science. The graduation rate from high school is 93% and about 66% go to college; which are all high rates.

If we look at how Finland scored in the TIMSS and PIRLS tests in 2011, we find that in math it was not too far ahead of the USA but amongst the top scorers, and in reading they were in the top 4 countries, just like in science.

To add to these interesting facts is that all schools in Finland are public and funded by the government entirely. To become a teacher, one must be amongst the top 10% of their class upon graduation and then go to college and earn a master's degrees in order to teach (Taylor 2012).

http://www.businessinsider.com/finlands-education-system-best-in-world-2012-11?op=1

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?page=2

(page 2, para 1)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/standardized-testing-a-fo_n_2145623.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/

http://timssandpirls.bc.edu/

Growing up in a war torn country.

I was born in 1969, in a country called Lebanon. At the time, it was a beautiful and vibrant small country where people of various religions lived in harmony. In 1975, a civil war started in Lebanon which lasted 17 years.

The first year or so of the war, my parents tried to cope and live normally. I had a brother and a baby sister at the time. My memory consists of days off school because the area of our school was being shelled or because snipers were targeting that route. I also remember changing school halfway through the year, to a closer one which meant less risk of getting bombed. These are some of the ways my parents coped. There were days that we slept in the hallway in our house and watched the shelling through a distant window, as though it was fireworks. Depending on how loud it was, we began to estimate how close it was – a coping mechanism of making the situation entertaining. For us children, we coped with laughter and play in the hallway, but we were scared.

When the bombing was heavy and close, all the residents of the building went to the bomb shelter which was underground, and lived there together. Our parents played cards to make the time go by, and strategized how to get food to everyone – another coping mechanism. Politics and death tolls were common conversation; which we would imitate in an attempt to cope and understand. Children also coped by playing together and it was often soldiers and battle fields pretend play.

One of the days or weeks that we lived in our hallway, it was declared that there would be a cease fire for a few hours in the daytime, so I remember the adults deciding which father would go get bread for everyone. My father volunteered and I remember how worried I was. These strategies and collaboration of taking turns to minimize risk were coping mechanisms, and they were functional but not without psychosocial effects.

A year and a half into the war, my father decided that we had to leave the country since it was getting worse. I remember vividly how we were woken up and carried one night into a special taxi which the snipers did not target. My father placed a mattress inside the car on the back window, in case we did get shot at; as though that would have helped. Scared as can be, we were driven to a pier where we boarded a boat full of refugees like us, and we sailed off to Cyprus. How we coped during that boat ride was not so well; some got sea sick, some wet themselves and I cried.

That is my memory of living briefly in the war, the second part to my story is living as a refugee, a foreigner and then an immigrant; which I call living the war but on the outside.

My family coped by being close to friends and family. In Cyprus, we stayed with friends for over a month. After that, we flew to England and stayed with my uncle for over 6 months. There was no external support for myself or my siblings or my parents, except the welcoming support of my uncle and his wife. We all had to be patient and tolerant, and I think I personally just dealt with things day by day. We became close and protective of each other too. I did remain timid and insecure whenever I changed schools. In England, my brother cried in school every day and I just bottled it up and tried to learn English. Coping was staying out of trouble since four of us had to sleep in one room, and two families shared one bathroom.

The consequences of the war on my family include depression, eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders, insecurity, Tourette's syndrome and phobias; all dominantly psychosocial. The ways we coped is first by immigrating and then by being together and supporting each other. Remaining close to friends and family who understood the experience was also a great support.

The Syrian Civil War

As most of you have heard, the country neighboring Lebanon is currently at war, and the devastating impact on the children of Syria is significant. In 2013, the UN estimated that 100,000 had been killed and 2.4million had been registered as refugees in neighboring countries, of which 3/4 are women and children (CBC, 2014). Children living in Syria are living in danger of being killed, kidnapped, recruited to fight or tortured; and refugee children are living in difficult circumstances with poor access to shelter, food, health and education.

On a visit to Lebanon where almost one million Syrians are refugees, Angelina Jolie recently said "meeting these children was a heart-rending experience,… They have lost their families and their childhood has been hijacked by war. They are so young, yet they are bearing the burdens of their reality as if they are adults" (Time, 2014). Her brief statement can be seen on http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/lebanon/10658101/Angelina-Jolie-thanks-Lebanon-for-assisting-Syrian-refugees.html

There are numerous organizations attempting to minimize the harm done to children inside and outside Syria; and they include the United Nations, The International Red Cross and Red Crescent, Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee and many many more.

Syrian Children in refugee camps ( UNHCR, 2013)

Their support ranges from diapers for babies, to clean water, to school supplies, to medications, medical supplies and artificial limbs, not to mention food and shelter. Some organizations are setting up centers for women and children, others are providing caravans equipped toys and educational material, others offer financial aid on a monthly basis, and the Lebanese government has accommodated the refugees with education and health services. Other countries are sending funds and support for the refugees in Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey; which hopefully benefits the children as much as possible. It is up to these host countries to regulate the support distribution.

Inside Syria, the aid is not able to reach everyone. The UN and the Red Cross/red Crescent are doing everything they can to reach needy and injured Syrians who are still in Syria, which includes many children. Their effort is simply to provide safety and medical care, and any basic needs.

Child being carried out of rubble.

From my child protection training, I am aware that one of the situations that increases the risk of child abuse and trafficking is war. Children are orphaned or homeless or parents are desperate – making them and easy targets for predators. There are thousands of Syrian orphans and these children are currently such prey, but unfortunately their own country is not protecting them. I have not found any organization that is addressing child protection from this angle, for the Syrian children.

The current efforts to minimize the harm done to Syrian children depends on the host countries for the refugees, on the financial aid from international countries and on the NGOs involved.

References

http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/syria-dashboard/

http://world.time.com/2014/02/24/angelina-jolie-visits-syrian-refugees/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/lebanon/10658101/Angelina-Jolie-thanks-Lebanon-for-assisting-Syrian-refugees.html

http://www.unhcr.org/515adb0a9.html