"Every parent seeks the “best” preschool for their child; but the truth is that there isn’t any one best school.The “best” school is the one that works most for you and your child.
There are, however, some basic markers that do characterize a quality preschool. Here's what you should look for when investigating preschool options... "
Read more at:
https://www.noodle.com/articles/questions-to-ask-when-considering-preschool
Remembering Langston Hughes on his 113th Birth Anniversary with a couple of my favorites:
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Mother To Son
Here is a video on the talk I gave for The India Center in New York City in November 2014. The presentation offers a glimpse into aspects of Education in Ancient India. Viewers can read this topic in more details in my books Going to School in South Asia (Greenwood 2007) and Early Childhood Education, Postcolonial Theory, and Teaching Practices and Policies in India (Palgrave, 2006/2013).
Leah Davies, M.Ed., has put together the ABCs of Parenting - a wonderful set of guidelines for all parents to read and take into consideration, and for teachers and pediatricians to share with parents of the children they interact with:
http://www.kellybear.com/ParentTips/ParentTip1.html
I will be participating in a debate on early childhood education at the World Innovation Summit on Education in Doha next week. So looking forward to this wonderful opportunity, and to sharing thoughts and ideas at this global forum with people who bring to the table diverse perspectives on education...
http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/news/amita-gupta.cfm
Education policies are forever challenged by the access vs quality tension. Is this a false dichotomy or are the two parallel lines that just will not meet? Here is a piece in today's NY Times that describes another example of this challenge in the context of education in India.
A recording of the Book Talk delivered at the Asian Asian-American Research Institute of CUNY:
http://aaari.info/14-10-17Gupta.htm
The opinion piece by Harvard Professor David Edwards published in Wired focuses on how the fundamental purpose of schooling and education needs to be given some serious thought - a makeover in light of where the world is headed. The author highlights the important goal of teaching children to learn how to discover.
One thing that we do know is that children will learn the art of inquiry and discovery only when their teachers practice a pedagogy that supports these goals in the classroom; and when teachers can model for their students the processes of discovery and the accompanying joy and excitement it brings. Yet state governments in the US are even now fundamentally re--purposing teacher preparation programs to become even more academically driven with an ethos of high stakes testing taking over the ethos of discovery and critical thinking. When teacher education itself becomes so test driven and score oriented, then teacher educators also tend to teach to the test. It is more than likely that their students will graduate from teacher education programs, enter schools and perpetuate the cycle of teaching to the test.
Click here to read David Edward's piece:
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/on-learning-by-doing/
In this oped, Passi Sahlberg highlights three factors that contribute toward the high quality of Finnish schools, and that are absent in the current system of schooling in America: educational equity, the nature of teaching responsibilities, and the presence of physical movement and play for students during school hours:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/opinion/sahlberg-finland-education/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Sahlberg is a former director-general in the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, and has written a book detailing the system of education and schooling in Finland titled: Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland?