Sharing My Web Resources

                                                          By Lisa Martin

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website provides me with a wealth of relevant information pertaining to education around the globe. Recently, I was pleased to see the world adopting a we are all in this together attitude regarding education as the  Director-General of UNESCO called for world leaders to unite for education for all, and Finland quickly donated two and a half million Euros. It is only through this type of global initiative and commitment that we can see the rights of every young child to a quality education realized. Another item that caught my attention, as I had recently written about it in regards to gender diversity and anti-bias, was an event to fight homophobia in educational settings. I started to compare the life of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) teachers and students with the LGBT military members and thinking there should be a way to allow teachers and students to be themselves inside the classroom. I can only imagine the stress, and inner turmoil caused by having to hide who you are in some cases while taking part in such an important part of your life. In education it is not “don’t ask don’t tell” it is more like there is no place for that here.

There was also a report that I correlated to our initiative in the United States to invest in early education as a means of improving our workforce and ability to compete in the global market. The report was based on the interpretation of 600 young people of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report, which they summed up with the slogan “Be Skilled, Be Employed, Be the Change Generation” (UNESCO, 2012). I thought this was rather in keeping with the quest of the economists and business people in the United States, the idea of children being skilled, employable, making for a strong workforce. Knowing the work and objectives of UNESCO, including education equality for girls and women, I felt this approach to be a way of getting more funding and attracting more support; not that I find anything wrong with wanting children to acquire skills and get jobs. It is almost as if science must be validated by big business and finance, thus it comes down to dollar and cents; which I guess is true because the science behind the Apple products would not be so touted if it did not produce billions in revenue. I just view education in a more ideological manner, the idea that all children have access to quality learning and the opportunity to stimulate their minds and develop a hunger and thirst for knowledge through curiosity and inquiry.

This week we have been looking at how economists, neuroscientists, and politicians support the early childhood field, for UNESCO education is always viewed from all three perspectives to promote global change and outreach. They use the science to figure out what must be done, and then they calculate the cost of not making changes as well as the cost of implementing improvements (economics), and present it to the global leaders for support and approval (politics). The UNESCO website continues to offer me new insights and challenges facing the education field.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2012). The 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Report. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/online-materials/single-view/news/three_major_new_education_reports_launched_at_gem/