Parents, Family and Community Engagement
Time Well Spent
Time Well Spent Funny thing about time, it feels endless until one day, it’s suddenly gone. That was my experience two days ago when I pulled into the parking lot of my work and suddenly realized my direction, my purpose, my research, everything was being taken away from me. Who am I without my syllabus, assignments, professors, and colleagues? For a moment I began to weep out of fear and loneliness until I remembered the words of Julie Olsen Edwards who reminded me that fear of the unknown is scary but, “You can’t wait until you know enough, we never know enough” (Laureate, n.d.). She is correct, and one thing is for sure, I am relentless in my early childhood efforts. Further, still, I will not go quietly into the night, but instead, I will dive into next week with the knowledge: 1. I am not alone. I have the skills and relationships to build a community of practice that will become the springboard for tomorrow’s all-incl...
Hi Lynnette-
ReplyDeleteI love how you articulate that hearing and reading about early childhood care and education success stories sheds light on the great work that children, their parents and the professionals that support them do. I agree that sharing the voices of the direct recipients of systems like Head Start are important for advocates and policy makers to hear in order to make the smartest and most effective decisions possible for the continued success of our nation's kiddos. I especially commend your willingness to observe the technological, research-based and quantitative focus our field has a tendency to over emphasize. I agree that we need to pay just as much attention to the voices of those we serve to make what we do each and every day hit home. Great post.
-Vanessa
Oh Lynnette,
ReplyDeleteYet again, your words and presentation are so beautiful. I very much concur that stories are the way to creating empathy. I remember how stale everything felt in our Research class, not because of the class itself, but because I was so disheartened and frustrated by certain officials and policy makers demanding numbers and statistics and treating children as "things" and "value"... Then I learned from that class about research based on stories and experiences and I was uplifted. You are in good company!
Community engagement generally focuses on engaging communities or groups of people, not just individuals.
ReplyDeleteCommunity Engagement