Getting to Know Your International Contact

Part 1

As I blogged in week 1 about my podcast that I listened to already, I chose to go back to the World Forum Radio and listen to another podcast from Barbara Jones whom founded Pine Grove school in Maine in 1985. Pine Grove is a preschool based on the theories of Montessori, Piaget, Rogers, and John Dewey. It is a preschool dedicated to child-centered learning.  Her school was featured in Exchange magazine in 2010. I enjoyed listening to how she discovered an old school house in the woods and wrote a letter to the owners that she wanted to buy it and what her dreams for it were. It wasn’t available to be purchased so she waited and they contacted her years later and she began her dream. Barbara Jones podcast was inspirational in that she knew what she wanted to do with her life and her education and she pursued her goals until she made it happen.  You read more about her little school in the woods on the website http://www.pinegrovecenter.com/index.html. As talking about poverty this week, and looking at the tuition rates for this school, children from low income families probably would not have access to an early learning experience here despite the partial scholarships available in limited quantity.

Part 2

The country that I researched on the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org was Mongolia. Some interesting facts I learned about poverty in Mongolia are:

1.       In 1998 a survey showed that 36% of the population was living below poverty guidelines despite continuing increased macro-economic stability and growth.

2.       Many of the poorest population live in female heads of household or are children.

3.       Due to more demand being put on children to help support the household, fewer children are entering school to get an education.

4.       CHIP is researching in Mongolia whether families that choose to migrate have a better chance to get out of poverty and children have a better chance of getting an education.