Ecological Identity of Children

Another major part of the development and learning of children comes from nature. Nature provides an invaluable experience and lessons that children will remember their whole lives. Please take time to read the following article: 

"Let the beauty we love be what we do".-Rumi

In her newest book, The Goodness of Rain: Developing an Ecological identity in Young Children, Ann Pelo offers this charge:

"We teach children to write and to read and to navigate mathematical systems so that they can access the world of ideas and questions and intellectual exchange. We teach children how to behave with other people so that they can grow joyful and nourishing relationships. We teach children history, so that they know where they come from, and we teach them art, so that they can imagine what might be, and we teach them science so that they understand the intricate workings of the physical world. This teaching honors and strengthens children's innate social, intellectual and cultural, and aesthetic identities, identities that we value as a society. We don't leave their development to happenstance or luck. Just so, we must nurture children's intrinsic ecological identities with intention and action.

"This is our work as parents, caregivers, teachers: to invite children to braid their identities together with the place where they live by calling their attention to the air, the sky, the cracks in the sidewalk where the earth bursts out of its cement cage.

"When we live this way with children, we align ourselves with the instinct to know the place where we live. Inviting children to know their home ground is our way home, as well."

-Source "Exchange Everyday"

Visual-Spatial Skills

"No sight is more provocative of awe than is the night sky"-Llewelyn Powys

"Children who are more traditional auditory-sequential thinkers learn step-by-step, follow a logical progression from beginning to end, are good listeners, are rapid processors, and think in words. Children with strong visual-spatial skills often think in pictures and images. They are keen observers, learn holistically, and need more time to process information."

This is the observation of Dana Miller in her article, "A 'Rich Diet' for Learning: A Multi-Sensory Approach That Nourishes All Children," in the new Exchange Essential, The Power of Nature to Nurture. She continues...

"Visual-spatial skills relate to how individuals perceive, interpret, and act on the visual stimuli in their environment. These skills provide information about the environment around us and guide us as we move through that environment....

"Children have many opportunities to develop and hone their visual-spatial skills through building, purposeful movement, and daily hands-on experiences with nature. Through close observation of children, we have learned that children’s visual-spatial work is a language that provides them with opportunities to:

• communicate their knowledge about the world as they view it.
• develop and demonstrate their skills.
• convey, process, and learn to manage their emotions."

Achievement Gap

The same problem exists globally. Whether it be in India or the United States we must strive to help students cross the achievement gap! Please take the time to read and consider the following article...

"The head thinks, the hands labor, but it's the heart that laughs" -Liz Curtis Higgs

For decades, educators have raised concerns about the achievement gap — the large divergence in learning achievement between low-income and higher-income students in the United States. With secondary schools increasing reliance on the Internet for teaching and communicating with students, there is a new factor contributing to the achievement gap — the digital divide. In Education Week (January 20, 2013), Helen Brunner reported these trends:

"Access to the Internet has become a need-to-have — not just a nice-to-have — when it comes to student success.... About 70 percent of teens said that the Internet had been their primary source for a recent school project, and at least 65 percent had gone online to complete their homework. Teachers routinely assign homework that requires Internet use to complete, and about half of American schools expect to adopt e-textbooks in the next two to three years...."

"Even if students have reliable Internet access at school, many become digitally disconnected when they leave. This is especially true for those who live in rural or low-income communities, and it makes their homework harder to complete.... The lack of access particularly impacts minorities. Only 55 percent of African-American and 57 percent of Hispanic households are able to access the Internet from home, and only 50 percent of residents in rural areas have high-speed Internet, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce."

"Without access to the Internet, students can't take advantage of the numerous innovative tools that have democratized learning...."

United4Literacy

Poll Results- What You Think!

For the past month, we had a poll to survey the effectiveness of our organization. To do this we asked our viewers to answer if united4literacy had motivated them to take action against illiteracy. We now have the results for this poll. We thank all the participants and are proud that all of you reported that united4literacy had in some way motivated you to take action. This means our first poll had a 100% positive result. If united4literacy has motivated you to take action, then you have motivated us to continue in our efforts. We will continue to unite for literacy and be on the lookout for more posts, comments, opinions and polls as we strive to accomplish the dream of global literacy. Thanks to all our viewers from over 13 different countries and we hope you continue to support our  common goals of literacy!
-United4Literacy

Where there is a will there is a way....

This photo is so motivating at many levels......
we have so many children around the world who has potential and willingness to learn and study, let's we all reach out as much as we can and help them to achieve their right to learn and be in school.

Happy Father's Day!

Protect the Rights of Children!

Anti Child Labour day may be over today, but let us never cease our efforts to protect the rights of children. Only literacy can help someone achieve their rights, so lets make it the supreme right!

Education can Change the World!

Heeding the advice of such leaders we can change the world!

Worldwide Anti Child Labour Day!

Today, on anti-child labor day let us all do our part to end child labor and initiate child literacy!

Bring Change-Stop Child Labour!

"Change your thoughts and you change your world"

- Norman Vincent Peale 

Let's work together to change our world! Please help stop child labour!