Sunday, March 4, 2012

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

One local organization where I live is called Equality Texas and can be located at: http://www.equalitytexas.org/. This organization has established routines to Educate, Advocate, Volunteer and Donate towards the cause of equality in Texas. They work in such avenue as safe schools for all youth, relationship recognition, gender identity/expression and non-discrimination. This organization appeals to me because it fits all the criteria of diversity and equality. There are opportunities to serve as interns and volunteer. Employment is offered as well in research and grant development. The website states that “No Texan should fear that bias or prejudice will result in unfair treatment in classrooms, communities, or workplaces. These spaces should be safe for every person, regardless of that individual's sexual orientation or whether or not the person fits expectations for masculinity or femininity”

A second local organization is the San Antonio Human Rights Campaign (HRC). This organization states that is has “1 million members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions an America where LGBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community” and can be located at: http://www.hrc.org/the-hrc-story. I chose this organization because the Gay and Lesbian fight for basic rights is such a hot topic that seems to be so far behind the times. This issue is specific to my challenge this week and important to me because the children in these families deserve all the rights and opportunities that everyone other child does. Job opportunities include public education and outreach, operations and development.

A third organization is the Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) in San Antonio. This is another organization that supports my particular challenge for this course and can be located at: http://pflag-sanantonio.org/. This organization “promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons, their families, and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and secure equal civil rights”. I could not locate any job opportunities with this organization but it is still a good resource for the local community.

The skills and experience needed for any of these organizations is a passion and dedication to the cause at hand. Also good communication skills are necessary to educate, advocate and draw attention to the cause to better the lives of the children, families and individuals that the organization was designed to assist.
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Established Contact with My German Childhood Professional

My contact actually changed from Tonya Schmidt to Thomas Volz. He studied in New York and Turkey. He taught school in Turkey and in Boveria at the Abuture, which they call the place of higher learning durin ghte first years. He also taught Turkish students to speak English for 4 years. He has 3 boys of his own that are 11, 12 and 15 years old. Whe I asked him to tell me about povery in Germany that he might have experienced and how it affects children, this is what he wrote to me:
"In Germany the federal social security system is (still) so comprehensive that you hardly notice any differences between rich and poor students in class. As (still) most of our schools end at 1pm, lunch, nutrition and healthcare is predominantly considered a private matter. People are very touchy about the government interfering in these questions. So it is left to health care providers to inform and teach the public on a voluntary basis. Of Course schools support this, but not as an integral part of the basic curriculum. The stress is on academic subjects".
"However, times are changing. More and more schools exand their lessons into the afternoon and the schools provide lunch. This is generally a cheap alternative to private lunch served at home. Here the schools monitor ingediences and nutrition very closely because many parents are very aware of this topic"
"The gap between rich and poor is, however, quite obvious on a higher academic level. Children that are academically supported at home are more likely to proceed to higher education and achieve better results on the long run. This more a question of how educated the parents/families are. But as education and income are unextricably entwined the link between academic achievement and income is a sad (German) fact"