Reaching Out to International Contacts in the Early Childhood Field

I have really been excited about this blog assignment. I often feel that as an early childhood professional working in private practice I really exist in a bubble. I often yearn for the connection of other professionals working in related fields and was really enthusiastic about reaching out to other professionals around the globe.

Sadly, despite what I consider to be valiant efforts to make contact, I have had a lot of trouble getting anyone to respond. I suspect time and language barriers were the cause, as I am too optimistic to think that the over a dozen emails I sent were sent to people who just didn’t care. My primarily focus was reaching out to people in Finland. I outline the details of that search in a previous post, so I won’t go into that. Suffice it to say after reaching out to 5 different Finnish early childhood professionals two to three times, I gave up. My attempts in Egypt and Nepal were similarly thwarted.

So, I went to the World Forum Foundation website to start the alternative assignment. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t seem to connect to the World Forum Foundation radio any longer, so there were no links to podcasts to listen to. There was a link to what seems to have replaced the World Forum Radio, which was called BAM! Radio. BAM stands for body and mind and is a wonderful resource that I enjoyed delving into immensely. There are sections for parents, educators, and leaders to listen to radio broadcasts on how to promote mind and body prosperity for children and families. You can check it out at: http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/bam-radio-website/ Unfortunately, using BAM! Radio did not feel appropriate to the assignment because all of the radio broadcasts were given by and intended for people working in this country.

So I decided to investigate the World Forum Foundation website further in order to see if I could gain a connection to early childhood professionals around the globe, which seemed to me to be the point of the assignment. I found that you can join WoFo, which is a forum to connect with other early childhood professionals from around the world! Many of the people connecting through WoFo met at conferences hosted by the WFF and we using the World Forum Foundation WoFo as a tool to reconnect with the professionals they had met, as well as ask questions and find support as they implemented the ideas that they had learned at the conferences. I thought that this was finally a way that I might find a connection to professionals around the globe!

I read through a bunch of different posts and found a post written by a man named Karma Gayleg from Bhutan, which I felt was the most relevant to this week’s issue of poverty. I thought he could lend a really relevant perspective on poverty, and he did. As you may or may not know, Bhutan like the rest of the globe has felt the effects of technology, globalization, and modernization. According to Gayleg, the speeding up of the culture that comes along with this is really seen even in Bhutan, which is a predominantly agrarian society. According to Wikipedia, Bhutan is one of the smallest and least developed countries in the world (2014). It is by no means a wealthy country. But it has in recent years become famous as it has been reported as the happiest country in the world. While other countries were focusing on their gross national product, Bhutan’s reaction to modernization reaching it’s borders and life seeming to speed up and be more about acquiring material things, was to put their focus on, what they call the Gross National Happiness. On a governmental level, the country has decided to research and focus on what actually makes people happy. I find this to be a really revolutionary way to approach dealing with poverty. Perhaps our country is looking at things from the wrong angle. This is what Gayleg wrote:

Karma Gayleg (Bhutan):

"Change and modernization has touched every nation and society. The ramifications of rapid socio-economic development and globalization have not spared even a small agrarian society like my country. Everyone is in a perpetual rush to attend to work and the many distractions that modernity has afforded, leaving little time for one’s own well being and attending to families, children, and relationships. The more we make, the less we tend to utilize and the more we have, the more we tend to desire.

My Kings have realized this as a grave challenge to human well being and societal harmony and devised a new way of looking at life and living through a noble vision called Gross National Happiness. By this ideology, there is aspiration of idealistic human development outcomes, where human qualities of responsibility, respect, compassion, coexistence and interdependence are desired. The vision has also teaches us that happiness is about living simply, being content and cherishing relationships. In practical terms, happiness to us means understanding and caring for the environment, nurturing social values and building healthy relationships, ensuring equitable and sustainable economic development and having equality and justice in governance.

Considering that many of the values, attitudes and dispositions of human beings are formed and shaped in the early years of life, we also believe that societal harmony and individual happiness can only be realized when the youngest of children are viewed as the most potent seeds of happiness.

As we live in a diverse and colourful world, I would like to share these questions with all my brothers and sisters all around the world: “What does it mean to make happiness a priority?”"

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His words really resonate with my values and the ideals that have brought me the most joy, connection, and success in my life. Perhaps it is time to reexamine the approach we are taking. It does seem like as early childhood professionals gather more and more research and to try to help direct leaders and policy makers towards positive reform and change, change is moving rather slowly. I know this is a really radical idea in our culture, but it seems to me that if we focused on happiness, respect, and taking care of each other, we might find many of the other issues solve themselves. I realize this is rather idealistic, but I actually do believe it to be true.

I asked Gayleg whether he felt focusing on happiness has a direct or indirect affect on poverty, but I haven’t heard back from him yet. I will post here when I do. Here is the response that I sent him:

"It amazes me how much of the stress of life falls away when one’s heart and intention are redirected and begin to prioritize happiness. In my experience, a key to discovering true happiness, realizing the abundance around you even in hard times, and detaching from the seduction of material wealth and attachment is giving. Not just giving money to charities or even giving your time, but a mindset of conscious giving. I recently suffered a series of very painful losses- loss of my twin daughters and my father nearly passed just a few weeks after. I lost my place entirely. I pulled a book of the shelf entitled, “The 29 Day Giving Challenge.” It was written by an old friend of mine by the name of Cami Walker and was a NY Times bestseller some years ago. Walker was diagnosed with MS and went into a deep depression and the prescription of a South African medicine woman who lived across the hall from her changed her life. The medicine woman, I apologize that I don’t recall her name, told her to shift her focus outward and give one gift every day for 29 days. She could give a well-timed hug or money or support or time or anything she wanted, but she was instructed to do it every day consciously- to look for her opportunities, and to make a note of what was easy to give and what was difficult, as well as to try to give away things that were hard to give away as frequently as possible. The result was a complete shift in perspective. I experienced the same thing and have recently added daily giving to my spiritual practice. The result was recognizing abundance around me, attracting love and more gifts, a new ability to receive, and a general contentment and belief in myself,  my life, and the world and people around me. I may not even be giving more than I did before I started the challenge, but I am doing it consciously and lovingly and the result is completely different. I am happy, despite crippling loss and despair, I am able to embrace the happiness that comes when it comes and be grateful for what I have and have had."

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

References:

https://www.worldforumfoundation.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Bhutan