Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Communities Collaborative Brain Development Conference...
As I mentioned last week, I took the end of the week off the attend the Communities Collaborative Conference "Brain Development: Working together For Every Child" in Mahnomen, MN.
Though this is the 6th year for this conference, it is the first time I have ever attended. I was impressed, this was one of the largest conferences I have attended with nearly 1600 people in attendence. More importantly, I would say that it was one of the best and most informative conferences that I have ever participated in. It was somewhat unusual in the fact that family child care providers were definitely the minority in attendence compared to school employees and teachers, Head Start programs, and social service agencies as well as parents. But, the mixed audience added many viewpoints and a lot of insight to much of the conference.
The first keynote was Geoffrey Canada, an acclaimed author, child advocate, and expert on issues concerning violence and children and community redevelopment. His presentation, "Fatherhood and the Importance of Male Role Models" was very interesting. He included some frightening facts and figures:
As I mentioned last week, I took the end of the week off the attend the Communities Collaborative Conference "Brain Development: Working together For Every Child" in Mahnomen, MN.
Though this is the 6th year for this conference, it is the first time I have ever attended. I was impressed, this was one of the largest conferences I have attended with nearly 1600 people in attendence. More importantly, I would say that it was one of the best and most informative conferences that I have ever participated in. It was somewhat unusual in the fact that family child care providers were definitely the minority in attendence compared to school employees and teachers, Head Start programs, and social service agencies as well as parents. But, the mixed audience added many viewpoints and a lot of insight to much of the conference.
The first keynote was Geoffrey Canada, an acclaimed author, child advocate, and expert on issues concerning violence and children and community redevelopment. His presentation, "Fatherhood and the Importance of Male Role Models" was very interesting. He included some frightening facts and figures:
- It cost $32,000 to lock up a an American Male, but society would never consider spending this per person on early childhood education to prevent the problems from occuring.
- 50% of boys without a father figure who reach age 15 will not live to age 60.
- Boys without a father figure are 33% more likely to use drugs and 200% more likely to commit suicide.
- In today's society, more preschoolers are killed by violence than police officers. In the last 13 years, we have lost more children to guns than we lost soldiers in Viet Nam.
- Begin early... boys need structure and opportunity
- Parents as Partners... parents also needs skills, tools, training, and research.
- Create a continum of "Best Practice" programs for children... education programs for all ages ond stages of childhood.
- Redesign schools for success... need to look at the progress of students, not simply test scores.
- Community needs to become a positive support system for children... communities must embrace children and help and encourage them to succeed.
- Evaluation... need a method of measurement and researchable proof to hold programs accountable.
This was a great keynote... I wish I had time and space to share it all with you, but there was so much more information...
I will put some articles together about the classes and seminars that I attended at this conference and share them with you as we go along. I hope that you will consider attending next year's conference. Check back here and I will keep you posted as information becomes available.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 6:26 PM 
