Visiting Early Childhood Education Programs Half a World Away

I just returned from a wondrous trip to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore, where I had the opportunity to visit early childhood education programs half a world away from the United States, some that are part of our company and others that are not. What an inspiration to see the quality of care these children receive—some ex pats, some local children.

The programs I saw compete with the very best we have here, with one very notable advantage. All the programs I visited were dual language, where children, even the very youngest, are exposed to both Chinese and English. The advantages of learning two languages at an early age and in a natural context are profound, not just in promoting bilingualism, but also linguistic and cultural diversity and general academic achievement.

One phenomenal program that I observed was the Odyssey Global Preschool, which is run by Knowledge Universe in Singapore. This unique and remarkably beautiful program not only promotes fluency by having both English and Mandarin speaking teachers in all classes, it embodies a truly international approach, combining the best elements from the United States and Reggio Emilia, Italy among many others. 

The Reggio Approach,  which was initiated in Northern Italy, emphasizes an emergent approach to learning, where daily activities are guided by and build upon the children’s own interests.  Nature and the outdoors are a key part of the classroom experience, capitalizing on a child’s natural wonder about their environment.

Another cornerstone of this approach is the use of long term projects that flow from and develop a child’s natural curiosity and interests. For example, in one classroom for 5 year olds, the children were working on a project to re-design an area of the outdoor playground, complete with riding paths and traffic flow signs after observing some disorder in an outdoor tricycle riding area. The project included a discussion of the problem to multiple drawings of suggested designs to a clay representation of the space.

The project will culminate in redesigning the actual play area for the school, complete with painting the ground and traffic signs. Throughout this project children shared their ideas and work with each other, their teachers, children in other classrooms, and their families—developing their self-confidence and speaking skills along with skills in measurement, writing, drawing, design, and fine/gross motor development among many others.  In this program and the many others that I visited, there was an overwhelming sense of respect for each child as a unique, creative individual, whose interests and skills were at the center of all activities.

Whether in China or Singapore, Africa, the UK, or the US, the wonder in a child’s eye when they experience something new for the first time, the pride they have when they show you a leaf they have found or picture they have drawn-these precious moments of innocence are truly universal.  The opportunity to visit early childhood programs around the world reinforces how much we have in common and how much we can learn from each other about how to support the growth and development of all children, everywhere, as the wonder of childhood knows no bounds.

1 Comment

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  By Kelly Hor, February 27, 2010 @ 4:27 am

  Thank you for those generous comments about the Odyssey program. We certainly hope that we can continue to share our experiences and learn from ECE programs from around the world.

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