Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part 3

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Episode 10: Susan Lyon

Susan Lyon was intrigued by a small child’s conception of the word “city”, and began pondering how children think, eventually visiting Reggio Emilia and then bringing the “100 Languages of Children” exhibit to the San Francisco Bay area on two occasions. She initiated the Innovative Teacher Project, and began working with the Presidio Child Care Center and the San Francisco public schools. Currently she is working with an Italian architect to rehab a San Francisco structure into the first Italian immersion preschool. The Presidio Child Development Center was featured in the Program Showcase section of the March/April 2011 issue of Exchange magazine.

My podcast participant is Susan Lyon. She was an educator since 22, starting with teaching with children who has learning disability and emotional problems. Mrs. Lyon would say that was the beginning of her passion. For children, specifically this one little boy in particular that she was trying to and he had a spelling list and he was trying to learn the word city. He wanted her to tell him what the word was and she felt that she shouldn't give him the answer, but he kept asking and finally she said okay. Um mm tell you that the word is city. She spelled out the word city. The little boy said to Mrs. Lyon that is such a small word for such a big place. She said that was kind of a wonderful experience that she had with that young boy and she think he was in the first grade. She saw a window in the children minds that was quite different. That was the beginning of how she really was trying to understand how children see things, children understand the world. It was quite fascinating to her and she learned about the schools in Reggio Emilia when she went to visit these schools and she was very inspired by their work because they have a particular way of looking at children. The very progressive image of the child. Mrs. Lyon thinks it is really important for the world actually, so she was inspired about the exhibit- "100 Languages of Children." The exhibit moved her very much and she decided that she was going to move it here to Northern California and she did that. She brought the exhibit and meantime she was moving into academic teaching on the college level. She was at Dominican College in San Moor Fran and she brought the college here for four months and they did professional development, bringing the entire educators and that became a catalyst for the whole area in terms of the approach for Reggio Emilia, professional development, a way to advocate for children in this way, a way of really listening to children, and a way of relief by using environments that children thrive in. In the meantime, she started a project called the Innovative Teacher Project which is a project that incompetence a network of schools who is interesting in this in depth approach to children inspired by Reggio and they have a big network of schools and round tables every month in the schools, they open the schools up, the teachers present their schools, the participants walk the environment, and there is a big discussion group at the end. This has been a huge impact here in the bay area. We have public and private schools participating, which is wonderful. The project started in 1994, so the schools have really evolved in some of these very unique qualities places fro children and teachers are using this project for their own professional development. Mrs. Lyon will say that one of the big impacts is that she wanted to prove somehow that this kind of work, this kind of quality work can happen in a public center. She did a Pilot Project at school in the child development center- stand along center infant toddler and preschoolers in the city, it happens to be located in the Presidio- The Big National Park. It is now a 10 years old project and the school is striving and we really was able to with of course the assistance of the educators in Italy. A lot of people, colleagues, and the United States coming in and working with us. The school has become a real inspiration.

The first insights that I gained from the website this week is that in cases where the government has limited resources, a pro-poor policy can redistribute resources by reducing state support for the more privileged. Central governments must ensure an equitable distribution of resources among different populations and especially those who live in the most disadvantaged regions. This approach aims to expand access without creating serious regional inequities. However, where there is universal provision for a certain age group while the overall enrollment in other age groups is low, this policy can create inequity. Privileged children of the target age group benefit from state investment, while poor children of non-target ages receive scant government attention. A policy of universalize  with targeting can minimize inequity where governments aim for universal access among the target age group, but simultaneously prioritize the poor.

The second insights that I gained from the website this week is that high quality childcare, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, promotes motivation, confidence, good cognitive and linguistic development and school readiness. Active involvement from parents and communities and relevant play and learning materials ensure that early childhood services remain relevant to the needs of the children and all other stakeholders and increases sustainability.

The third insights that I gained from the website is that coordination issues include coherent regulation, funding and staffing schemes and a common vision of care and education. Effective coordination must exist among sectors at both national and local level, and also between public and private establishments.