Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

The podcast that I listened to featured Barbara Jones. Barbara Jones is the founder of Pine Grove School in 1985. Pine Grove School is located in Maine and is surrounded by pine trees. She talked about liking the Montessori program and finished her training in London, England. When she came back to the U.S. she saw a boarded up school house and fell in love with it. When looking at the Pine Grove School website every teacher had their B.A. in education and had some Montessori training. Even the administrative staff had background in education. This was nice to see since the last daycare I worked at, the director that hired me had no knowledge of early childhood.

I could not find contact information for Barbara Jones so I went to http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/. There I found out that the Center on the Developing Child is committed to “building a unified science of health, learning, and behavior to explain the early roots of lifelong impairments.” They are also committed to “leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative program and practice models that reduce preventable disparities in well-being.” Next, they are “catalyzing the implementation of effective, science-based public policies through strategic relationships and knowledge.” Finally they are “preparing future and current leaders to build and leverage knowledge that promotes the healthy development of children and families and brings high returns to all of society.”

The Global Children’s Initiative is working to build activities that promote early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations.  Faculty are working together to implement new projects and getting others involved. Currently they are expanding their resources to Brazil to promote stronger policies and gain larger investments to help the children.