Meet my professional partners and hear their experiences and views

Firstly I chose someone that I have known for 16 years, we met at the International school of Amsterdam, in Holland,  when she was a Kindergarten teacher and I was a teaching assistant.  Frankie comes from Britain and has lived in Holland for over 20 years.  I later moved to another community International school and had the pleasure of teaching her twins in Pre-Kindergarten.  Frankie is now head of Early Years and teaches art. 

When I asked her about her experiences with teaching children from poor conditions she answered honestly that she had only ever taught in International schools and that the children from these schools were from privileged families.  Her own schooling, she added was in England in a little village of working class people.  She was not aware of anyone who struggled due to poverty.  We discussed poverty here in Indonesia and also in South Africa.  Frankie's school are part of an exchange to a village school in Tanzania in Africa.  She is planning to join them next year as she has always been very interested in Africa and curious about the conditions that the people there live in.  I will be curious about her experience in Africa and witnessing the poverty first hand.

My other professional connection is Julie, Julie is a Pre-Kindergarten teacher that I met in Indonesia.  Julie is French  and has a long history of teaching in 6 different countries.  She is on her way to teach in Russia and is hoping to work her way into a leadership role in the Early Years.  Julie is very dedicated to education and did a lot for our school here in Indonesia.  I was luckily enough to have her teach all 3 of my sons.
When talking to Julie about her experiences with teaching children in Poverty, much like Frankie, she had not taught children that were subject to poverty.  Having lived in Indonesia for 5 years Julie is fully aware of the poverty here and is very involved in school raising funds to help the children with some relief.  She knows how important children's health and nutrition are as part of healthy develop and is concerned when she hears what about the diet of the children in the village and rural locations.  She tells about how her maid at home has a baby and what they are taught to feed the baby.  A first introduction to solids is rice with salt.  This is alarming to us that are more educated in basic nutrition of babies and young children.  We know that salt is unhealthy and should be avoided, especially in babies.  Due to poverty and poor living conditions there is a lack of education and people are trying to survive with what they can afford, which is rice here. 

I have shared this weeks application with my professional connections regarding poverty in Indonesia and look forward to some interesting conversations.

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