Action Blog: Events

I love watching the Summer Olympics. There is just something that is really amazing to watch as athletes representing their countries compete in events they have spent years and at times decades getting ready to participate in.

April brings showers, warmer days, cherry blossoms (for all our DC readers!) and my favorite—Global Action Week for Education! 

As a girl that called the Alabama suburbs her home, I never dreamed I would find myself in the heart of the most powerful city in the country.Yet, I was pulled to this unfamiliar place in the name of something greater than the wave of inadequacy I felt. The idea of advocating for international education was one that captivated me, and I knew it was something I wanted to experience in a place that has fought for equal rights since it’s founding: Washington, D.C.

When schools actively create a culture of service, they make education real, relevant, and rewarding.  They also prepare students to become global citizens, and teach skills and knowledge they will need for college and career readiness.

When I was a child, what I dreamed of being when I grew up often changed with the wind. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to be a lawyer, an actress and for some brief period, I wanted to be a politician. Now that I am older and none of those things, I still realize the common denominator of all those dreams—what would have made any of them possible—is access to a quality education.

“People are at the center of sustainable development …[and efforts] to strive for a world that is just, equitable and inclusive, and committed to work[ing] together.…” These words from the Introduction to the Proposal of the Open Working Group (OWG) for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) emphasize that people are central to the implementation and success of a post-2015 development agenda, and they are the ultimate beneficiaries of “inclusive economic growth, social development, and environmental protection…without distinction.”

As millions of students return and have returned to school over these past few weeks and months, 127 million did not. 127 million children of primary and lower secondary school age were not greeted at the door by their new teacher, did not greet old friends and meet new ones, did not crowd in to the school yard, did not spend the morning finding their shiny new desks, learning new rules and finding their way as they transition from primary to secondary school.

I have always gotten a kick out of doing something that someone said I couldn’t do or that I am not supposed to do—finishing a grueling hike, building something, fixing something or even something as seemingly simple as getting up each and every day and going back to finish something you started even if everyone is against you. All of that takes strength—the strength to do, the strength to overcome and the strength to keep going.

On June 26, more than 800 delegates including heads of state, education ministers, representatives from multilateral organizations, civil society, business and youth leaders from 91 countries gathered in Brussels for the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) 2014 Replenishment Conference.

The Week of the Young Child™ is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) to focus public attention on the learning opportunities for young children, their families, and the professionals and educators who serve them.