OMEP-USNC
It Takes the World to Raise the Children
Edna Runnels Ranck, Lenore Peachin Wineberg,
Blythe F. Hinitz, and Anne O'Neill
Contact Edna Ranck at edna.ranck@verizon.net for more information on OMEP-USNC or the people involved in the organization.
In today's world of growing international interconnectedness, it is important for early childhood professionals, parents, and advocates to know about children and early education in their own country and in other nations of the world. International organizations like OMEP offer opportunities to learn about childhood around the globe.
History and structure of OMEP
OMEP began in Europe in 1948. The founders chose the name Organisation Mondiale pour l'Éducation Préscolaire-in English, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education.
The United Nations, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), had not included services for young children, so Alva Myrdal of Sweden, Lady Majory Allen of Great Britain, and Mme. Suzanne Herbinière-Lebert of France created OMEP to keep the needs of young children before the UNESCO leadership.
When UNESCO convened an early childhood summit in 1948, the energetic women planned an organizing meeting to take place after it. This meeting led to establishing OMEP. The strategies of OMEP's founders continue today: define early childhood broadly; keep membership open to people from all nations who are interested or engaged in work in programs for young children; and issue publications in French, Spanish, and English.
OMEP members belong to their country's affiliate National Committee (NC), such as the nonprofit United States National Committee (USNC). OMEP-USNC invites anyone in the United States who is interested or participating in early childhood education to join (visit www. omep-usnc.org).
The work of OMEP and OMEP-USNC in the twenty-first century
Today, OMEP's biannual International Journal of Early Childhood is published in Sweden and strives to maintain language diversity; it features articles and reviews in the author's language (if French or Spanish) and English. The USNC affiliate also distributes a newsletter three times a year to members and maintains an active Web site that lists numerous international early childhood events. Technology enables members in countries around the world to keep in touch.
Hundreds of OMEP members and early childhood advocates from around the world met in July in Melbourne, Australia, for the 24th World Congress, an assembly convened in a different country every three years. The site of the 25th World Congress (to be held in 2007) will be posted on the OMEP Web site.
At this time OMEP-USNC members are focusing attention on two projects: (1) Support for the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), an international effort, and (2) Children's Day, currently a USNC emphasis but available to all OMEP affiliates.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
The United States is one of two countries that have not ratified the CRC, thus missing an opportunity to make a child's right to a quality life a priority. OMEP members support the CRC and are working with colleagues in U.S. and international nongovernmental organizations to inform students, professionals, and citizens about the CRC and the importance of expediting U.S. ratification. For more CRC information, read the article "Children Everywhere Need Our Support for Their Rights" below.
Children's Day
The idea of Children's Day was born when USNC members brainstormed ways that teachers and caregivers could teach students of all ages more about children, families, and early childhood programs in many nations. Instead of an annual celebration, it would be promoted 12 times a year, on the twentieth day of each month. Ideas are posted on the OMEP-USNC Web site to get teachers and parents started, and everyone is invited to share their Children's Day activities with others. The first Children's Day occurred November 20, 2003.
Our shrinking world
OMEP-USNC's Children's Day is intended to be a forum for children, families, and early childhood professionals around the world who are facing rapidly changing times. Although young children have to learn about geographical boundaries, we must also teach them that differences between people need not prevent them from working together toward common goals. Lady Allen, an OMEP founder, wrote:
OMEP is an open forum for free discussion. We do not want to preach any one educational method: our sole purpose is to help all who work with children to think clearly and wisely, by providing a platform for all schools of thought and for all professions and organizations interested in the development of early childhood. We recognize no barriers within OMEP, because we are trying to create a true world society from which no one is excluded on account of colour, creed, nationality or political conviction. (Allen 1952, 4)
OMEP-USNC members promote awareness not only of the differences that separate U.S. citizens from citizens of other nations, but also of the ways in which nations and people are alike. In times in which rapid communication and political differences abound, early childhood professionals must be mindful of changing demographics and the effects of globalization in their own communities and early childhood programs. For example, immigration and expanding cross-cultural experiences affect all young children and their families.
Early childhood educators can learn more about young children and international relations by reading the book Starting Strong: Early Childhood Education and Care, published by OECD (Organisation [sic] for Economic Co-operation and Development), a consortium of 12 nations, including the United States. Prepared by early childhood professionals and educational leaders worldwide, Starting Strong explores the role that early childhood education and care plays in national development.
Educators can also read two books by Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization and Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism. Friedman is not an early educator, but as a parent and New York Times foreign policy columnist he defines how we now live in a global environment:
. . . Globalization is not simply a trend or a fad, but is, rather, an international system . . .[It] has its own rules and logic that today directly or indirectly influence the politics, environment, geopolitics and economics of virtually every country in the world. (Friedman 2000, ix)
Friedman compares the globalization system now operating with the cold war system that dominated the years after World War II. Briefly, the cold war was characterized by separation; nations threatened other nations with attack. Its best-known symbol was the Berlin wall.
Globalization, on the other hand, is marked by integration among nations, a balancing effort among nations and economic markets, and the individuals within them. Globalization is best symbolized by the Internet.
In a world that seeks a balance among nations, early educators are already primed to carry the message of relationships and partnerships. Balancing our individual existence with the individuality of others and the needs of the community at large is a crucial task for everyone to perform. Our field calls it sharing, joining a team, and being kind to one another!
Conclusion
On our own life journeys, we need to experience globalization and discuss its concepts of balance, mutual support, and interaction with everyone we meet. OMEP-USNC offers opportunities to early childhood professionals to do just that.
Globalization . . . is now used to describe the reality of mass communication affecting all sectors of industry and culture. In the new order, countries are concerned about the ways to preserve their unique cultural characteristics and their role in the global markets. (Third World Summit on Media for Children program 2004)
OMEP-USNC continues to serve its members and the early childhood field by pursuing the mission "to promote high-quality education and care for all children in environments that promote peace and respect for all people in their surroundings" (OMEP XXIII World Congress, Santiago, Chile, July 30-August 4, 2001, executive summary).
References
Allen, M. (Lady Allen of Hurtwood). 1952. Speech at the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Death of Froebel. Presented on OMEP International Day. Archives of International OMEP and Lady Allen of Hurtwood Papers, Modern Records Centre, Library, The University of Warwick, England. MSS.121/OM/7/1/9 [Xerox copy of original speaking copy]
Friedman, T. 2000. The Lexus and the olive tree: Understanding globalization. New York: Anchor Books, Random House.
OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2001. Starting strong: Early childhood education and care. Paris, France: Author.
Third World Summit on Media for Children. 2004. Sponsored by Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constan-tinople, UNESCO, and UNICEF. www.3rd-ws.org/global.htm.
Edna Runnels Ranck, EdD, is senior research associate in early childhood education at Westover Consultants, Inc., in Silver Spring, Maryland. She has worked on early childhood education policy and historical issues at local, state, national, and international levels.
Lenore Peachin Wineberg, EdD, is a professor of early childhood education at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She is past president of OMEP-USNC and is researching the lives of past leaders of OMEP in the United States.
Blythe F. Hinitz, EdD, is professor of elementary and early childhood education and coordinator of early childhood education at the College of New Jersey in Ewing. She chairs the International Committee of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) and is a member of the national board of OMEP-USNC.
Anne O'Neill, EdD, is adjunct professor of early childhood education at Fordham University Graduate School of Education in New York City. She is a Department of Public Information representative of OMEP to UNICEF and a validator for NAEYC.
