www.teamchildren.org from high-tech to high-touch we are making a difference by giving families schools organizations and anyone we can reach the training the tools the opportunity and the technology to advance their academic, economic, and social development.
We are turning common sense into common practice. From the moment a child is born they begin to explore the world around them and learning begins. Study after study and program after program has pointed to the fact that from the moment of birth to around five or six a baby's brain is growing at a faster rate faster than that at any time in our lives.
However, erroneously far too many people believe that learning begins in preschool, Head Start or kindergarten. However, learning starts as soon as a parent gives a child an opportunity to learn and kids can learn anything that you presented them in a simple clear precise method.
In Philadelphia, there is a place called The Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential www.iahp.org. They have a 1-week course called how to give your baby encyclopedic knowledge. Our founder and his wife at the time both took the course and began doing the program with their son from birth. The first thing they did was to concentrate on the pathways to the brain, sight, sound, touch smell, and taste. If a baby only hears or sees or tastes or smells the same thing over and over again their brain will not grow that fast. Introducing different textures, different touches, different smells, different sounds, different objects to see helps the brain grows with use. It's called from sight to sound, to experience makes connections in the brain.
Our son by the time he was one could count to 100 in English and Spanish and read over a thousand words. By the time he was 2 1/2 he was capable of using a keyboard on a computer and playing reader rabbit math rabbit language Express and all of The Learning Company games. By the time he was five, he is pretty much mastered all of The Learning Company games.
A 1978 Dr. Rolf the founder of structural integration asked Robert to implement and manage a project to demonstrate, document, and promote the benefits of Rolfing for babies and children. We took a small number of babies and children and took them through their initial 10 Rolfing sessions. Our documentation shows that it made a huge difference, not only in their posture but in their overall well-being and in their neurological development as well. Since then Robert has continued to pioneer this project and has now worked with over 300 babies, children and families as young as day one and as deep as four generations. He has worked with babies and children with no problems to kids with severe developmental challenges such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, spina bifida, autism, and scoliosis to mention a few with encouraging results captured through video documentation.
In 1996 Robert took his pioneering work with babies and children to one of the most challenged and poverty-ridden neighborhoods in Philadelphia and the area called the “Badlands of North Philadelphia” at 9th and Indiana he set up his table on the sidewalk and began offering free sessions to the kids in the neighborhood. More and more volunteers joined the project and they distributed books art supplies musical equipment athletic equipment, cleaned up the neighborhood, built a paly ground and before the project was over every family in that neighborhood had been given a computer.
Due to some personal challenges, Robert had to put that project on hold. However, in 1998 he began to distribute computers to a wider range of families and neighborhoods. With minimal funding and no real staff, through the generous contribution of equipment from companies, individuals, volunteer work from senior citizens, college and high school volunteers we have now distributed over 21,000 low-cost refurbished computers from our all over our region all the way to Africa.
More important than the computer itself is it every computer comes loaded with proprietary learning software donated by Brillkids a company in China who is donated over half a million dollars worth of proprietary learning software, that we put on every computer An amazing reading and vocabulary program, math& music module. .
We also include Learning Links that are priceless. Any baby, child or adult can learn anything they want with the click of a mouse in the comfort and safety of their home anything they want at their own pace and in their own interest.
At one point in our history, we distributed over a thousand computers to high schools in Philadelphia that at the time had no computers in their classrooms. This made a huge difference in the teacher's ability to track the results and report them to the school district.
We spent three years working with the ASPIRA of PA to create a model for 21st century preschool education, in conjunction with the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential and their programs. We started with two classrooms the following year it was 10 classrooms and the following year we did 30 classrooms. Due to various factors, we had to put that project on the back burner for the time being.
Recently we put together spreadsheet statistics on every elementary school in every state capital. Of the approximately 1,200,000 kids over 800 thousand of them are below 50% proficient in reading and math. We are also putting together statistics for all of the tri count schools in the Delaware valley with similar statistics. In Philadelphia, over 75% of elementary students are below 50% proficient in reading and math and a vast majority of them are below 30%.
We are working now on creating a 21st-century curriculum and learning materials that are basically flashcards that any parent can use at home, or teachers in the classroom. We also have high school students who are creating PowerPoint learning materials about presidents and primates and sharks and birds and flowers and everything you can imagine.
That project should be done hopefully by the Fall. To accomplish it we need to raise about $75,000 more.
Please feel free to contribute the entire $75,000 or any amount you can afford.
Your contribution is making a difference. We appreciate all the support we can find.
Links:
Many years ago I attended a course in Chstnut Hill PA that taught parents how to teach babies reading, math and encylopedic knowledge. Fasicaniting and possibly transformative.
By the time our son Bryan was one he could count to 100 in english and spainish and read hundreds of words. By the time he was two and a half he was proficient on a computer and by the time he was six had masterd most of the learning company programs.
All through preschool, elementary, middle and high school he was in the gifted group. At 17 1/2 he gained early acceptance to Georgetown.
Now 400 other kids alos were accepted early at Georgrtwon that year.
The question remains did waht we did as parents combining high touch/rolfing/massage with high tech make the difference.
Our new goal is to raise substantial funding to do that with a group of low income children with developmental challenges over a 2-3 year period of time and follow them up for a number of years to demonstarte that the method to our madness actualy can work universally .
We also did a mini project in one of Philadelphia's most challenged presschools with miraculous results
Feel free to contribute to our legacy project.
Here is some startlying and sobering facts on exucation and incarceration.
State and local spending on prisons and jails has increased at triple the rate of funding for public education for preschool through grade P-12 education in the last three decades, a new analysis by the U.S. Department of Education found.
Released recently the report, Trends in State and Local Expenditures on Corrections and Education, notes that even when population changes are factored in, 23 states increased per capita spending on corrections at more than double the rate of increases in per-pupil P-12 spending. Seven states—Idaho, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia—increased their corrections budgets more than five times as fast as they did their allocations for P-12 public education. The report also paints a particularly stark picture of higher education spending across the country at a time when postsecondary education matters more than ever. Since 1990, state and local spending on higher education has been largely flat while spending on corrections has increased 89 percent.
“Budgets reflect our values, and the trends revealed in this analysis are a reflection of our nation’s priorities that should be revisited,” said U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. “For far too long, systems in this country have continued to perpetuate inequity. We must choose to make more investments in our children’s future. We need to invest more in prevention than in punishment, to invest more in schools, not prisons.”
The report sheds light on the connection between educational attainment and incarceration. The United States has only 5 percent of the world’s population yet more than 20 percent of the world’s incarcerated population. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, two-thirds of state prison inmates have not completed high school. One study also shows young black men between the ages of 20 and 24 who do not have a high school diploma or an equivalent credential have a greater chance of being incarcerated than employed. Researchers have estimated that a 10 percent increase in high school graduation rates results in a 9 percent decline in criminal arrest rates.
“Mass incarceration does not make us safer. Yet for three decades, our country has prioritized spending on prisons instead of classrooms,” said Valerie Jarrett, senior advisor to President Obama. “We can no longer afford this failure to invest in opportunity, only to lock up people once they’ve dropped out of school and turned to crime. These misguided priorities make us less safe and betray our values, and it is time we came together as a country to invest in our people and their capacity to contribute to society.”
Help us transfrom our future www.teamchildren.org
Contributions from individuals, companies, and foundations have empowered www.teamchildren.org to distribute over 17,000 low cost refurbished computers to families, schools and organizations. We estimate we have reached over 80,000 kids. But our job is not done.
In a few weeks, the tides of power throughout our nation will be shifting, but the educational crisis remains, as a see no evil, speak no evil.
While we have the technology through public TV this nation has not yet created an opportunity for young children to learn reading, math, science or technology at home so as to start school ready to learn.
While programs like Sesame Street made some difference it was not a sufficient difference to turn the tide on kids failing in school.
In Philadelphia alone, there are over 153 elementary schools where the average math proficiency is 10.5 % reading 23.5 %
Comcast has poured millions of dollars promoting the Internet Essentials program yet thousands of people in our region still have no computer to use at home.
Today while getting my car fixed I met a woman that is a teacher in an inner-city school. While talking about what I do she mentioned that she needed a laptop because of her six-year-old spilt water on it. I offered her a laptop for $150 and she could not afford it.
We talked about how teachers spend most of their time dealing with behavior problems and at the end of the day there is little o no effective teaching going on.
Most schools have no effective parenting programs and have no idea if the kids in their schools have the technology they need.
Over the next 6 weeks, our goal is to distribute over 300 more desktops and laptops and raise $100,000 ++ to fully fund and staff our programs
This past Saturday we helped a 17-year-old in the Perkiomen school district receive a laptop. His mother died 3 years ago, his father is not in the picture, he lives with his elderly grandparents that have very little money.
He now has the technology he needs to transform his academic, economic, and social future.
Links:
A brain is a terrible thing to waste. Here is a link to just one of a multitude of articles on the subject.
https://www.oxfordlearning.com/summer-learning-loss-statistics/
But what if you are a 10-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a 15 year old that has no access to a computer, has no one to drive you to the library, has no one to take you to camp and you are stuck in your apartment with a mother that is severely disabled with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Last week we were able to distribute 2 laptops to these kids for $100. That is not what it cost us to do this program but our heart could not take the other $100 they offered.
Then we were able to help Delta Community Services receive 10 laptops to help their disabled student
Then we were able to help OIC receive 15 laptops to work with kids trying to receive their GED.
With little to no real funding or staff, we accomplished these miracles because of the generosity of our volunteers and donations of computers from companies like Lockheed, Wawa, SEI, Acme and many individual contributions of equipment. Stores like Giant, Chick-Fila, Hooters, Olive Garden and much more help feed our volunteers.
Your continued support will help us distribute another 500 computers this summer.
Thanks for your support.
Robert
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