Dr. Pola Rosen Honored by Kennedy Children’s Center
By Lydia Liebman & Dr. Pola Rosen
Recently, Dr. Pola Rosen, Publisher of Education Update, was honored by the Kennedy Children’s Center with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Rosen holds Doctoral degree from Teacher’s College at Columbia University in Special Education and has dedicated much of her life to helping students who learn differently thrive. The Kennedy Children’s Center, now in its 61st year, is dedicated to providing high quality education services to young children with developmental delays, in partnership with families and communities. Dr. Rosen is member of the Board of Directors.
Dr. Rosen was honored at the Kennedy Children’s Center annual fundraiser in New York City. Many of her close friends, family, and colleagues were in attendance, and many donated, helping the nonprofit to achieve its monetary goal for the evening.
Dr. Rosen delivered heartwarming and informative remarks as she received her award:
I would like to thank the Kennedy Children’s Center which is in its 61styear for recognizing me with a lifetime achievement award. Just like the Center, I have dedicated much of my life to children who learn differently.
When and how can we intervene when we see a young child who is not showing development?
Today we know much more about the brain and our environment than ever before. True acknowledgement of children with special needs is done by the center.
Our newspaper, Education Update, published a guest editorial by the president of Bank Street College of Education Shael Polakow-Suransky.
He noted that 90% of our brain architecture is built during the first 1000 days of life, with more than 1 million new neural connections formed every second. These connections establish the foundation for learning including cognitive and social-emotional development. And because of institutionalized forms of inequality, children growing up poor are often more vulnerable. The Kennedy Children’s Center has a significant impact on the development of children with special needs.
Supported, responsive relationships start with parents and guardians. Caregivers in the child-care setting can also mitigate the effects of these experiences. This is why we need to increase access to early childhood education, to eliminate the achievement gap long before children start kindergarten.
Quality early care and education, which is provided by Kennedy Children’s Center, leads to success in school, increased earnings, improved health, and stronger families. But another key is to invest more in daycare and pre-K educators with more training and improved pay.
New York State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright states that Pre-K centers offer high caliber education for young children, which is one of the factors that is motivating NYS officials to expand universal pre-K to children as young as 3.
Dr. Sharon Lynn Kagan, professor of Early Childhood Education at Teachers College, Columbia University believes in early advantages for building systems that work for young children. She has studied systems in other parts of the world and has worked with teams of experts in Australia, Finland, Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea. She has found that effective early childhood education provided greater support to teachers and families, delivering comprehensive services and strong family and education policies that support young children and make a difference in their daily lives.
With the generous gift from you and the archdiocese tonight, the Kennedy Children’s Center will be able to provide the highest quality education services to support families with training, guidance, and advocacy and to collaborate with school communities to improve teaching through professional development.
