In the summer of 2025, representatives from over sixty nations convened in a grand hall in Bologna, Italy, to discuss children under eight. Not college students, not teenagers, and not prepared for the workforce. kids who still require assistance tying their shoes. During its 77th World Assembly, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education, also known by its French acronym OMEP, issued a statement that, when stripped of its diplomatic language, amounts to a direct accusation: most governments are failing the youngest members of their societies, and they are doing so with full knowledge of the consequences. OMEP is older…
Author: Kelsey Myers
Kelsey Myers
Kelsey Myers is a Senior Editor at worldomep.org and a dedicated advocate for early childhood education whose work begins — and ends — with a simple belief: that the earliest years of a child's life matter more than almost anything else we can invest in. Based at a local school, Kelsey works daily alongside the children and families whose experiences inform everything she writes. She doesn't observe early education from a distance. She is inside it — in the classrooms, on the playgrounds, in the conversations between teachers and parents that shape how young children understand the world around them. That proximity gives her writing a warmth and specificity that purely policy-driven commentary rarely achieves. Through her writing at worldomep.org, Kelsey brings that same energy to readers — making the case, clearly and consistently, that early childhood education deserves far more attention than it typically receives. Kelsey shares her personal opinions on: https://x.com/Butterflyboule
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If you know where to look, you can see that something strange is taking place in early childhood education. Corporate logos are appearing in previously unheard-of locations in cities like Austin, Nashville, and Charlotte: on the walls of daycare facilities, in the fine print of brochures for preschool programs, and on grants that support classroom operations. Once the primary provider of funding for initiatives like Head Start and the Child Care and Development Fund, the federal government has been retreating. And corporate America has quietly but clearly begun writing checks into that growing gap. The figures present a clear picture.…
You’ll see something that wasn’t there fifteen years ago when you walk into a well-funded American preschool today. The block stations and the vibrant rugs have not altered. The language is the problem. Phrases like “co-regulation,” “felt safety,” and “what happened to you?” are printed on laminated cards near the door, woven into teacher handbooks, and displayed on classroom walls. The trained response is no longer a firm redirection when a four-year-old tosses a toy across the room. It’s a pause, a crouch to eye level, a quiet attempt to figure out what invisible wound might be causing the outburst.…
The scene is nearly always the same when you walk into any restaurant on a Saturday afternoon. The bluish glow of a phone resting against a bottle of ketchup illuminates the face of a toddler sitting in a high chair. The parents are eating, chatting, and occasionally using their own devices to scroll. No one appears upset. No one appears concerned. It’s simply the current state of affairs. And it’s precisely this casual normalcy that worries an increasing number of child development researchers. It’s not the screens per se, but rather the unremarkable ease with which they’ve been incorporated into…
The international community frequently discusses roads, hospitals, and governance in the months following a conflict’s conclusion, or even while it’s still raging. Yes, education comes up. However, early childhood education? Very seldom. This may be the largest blind spot in post-conflict recovery. OMEP, the World Organization for Early Childhood Education, has been working to close this gap, frequently with little more than donated supplies, volunteer labor, and the unwavering conviction that what happens to a three-year-old matters. OMEP operates through national chapters, which don’t resemble what you might imagine when you think of an international organization in post-conflict nations like…
Observing the same individuals who created our collective screen addiction now restricting their own kids’ weekly screen time to ninety minutes is incredibly bizarre. Speaking at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, Peter Thiel revealed that his two young children are only permitted to use screens for an hour and a half every seven days. Apparently, the audience gasped. It’s difficult to tell if that response was a result of recognition or surprise. In order to get their toddlers through the afternoon, the majority of parents worldwide are doing the exact opposite. The World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) and…
The majority of school systems worldwide approach early childhood education with a certain amount of stubbornness. Small chairs bolted into inflexible rows, worksheets piled on tables, and clocks on every wall serving as a constant reminder that time is being spent, tracked, and optimized are all examples of this. All of this is predicated on the idea that play is something kids do after their real work is done and that structured instruction is serious. It is becoming more difficult to defend that assumption. Research from organizations like OMEP, which has long promoted child-centered early education worldwide, and institutions like…
Few people outside of Stockholm University were closely following Cecilia Lundholm’s research on climate education when it first began to circulate outside of academic circles. That was the part that frustrated me. There was science. For years, information about how climate disasters were affecting children’s education, mental health, and sense of future had been gathering. However, the discussion at the highest levels of international policy continued to return to carbon credits and emissions targets, as if children were merely a side topic. Perhaps for a while the timing was just off. Before the world could comprehend what climate science was…
In July, Bangkok is unrelentingly humid. The kind of heat that, despite the dryness of the agenda items, makes conference rooms feel urgent. However, during the third week of that month in 2024, a declaration urging the UN to devote a full decade to early childhood care and education was signed inside the halls of the 76th OMEP World Assembly. This statement deserves more attention than it has received. The majority of readers may not be familiar with it. The declaration aims to address a portion of the issue, including that gap. Since its founding in 1948, the World Organization…
Almost every government on the planet has signed a document that is now thirty-five years old. It states that children are entitled to food, education, and safety from exploitation and violence. It states that no child should be subjected to torture. It asserts that children should be protected in conflict areas. It states unequivocally that all decisions made by adults on behalf of children must be made with their best interests in mind. And yet, in a nation that signed every document, a child is currently being recruited into an armed group, going to bed hungry, or sitting in a…