Personal Hopes and Goals

When I think about children and their families who come from diverse backgrounds, the hope I have for them is that they stay true to who they are and not allow themselves to get so focused on gaining acceptance and fitting into the dominant culture, that they lose sight of their unique heritage and culture. Julie Benavides, professor of Early Childhood Development, stated during her interview that her family worked to fit into the dominant American society that they disowned their family’s culture so much that she didn’t know her family’s native tong (Spanish) and she wasn’t able to help children and families of Hispanic decent because she couldn’t speak the language  (Laureate, 2011).

I would like to set a goal for early childhood educators to operate on an entirely new level of acceptance and celebration of children and families of different cultures. Let’s set a trend that calls attention to how the early childhood educators have discovered the best methods to help children have a love for learning as they excel in their academic endeavors. When we teach children to celebrate who they are and embrace their culture, we create confident young students who excel in all they do, and as a result, encourage their peers to do the same.

As we come to the end of another great study that prepares me and my colleagues to be equipped to help create positive change in our communities as we give children the best educational start that will aid them to continue the quest. I am taking this time to give a thunderous applause to each of my colleagues who care enough to work in this field, and a sincere thank you for all your comments, ideas, and the stories of your personal experiences that both taught us and equipped us with the knowledge of what not to do, and what works best for young children and their families. I thank you for all your support in class. My hopes for each of you is that you stay firm to your beliefs as we take all that we have learned at Walden in our professional studies and put them into practice in our schools and learning centers. Remember, that we have been taught better, so let’s go out and teach others that there are better ways to work with children. I encourage each of you to never compromise when you see something disturbing happening to children or their parents, or to not make excuses for incorrect practices that attempts to define the why’s and why not’s of wrong doings of any kind that will hurt children or their families. May your work never be in vain and may all your dreams come true. Let’s keep properly and respectfully loving and caring for children and their families. Take care of yourselves, guard your beliefs, and let’s get busy.  

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). In her own voice: Julie Benavides. [video file] Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.deu. 

The Family of Maldives

My new student and his family are Maldives from the Islands South of India and West of Sri Lanka.

In preparation to welcome my new student and his family I will:

-        Research and study about their country

-        I’ll inform the students in my class about their new classmate who will be joining us.

 

-        I will teach the class a little about the new student’s country.

-        I will lead the class in making decorations for our classroom. We will make a beach seen with blue water, a bright sun, coral islands, name one island Male` with a school building on it because Male` is the capital island and it is where the children go to school to learn English. We will also make coconut trees, pictures of people wind surfing and scuba diving, boats because building boats is an important business there, and fishermen because 1/3 of the people are fishermen. We will wear name tags that say, I am Sam, Divehi which means islander, and their language is also called Divehi (Spraggett, & Johnstone 2001).

 

-        I will invite the parents in to introduce their family and our new classmate to help us learn the student.

I am expecting my presentation to help my new student to feel welcomed and comfortable enough to be himself. I hope that his parents also feel welcomed and at peace to have their child in my class. I want them to feel free to ask questions, to feel free to drop in to check on their child, and to get involved in our parent group. I’m expecting my efforts to also help each student in my class to be accepting of the new student and his differences. As we carry out our class motto that everyone is important and everyone matter in our classroom culture.

Reference

Spraggett, D. & Johnstone, J. (2001). Window on the world. Three’s Company, London.

The Personal side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The Personal side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The study of biasness, prejudices, and oppressions can be a challenging study, but is needed in order to entice a peaceful resolution and a quest for change. Through this study, I have been asked to give examples of prejudice, oppressive, and offensive infractions that I have experienced or witnessed in my personal or professional life. As a woman of color, my entire life is made up of so many of these infractions that I’m not sure where to start. In addition to these infractions, it is somewhat painful to remember them, so I choose to reflect on the overall experience. For example, discriminating actions deliberately taking my order last when it is clear that I was next in line, or words said such as “you people are always getting things wrong”, or stereo typing by moving my son’s desk in a corner while the other kids desk are being decorated for a holiday party and me, his mother walking the classroom to see these things happening, or learning that some neighbors yelled angrily at my young sons telling them to “slow down kids are playing here” when his car was just running loud, or when I decided not to make a purchase and to see the looks on faces and to hear someone say the word “typical”. Although these are just a few small examples, they can be extremely damaging and in that thought, not small at all. Just as Dr. Sue mentioned in his presentation about microaggressions, that “it becomes very annoying to constantly deal with these hidden assaults day after day” (Laureate, 2011).

 

 

Because the infractions of these oppressive and rude behaviors are so disturbing and hurtful, I don’t like to think of them. Active words of advice always given are to “stop thinking about it”, “don’t let it take over”, and, “try to forget it”, but in the process of trying to forget, we usually put pieces of it to rest but we never forget. We are left mostly with the feelings that the infraction caused.

The feelings that are experienced can be from feeling like there’s something desperately wrong with people like me, to rehearsing in your head what just happened to see where did I go wrong, what did I do wrong, to feeling less than, or not of any importance, and that I am well beneath them and do not and will never hold equity with them, “the dominant race of people”.  

In order to bring about change for peace, and equity, educating people of the pain and the stripping of humanity that takes place in the soul of a person that is ever lasting must take place. It is important that others stand up for what’s right and speak out when they notice unfair injustice behavior towards other races: just as it is the latest push for change in bullying by encouraging people to stand up and speak out to stop bullying the same should be for unkind treatment of others because after all it is also a form of bullying. Be brave and stand up for basic human rights and kindness, just as the mother who stood up for me and my son by pushing my son’s desk over with the other kids and she began to decorate it: that small jester did so much for me that day and I’ll never forget it.

Because hurtful words and actions can be so stripping and life changing, it is the driving force to why I inter act with such care when working with children of any age. It is also my teaching philosophy.

Reference

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Microaggressions in everyday life [video file].

     Retrieve from https://class.waldenu.edu.