What I have learned-Week 8

One hope that you have when you think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds (any format and any length)

 

I hope that I am educated enough to make children and their families who come from diverse backgrounds comfortable.  I feel that any family from a diverse background is already going to be uncomfortable in new situations they are not familiar with but I feel my education could ease their minds.  I want to know more about diversity an have the ability to show I am educated and always willing to learn more.

 

One goal you would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice (any format and any length)

 

One goal I would like to set for diversity, equity, and social justice for the early childhood field is to have more education on these topics.  It is not said enough, kids are coming out of early childhood with very little idea what diversity even means.  Schools need to have resources, curriculum, and a vast amount of materials on these subjects.  With education, the future for the children and others will be much easier.

 

 

A brief note of thanks to your colleagues

 

Thank you everyone for letting me learn from you and with you.  I feel we are lucky to be working with educators and have real life situations we are working through together.  This has been such a valuable course and has brought new meaning to the word diversity for me.  I hope you all continue to thrive in your education.

 

 

 

Week 7-Create Art

Developing children need to be taught about race, biases, and equality in life.

 

Important roles for a developing child need to be identified.

 

Vary abilities make children who they are and separate one from another.

 

Everyone has a bias; it is our job to work through them.

 

Racism is evident in everyday life.

 

Stories. Storytelling is how children learn and express themselves.  Let them tell stories, hear stories, and recreate stories in their everyday life.

 

It takes a village.  This saying sticks hard with me throughout this course; children need their families to help them develop.

 

Teachers make the difference, we have the tools to help children learn about diversity and what makes them unique and what makes them who they are in this big world.

 

You make the decisions that best fit you; children learn from you and learn to accept through you.

Start Seeing Diversity Blog: "We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"-Week 6

I can remember a time that I was with my nephew at the mall and we were shopping around.  He turned to me and asked me why that person was so short but looked older.  I felt so uncomfortable.  As most children, his voice was not quiet and I am pretty sure that the women heard him say that.  I just answered by saying oh don’t worry about it hunny and quickly changed the subject to something else. 

 

This message could have been portrayed to my nephew that either I did not know or it was something he doesn’t need to know about.  He probably assumed it was something that shouldn’t be discussed and probably viewed that person as being very different and maybe a bit weird.  He likely still wondered as we continued shopping, why that person looked that way and why his aunt didn’t want to talk about it.

 

An anti-biased educator could have responded to him by saying that person was born differently than people he is use to seeing.  They could have taught a mini lesson on dwarfism and what it means to be a dwarf.  They could have explained this person is just like us but smaller in size.  They could have talked about it being considered a disability but for most with this, make huge accomplishments and live their life just like we do but with some adjustments.