Professional Hopes and Goals

The biggest hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that I apply what I have learned in this class. I strive to make each child feel comfortable and valued in my program. For this to continue I will need to implement some of the concepts I have learned while using some of the wonderful ideas I accumulated from my peers. As a launching point I will research every child’s culture to the full extent I can and implement some of that culture into each classroom.

I have one goal that I would like to see to fruition within the school, programs, and childcare in my community. That goal is that holiday celebrations be excluded from the classrooms. I am constantly broken hearted to see children who do not normally celebrate these holidays be forced to conform or be left out while a celebration is taking place. My neighbor came to me a week ago and asked what she could do about Christmas being celebrated in her sons school. Her family is Jewish and they do not celebrate Christmas. I asked her if she talked to the teacher and she had. The teacher said they do not discuss religion just the “fun” aspects of Christmas. She went on to tell me that every day sometime twice a day her son is sent to the office while the class makes Christmas trees or Santa ornaments. I was heart broken for her and her son. I told her to take her complaint to the school board. I wish there was more I could do and I know the situation will not be fixed this season but hopefully next year will be different.  

I would like to take this time to thank all my colleagues for their continued support. Their ability to constantly take my learning to a deeper level is something I am very appreciative of. It has been a pleasure to learn a long side each of you. Thank You!

Welcoming Families From Around the World

This assignment came at a very helpful time. I recently found out that our program will have two new child (cousins) from Azerbaijan. I had never even heard of this country and had a hard time spelling it. This list has given me a great to-do list over the holiday break so that I will be ready come January 7.

My family from Azerbaijan will arrive in January just after the New Year. To prepare myself for their arrival so that the children and families feel welcome and comfortable I will …

1.     Research this country as mush as possible through the library and Internet, being careful to look beyond surface information and tourist information. 

2.     Visit the international community center in my area and seek out another family form Azerbaijan that I may interview or talk to about customs and characteristics that maybe helpful when meeting the family and teaching the children.

3.     Learn what the family values and structure, culture and traditions are in order to know how to support and incorporated these into the curriculum.

4.     Learn some basic words of greeting in order to make the family feel welcome in the mornings.

5.     Incorporate authentic food into the lunch menu; find home decor items, rugs, or clothing to place in the classroom to help the children feel more at home.

I hope is that these preparations will help make the family more comfortable when arriving to my class, that the children will be more relaxed so that learning can take place, and that I will be confident in what I know about the country and open to learning more. 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The incident that jumps in my mind is one I saw take place about ten years ago and pizza restaurant. A group of teen-agers were sitting at a table talking meanly about others at their school. At the table diagonal from them was a young Asian girl in her late teens/early twenties. All of a sudden another teen-age girl walked into the pizza place and up to the table of other teens and said in a very loud angry voice, “If that Asian tramp looks at me again I am going to smack her in her pan flat face. What is with her face anyway? It’s like she does not have bones it is so flat”. All the other teens at the table started to laugh. The Asian girl and the other table hung her head low as if trying to hide. She was not even whom they were talking about but you would see the worry, shame, and sadness on her face and body language. She pushed her plate back and stood up and walked out.

In this instance the girl in no way felt equal or as good as the other group of mostly white teens. I cannot speak for her but if I were her I would have felt diminished, damages or wrong, and like my ethnicity was bad for simply not looking like others. When I witnessed this I was heart broken for the girl and so angry at the other teens.

After the girl left I did walk over to the table of teens and briefly explain that they need to be careful with what they say and that they hurt the feelings of the other girl that was sitting by them. There response was “so, we don't care about her. Mind your own business”. I wish I would have had the courage to teach them instead of point out what they had done. That I could have made a change in this minds and hearts so that the behavior would not have happened again. I think of this situation often and try to figure out what I could have done differently.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

This week has been very interesting. I never realized the amount of macroagreesions that surround us on a daily basis through television, radio, and public interaction. This week has really opened my eyes.

This week the one instance of micoaggression that really stood out what when I went with a friend to the grocery. We both needed to do out Thanksgiving shopping and thought the task would be more fun to do together. When we finally filled out carts and headed for the checkout. There were two other families in front of us; both were African-American like my friend. They both finished their transactions and it was my friend’s turn. She received her total and began to pay. The cahier said, “wow! You have cash, I thought you would have a food stamp card like every other person today;” and gestured to the other people who had left and had been in front of us. My friend just laughed it off and said, “No, I have cash.” I was shocked that this conversation took place and that the cashier did not even seem to see anything wrong with her statement. I felt hurt and embarrassed for my fiend. I also felt like I wanted to say something in defense but also did not want to make the situation more uncomfortable.

Not just this instance but also others I have witnessed this week have opened my eyes to the level of discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes that I thought were non-existent. I have also come to realize that these comments made are far more hurtful than outright discrimination, prejudice, and/or stereotypes. The comments are like little jabs to your sole that come out of nowhere and attack. 


My eyes are far more open. 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I asked three people their definition of culture and their definition of diversity. I asked a middle school teacher in her mid thirties, a nurse in her sixties, and an accountant in her late thirties. 

Dana:

Culture is all the little things that make up a person. Diversity is accepting people who are different than you with an open heart.

Marcy:

Culture is your family and what you believe and holidays you celebrate and your heritage. Diversity is all the different people being in one place. Like you can have a diverse family and that would mean that you have your core white family and some Asian or Black people that have married into the family.

Amanda:

Culture is what makes a person who they are. Diversity is the beauty that makes a person special and the reaction of love from others.

I was surprised by the answers I received. I tried to pick a diverse group of people knowing that one in particular had biases. I was also surprised that most of the individuals thought of culture in a surface definition instead of deep culture. I thought that Dana gave the closest definition of culture to my reading from this week and seemed to really understand what culture was. Diversity seemed to be the most difficult for each person to define. They spent a lot of time thinking about each answer and even after giving one seemed unsure about their response. When it came diversity I loved Amanda’s answer and thought it was well stated. Diversity can be beautiful. I was also surprised how nervous people were to answer. I even had people say they would rather not answer. This was an interesting experiment of sorts to do.