What I have learned - 6357 Wk#8

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to be open-minded and effectively bring positive change to the families in regard to diversity. One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice  is to familiarize oneself with the various cultures to be better informed on the diverse cultures.

I would like to say thank you to all of my colleagues.  I have truly appreciated, respected, and enjoyed your reflections and insights during this course.  I wish you all much success as we move forward in our field of Early Childhood Education.

 

Neketha Polley

Start Seeing Diversity: Creating Art

 Black   Hispanic Asian Korean Russian

 

Bullying

Language Barrier

Discrimination

 

Special         Anger

Fear          Handicapped

 Homelessness

Hunger

 

 

Taking time to think about what I have learned in this course about children's identities and development and the ways in which each is impacted by bias, discomfort, and trauma, these are the reflections that come to mind.  This is the artwork inside of my head when I think of the various bias and traumas that affect children.

6357 Wk 6 Blog: "We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

A time when I reprimanded or tried to silence a child after he had pointed out someone they saw as different (“That man only has one leg!”) was in 2013, while at the hospital visiting my mom (who had just had a stroke), my son noticed a man outside in a wheelchair smoking.  My son was four years old at the time but, he asked the man why he had one leg and what happened to the missing one.  Before I could say be quiet the man said, that’s ok, I don’t mind.  Then, he told my son, I got it from smoking on these cancer sticks so, never smoke if you want to keep your legs and your health.

 

The messages that I might have communicated to my son from the gentleman’s response is that everyone makes mistakes and we are supposed to learn from them.  Therefore, he should never smoke like the man said if he wants to keep his legs. I also expressed to my son that although the man said it was ok, it is never nice to point at people that are different than us or make fun of them.

 

I think an anti-bias educator might have responded to support the child's (or classroom's) understanding by explaining that we are all created equally but have different features and it is not nice to point out or make fun of others that are different than us as we would not want anyone to treat us that way.