Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse background is their need not be judged. I have many reasons and examples of how often people from a diverse background get judged before anyone gets to know them. It can affect the child in many ways, like mess with their self-esteem and their communication skills. As a child moving from the islands at a young age I can remember my first day riding a bus and a little girl said don’t talk to her because you would not understand her. Now I have never seen or talked to this girl before, but because she heard my mother speak, she assumed I had a strong accent like her. As adults we do the same thing, a lot of times, not realizing it. We should be quick to love and slow to love.  

 

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to the issue of diversity, equity, and social justice is to become active in different cultures around the world. A regular child care facility is only concerned with what happens in that particular center, and nowhere else. For example, a chat line could be incorporated when different teachers, directors, and parents can communicate via internet about different aspects of the early childhood field. It can serve to be a learning experience.

 

I would like to take this time to thank all my colleagues and professor for taking time out to comment and add to all blog. I have learned so much over the last 8 weeks that this was the best class I have attended at Walden. So much new information was gained and I was able to grow as a person from it. Thank you again for this great journey and I hope everyone reaches their goal in life, whatever direction it may be.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Scenario

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

·         Costa Rica is the family’s origin.

 

       Five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

·         I will first look up the country and learn as much as I could from the internet.

·         I would also go to the library and find a book that could be passed around to the different teachers in the center so that they are aware of their culture.

·         Any traditional snacks that may be eaten a lot in Costa Rica, I will purchase and hand it out on the child’s first day of school.

·         Since the language is different, Spanish, I would learn the basic words like hello, nice to meet you, your child is in good hands, have a nice day, etc.

·         I would take a look at their education system like the statistics, overall layout, ranks, etc.

All of the preparations will benefit not only me, but also the family. I will do so much research like searching the internet, scamming through books about the customs and lifestyles of their culture, and looking into their education system I will be prepared mentally as well as physically for the student. I could only imagine how it would feel as a parent to bring your child to a center that speaks a different language and is the dominant culture. I would practice saying some statements in their native language so that it would put them at ease a little bit. My mother always said that food is the way to anyone’s heart. The snack would just let the family and the child know that we can incorporate any culture into the school.

 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

               I can think back to an incident that occurred at my job about four years ago. It was around the time Obama was running for presidency, before he got elected. The pastor and the director made it clear that they were republican, but never those they were against the democrat because he was African American. All of the employees at the jobs had different views, but kept it to themselves to climate any bias or argument. It was a week before the elections and the director heard two of the employees talking about how strong of a speaker Obama was, and he went off. She got so loud talking about why is it being discussed in the workplace, he is not getting elected, he’s a liar, and went on and on about how bad he was. She walked around to every employee and told us if we discuss the presidential race we will get fired.

            To put icing on the cake, the day after Obama got elected, she was more pissed. One of the African American teachers had the students color a printout with his face on it to add to the wall of presidents. The director went to her room and demanded that she took it off the wall and throw it away, without any explanation at all. When the teacher asked her why, she fired her. Her reason was she was disrespectful to her. It was so many ways it diminish equity. The main reason it did was because this whole incident would have been eliminated if he was not African American.

            So many feeling went through my head when I say the even unfold. I just sat there and thought that no matter how many years past so people only see color. Because we know the whole issue was the color. Just the other day one of the church member (I work there but do not go to church there) said that the pastor talked about how Obama is not for Christianity. And now the members are all mad about it, but they didn’t take the time to research it to see if they were correct. The pastor is a very influential person and using that to his adventure.

            So many things could be changed to turn this incident into a greater equity. For one, I firmly believe that politics should be left out of a place of employment and the church. Everyone is entitled to have their own views and should not have to get discouraged or mad because someone else is trying to force their beliefs I on them.