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.
Kelisha,
ReplyDeleteI too would like to learn more about cultures from around the world. I admire you for not wanting to open just another day care center we have enough of them we have learned it is alright to be different. I enjoyed reading your post and
Kelisha-I like how you talked about getting more access to a variety of cultures in your center. I feel like when we look at culture in our center, as long as we have up a picture or read a book about a certain culture, than we are covered and we are "diverse". I would love to have more interactions with different cultures and really give kids a first hand experience with this. I've enjoyed reading your blogs over the course of this 8 weeks.
ReplyDeleteKelisha,
ReplyDeleteOften times I have heard my colleagues talking about children because of how they look and how they dress. When they come from their home visits they talk about how the house was. I hope that nothing ever changes in their lives that might cause them to take a step back. Instead of talking about them they should be trying to help them find solutions to improve their way of living. Good Luck in the remaining courses that you might have. I have enjoyed sharing this journey with you.
Kelisha
ReplyDeleteI recall the course we had to establish International Connections and understand the trends and issues in their country. It would be nice if we were to establish connect with a child Internationally for the children in the class to connect with. When I was teacher, we would receive and mail postcards to people we knew across the world. It would be nice to do something like this to gain information from other children across the country, learn their music, share a phrase, post it in the class and so on.