What I Have Learned

The one hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to be able to always find a medium, one where everyone no matter what culture, class, race, greed, nationality or sexual orientation, that I will be able to create an anti-bias environment where everyone will feel welcome.

The one goal I like to set for the EC field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is that we must teach our children to honor cultural diversity in the classrooms, it’s easy to celebrate what we can see, hear, or taste, such as food, art, crafts, music, costumes and customs, but what I am referring to is to honoring cultural diversity by being sensitive and respectful to the differences in other belief, values, practices as well family traditions.

And finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues for sharing their insights, knowledge and success over the course of the last eight week.  It has certainly been a rewarding experience. 

The Crayon Box That Talked

While walking into a toy store the day before today

I overheard a crayon box with many things to say

“I don’t like Red!” said Yellow and Green said “Nor do I”

“And no one her likes Orange but no knows just why”

“We are a box of crayons that doesn't get along

Said Blue to all the others “Something here is wrong”

Well, I bought that box of crayons and took it home with me

And laid out all the colors so the crayons all could see

They watched me as I colored with Red, Blue and Green

And Black, White and Orange and every color in between

They watched as green became the grass and Blue became the sky

The Yellow sun was shining bright on White clouds drifting by

Colors changing as they touched becoming something new

They watch me as I colored – they watched me till I was through

And when I finally finished I began to walk away

And as I did the crayon box had something more to say

“I do like Red!” said Yellow and Green said, “so do I”

And Blue you were terrific! So high up in the sky

“We are a box of crayons each one of us unique

But when we get together the picture is more complete”

                                                             Shane DeRolf

I’ve always tried to incorporate attention to diversity and equity into the classroom, however this course as given me a tools to help me more created in the classroom by creating a program environment that is inclusive, multicultural and reflects the communities of the children I serve.

"We Don't Say Those Words”

 Hello everyone, and Happy Valentine’s Day. 

I have a child in my class who has a birth mark on her face right above a left eye.  On more than one occasion I’ve overhead a few of the other children asked her “what’s that on your eye” or “why do you have that boo boo on your face”.  She never replied she’d just run away or continue playing.  On this one particular day we were out on the playground and one of the other children “screamed run from her she has a disease on her face that can make you sick”.  Immediately the child started crying because all of the other kids ran to the other side of the slide.  I walked over to the child kneeled down comforted her, once I got her to stop crying I called for recess to be over and we all went back inside.  I asked the little boy to apologize to the little for making her cry.  I also explained to him as well as the other children that the scar on the little girls face was a birthmark, and that we all have a birthmark, I should them my birthmark which was located on my upper left arm.  I told the children that birthmarks comes in all different shapes, sizes and that some birthmarks can also look like a scare like the one on Dena’s face.  A few of the other kids begin pointing out on their legs and arms what they believed or were told by their parents their birthmarks.  It turned out to be a very interesting discussion.  One child believed his birthmark looked like a hammer while others began to pull-up their shirts to show the other children marks on their upper shoulder or the lower part of their stomach.  By end of the discussion the kids were telling Dena that her birthmark looked like a baby butterfly.  She was laughing enjoying the comments she was getting about her birthmark.

Several weeks later I found out that a family member of the little boy who lived on the West coast had did from Aids.  I believe that the child must have overheard someone talking about the lesions this person may have had and related this to the remark he had made about Dena.