Reflecting on Learning

My most passionate hope for my future while working with young children and their families is that every child be afforded the opportunity to receive high quality education, regardless of race, gender, economic class, language, culture, religion, etc. And also to continue to make every effort to create an anti-bias setting that is rich in possibilities for exploring cultural diversity.

Thank you colleagues for sharing you most inner thoughts, hopes and dreams. The knowledge and information I've gained from each of your experiences has truly been an inspiration.  Over the course of the last several months I've cultivated friendships beyond the classroom and I look forward to continuing those friendships and collaborating with those of you in the near future.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

Impacts on Early Emotional Development 

The region of the world I chose to investigate was West and Central Africa.  After investigating the region I elected to focus on the country Guinea.  Guinea is located on the west coast of Africa, its population is approximately 7.5 million with almost half of the population under the age of fifteen.  Guinea is one of the world's poorest countries. Despite its natural resources and abundant rainfall, Guinea has low life expectancy, a low doctor-patient ratio, and a high rate of infant mortality. The country remains largely rural, and 80 percent of the population is involved in agricultural production. Many people can afford to eat only once a day. Their meals are frequently low in protein, and many children and adults suffer from malnutrition.

Guinea was one of countries that was effected by the worst Ebola outbreak on record, 773 children in Guinea alone have lost both parents to the disease.   And the fate of these grieving kids and those in other parts of West Africa who were orphaned by the virus, were in jeopardy when family members abandoned them or refused to take them in due to concerns that they could spread the disease, which has claimed more than 9,000 lives.  According to the aid organization, an estimated 16,000 children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone lost one parent, both parents or their primary caregivers to Ebola.

The experiences of these children watching a parent die, and having to worry about who was going to take care of them or where they were going to stay no doubt had a tremendous effect on the children’s emotional wellbeing and development.

As an early childhood professionals, we should all take the opportunity to help improve child protection services for all vulnerable children.  Become a voice to address other forms of vulnerability that some of our young children may be facing on a daily basis.

References

UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/guinea.html

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

The mere fact that there is actually a topic such as sexualization of early childhood is just unthinkable. Growing up in the early 1960’s as a child, we were not exposed to the sexually explicit terms and images that our young children are exposed too today in a world that I consider as being oversexualized world.   It wasn’t until deregulation of television in the 1980’s which allowed an increase in violent and sexually explicit TV programming that depicted little boys as being told they have to be macho and ready to fight and sending the message to girls that being just pretty and sweet is not enough but they have to be sexy and sexualized as well. As much as parents and/or early childhood educators would like to protect our children from these sexually explicit terms and images at such an early age, children are sure to encounter sexually explicit photos and lyrics from the media, their peers and the school environment.  

Our goal as educators and parents should be to help keep them safe first and far most and keep an open dialogue with our young children to allow them to ask questions about what they see and how they feel about themselves in regards to the sexually explicit terms and images they may encounter.  Help them to understand the images they see and come in contact with does not define who they are as a person, or what they should wear, or how they should or should not look. 

Because of the growing age of technology, it’s nearly impossible to protect children from exposure to sexual imagery in the media and popular culture.  Most children as early as the age of three have hand held computers or access to computers in their home, videos games and their own TV in their bedrooms with little or no parental guidance as to what type of music they are listening too or TV programs they watch.

In order to counteract sexualization in early childhood both parents and educators will have to narrow such stereotypes of boys and girls in commercial culture by helping boys learn alternatives to tough and violent behavior and encouraging girls to be physically active and independent, rather than focusing on their appearance and sexiness.

Reference

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

There are no words to describe how racism feels. Everyone deals with it differently. Some people lash out verbally, others withdraw into themselves. Some people can talk openly about how it feels, others hide it deep within. It’s imperative that we talk to our children and prepare them for the possibility that they might experience racism. 

Most ethnic minority parents teach their children about their culture by passing down information and traditions from their country of origin. However, research suggests, with the exception of African-American families, they are less likely to talk to their children about what it means to be a minority in a country that is primarily Caucasian and discuss experiences related to discrimination and racial teasing they might experience because of their ethnic differences (Caughy, Nettles, O’Campo, and Lohrfink,  2002). Preparing children for racist interactions is important because it allows them to attribute the discrimination and bullying to the bully, not to a personal defect within themselves or with their culture, and will encourage them to talk about it, if when it occurs.  

As early childhood professional young children look to us as role models, so by being assertive it teaches them to find their own voice and to stand up for themselves and others who are being teased. My girlfriend, who is Korean, constantly experienced racial slurs at her job as pet groomer from co-workers to point where she quite a job.  It’s important that we, the community as a whole get involve and stand up for what is right. 

If we as educators know racial teasing or discrimination is occurring in our school, in our neighborhood, I believe we should get organized and get support to stop it.  Don’t ignore racism if you see it. It doesn’t go away if you close your eyes and don’t look.

Reference

Caughy, M. O., Nettles, S. M., O’Campo, P. J., & Lohrfink, K. F. (2005). Racial socialization and African American child development: The importance of neighborhood context. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Atlanta, GA.

Observing Communication

This week we were asked to observe communication between an adult and a young child.  While in Walmart waiting an extremely line check-out line, I decided to take this opportunity to complete this week’s observation assignment.  A mother and a child who was no more than three years old was ahead of me in the check-out line.  The mother seemed very agitated because the child keep taking items off of the rack near the check-out line and throwing them in the cart.  After constantly telling the child no, and taking the thrown items out of the cart, the child began to scream and told her mother, “I want my daddy”.  The mother tried reasoning with the child to no avail, as the child continue to throw items into the cart and continued to ignore her mother’s response of No.  When the mother finally reached the cashier and began taking her items out of the cart, the child began screaming and hitting her mother in the chest.  The mother tried to hold the child’s arms while attempting to unload her cart at the same time. After several minutes of watching this scene between the mother and child, I found myself feeling sorry for the mother as another women immediately behind her offered to hold the child while she unload her cart only to refuse her help and struggled to resist the swinging child hands while unloading her cart. 

Finally after paying the cashier and pushing the cart out the door.  The mother yells at the child saying, wait until your father hears about how you’ve behaved.

In this particular scene it was hard to determine who the parent was, and who the child was.  Because the child clearly was use too getting her way.  The mother showed no type of meaningful communication with the child other than saying “no, no, no, no” to the child.  Instead of trying to communicate to the child that it’s not nice to try to hit mommy, or maybe say to child “you wouldn’t like it if mommy hit you in the chest, would you?”  Maybe, if the mother took just a few moment prior to reaching the cashier to communicate to the child that what she is doing is not good and that good little girls don’t behave that way.  Instead she showed no emotions or any attempt to communicate with the child.  Children sometimes act out to receive attention from a parent who they feel is neglecting them.

Creating Affirming Environments

Helping children accept and honor differences can create good memories and support multicultural understanding.  We can never know exactly what someone else is feeling.  But we can continually support the growth of empathy by creating a culture of kindness.  As an early childhood professional I believe it is important for us to make a point to discuss diversity and feature the heritage of students in our classroom.  With that being said, I would invite family members to come into the classroom and share their customs and traditions.  For example maybe have a Native American parent come in talk to the children about their customs from their culture and have the children help make table top Indian teepees or make pottery, while explaining to the children how a person’s culture and background can teach honor and respect for their history.  I would have a library filled with books that illustrate diversity where the children can read and explore the different parts of the world.  I would also have an arts and craft area where the children would be encourage to create collages or pictures that represent something from their culture or the different countries around the world as we explore diversity.

During story time instead of always reading a book to the children, I would have the children tell the class stories that were told to them by their grandparents, which are usually stories passed on from generation to generation. The children learned about courage and determination, and reflect on valuable lessons about tolerance, integrity, and generosity.

Children are curious and notice the difference in others, they ask questions so I believe talking openly with children about cultural, racial, and language differences is very important in creating an anti-bias learning environment.

For the infants and toddlers, I would have parents to bring in songs and lullabies in their home language and play these at nap or quiet time.  I would also invite parents to read stories in other languages and tell the children the meaning in English.

I’d also like to have an area that displays different careers, talents and hobbies that represent the many different cultures and backgrounds and possible invite parents and people from the community that can come in and represent the different careers.

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.