Professional Hopes and Goals

I have really enjoyed becoming a part of this collaborative learning community. As someone who works with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds, it is my hope that I am able to recognize my personal biases and rid myself of them so I can best serve the children and families in my care. I have learned that I held biases towards families living in poverty that I didn't not realize until this course. Working in a Title 1 school with 90% of our students on free and reduced lunch, the majority of my students live in poverty and have been through more in their little 5 years of life that I ever have in my 29 years. I used to believe that parents who did not help their child with homework, attend parent-teacher conferences and check their folders every day were lazy and did not care about their child's education. I now know that is just an ignorant thought. After reading many articles this past year, I have discovered that many families living in poverty are working 2 or more part time jobs to make ends meet so they do not have any free time. I also learned that many of the families do not have resources like transportation to get to school so they are unable to attend school functions. Now that I know about my personal biases against families living in poverty, I am able to rid myself of these biases and developed more positive relationships with my students and their families.

It is my hope that as part of the early childhood field, all children receive a quality education with equity, appreciation of culture and social justice. Children and their families should be appreciated for their differences and what they offer that others cannot. All early childhood professionals must recognize the biases they hold and try to remove them as well. I believe if all educators were aware of what I have learned this past year, they too, would improve relationships with children and their families as well.

I want to personally thank you all for your kind comments and encouragement throughout this course. I have enjoyed getting to know you professional and hope to have more classes with you in the future.

Jessica

Welcoming Families From Around the World

If I were working in a child care center and received word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from Greece, I would prepare myself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, I am enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated I need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

5 ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family:

1. I will research information about the country and learn about the culture of families from the country. Once I have done this, I can find pictures of families and places in Greece and post them around the classroom to make the child and family feel more "at home". 
2. I will think about my personal identities and any negative thoughts/attitudes I may hold and work on ridding myself of any biases.
3. I will be very welcoming to the child and family when they arrive and show them around the classroom. While keeping in mind their culture's social habits that I researched beforehand. I will acknowledge the parents as partners in their child's learning and keep them involved in classroom activities throughout the year. I have an open-door policy for parents in my classroom.
4. I will take time to get to know the student and his/her family. I want to build a relationship with the family and learn about the child's past experiences. I would even try to ask the family if they would be interested in teaching the children in the class more about where they lived so the whole class can learn about the child's heritage. (This would be a great activity to do for a day if you have a classroom with very diverse families from around the world!)
5. I would also take interest in the child and family's background. I would love to learn some of the Greek language, maybe asking the family is there are any words I could teach to the class to show appreciation of their culture.

It is my hope that these preparations will benefit both the family I to help build a positive relationship and make the child and family feel appreciated, welcomed and comfortable being in my class.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

One of my favorite books is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I actually read the novel before it was made into a movie. In the story, there are two sisters, Anna and Kate. Kate developed leukemia as a young child, so her parents had Anna so she could help her sister live by providing bone marrow and countless surgeries and blood transfusions for her sister. When Anna became a young teenager, her sister decided it was time for her family to let her go and told Anna to refuse helping any more surgeries so she could die peacefully. The trick was Kate didn't want Anna tell anyone that she wanted to die. So she ended up fighting her parents in court because they argued she was a child and needed to help her sister live, but Anna believed she should be able to make her own decisions when it comes to her body and her health. The girls' mother, Sara loved both her children and wanted them both alive. She was frustrated because she felt that Anna was being selfish, not realizing that this is what Kate wanted.

The ageism developed when Anna took her mom to court and tried to fight for her rights. Her mother basically fought that Anna was just a child and shouldn't be able to make the decision to let her sister die. I connected this while reading the article by Child Rights Information Network (2009) and this direct quote from the article:
"In most societies, children are presumed to lack the capacity to exercise their rights for themselves because they do not have the life experience and competence to make informed, rational decisions and must therefore be protected from the consequences of bad decisions. It is often assumed that age limits are the best way of achieving this protection, even if some children might attain competence at a younger age and others attain this later."
Later in the article they went on to say:
"However, in many cases, children's age and relative lack of experience is used as a justification for denying children rights to which they are entitled. In other words, children face exclusion and unfair treatment because of the low status accorded to childhood in most societies. For example, in most countries, children are often not allowed to file complaints with a court where adults can. This can have a detrimental impact on children's protection."

I believe this novel is directly related to the issue of ageism. While I was reading this novel, I became infuriated with the mother because she was basically dis-owning Anna when Anna decided she didn't want to live like a petri dish anymore. Anna grew up being poked and prodded and when she was brave enough to say she was done with it, her mother threw a big stink and made her feel like a horrible person, even though truthfully her sister Kate was behind it. I also see the mother's point of view because she loves both her daughters and didn't understand why Anna would do that to her sister. Once she realized that it was what Kate wanted, she began to understand Anna and forgave her.

I believe that legislation would need to take action in giving children the right to make decisions about their own bodies and health. When children express their concerns about how they are treated, it should be taken seriously and not pushed aside. Children are little adults in training and we must do everything in our power to protect them and help them live happy, successful lives.

References: 

Child Rights Information Network (CRIN). (2009). Discrimination: Briefing on age discrimination. Retrieved from http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=20940

Picoult, J. (2003) My Sister's Keeper. Atria Books. Washington Square Press, 2005

I also wanted to share this video I saw recently that relates to racism and how kids react to it when they realize racism still exists. I thought you all might enjoy this as we can make a huge impact in the world by teaching children to love everyone, no matter how different they may be. This video is inspiring! =)