A Great Communicator

To communicate effectively, we need to be thoughtful, be able to use listening skills and symbols as well as have the ability to influence others (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2009). When I think about a competent communicator I think of Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey is a comedian who has his own syndicated radio show that is broadcast all over the world. I believe that he is an effective communicator because he is able to make you laugh as well as give you genuine advice about life. He has a real down to earth personality even though he is rich and famous. Through his radio show he is able to inspire millions with his motivational segment. You may also call in for advice or just to get a laugh. He communicates love and giving through his charitable contributions and mentoring program. His influence is widespread and has a lasting impression. The behaviors that I would like to pattern after Mr. Harvey include the ability to make people smile or laugh. I believe a place of laughter is a happy place. As I work in the field of early childhood education, I would also like to be an excellent listerner and motivator for the children and families that I serve. Reference: O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

PROFESSIONAL HOPES AND GOALS

The course Perspectives on Diversity and Equity have taught me how to better prepare myself for working with children and families. I have learned how important it is to reach each child and family through their culture and how deep connections play a vital role in educating the children. My hope for myself is that I will continue to make a difference in the lives of children and families with a renewing faith that each child and family is unique and deserves to be treated with deep respect. I hope that my voice and my activism on the behalf of children and families advocates for the social justice that we so desperately need in our society today. A goal for the early childhood field is that each institution realizes how vital diversity and equity is in the lives of children. Courses on diversity, equity, and social justice should be offered in the study of early childhood education. School Districts should also have workshops and training on these topics yearly. Finally, I would like to say thank you to my colleagues for your comments and support throughout these eight weeks. Your discussions have provided me with a plethora of knowledge that I can pull from as I continue my professional journey.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

I have recently learned that a family from the country of Oman will be moving into the neighborhood across from our early childhood learning center. They have five children who will be enrolled in several schools in our district. Their youngest daughter Nadia is four and she will attend our child care center. In preparation for their arrival I have shown the students some pictures of the land of Oman. We have also talked about the clothing they wear, games they like to play, and some of the foods that they like to eat. Outside of the classroom I have studied traditions and customs of the land of Oman. I have listened to tapes of the Arabic language and studied the religion of Islam since the Omani culture has its roots firmly in the Islamic Religion. I have also sent the family a welcome letter with a picture of our staff and students. I have learned and taught the students how to say hello and welcome to our school in Arabic. The students and I are very excited about Nadia and her family’s arrival. We hope that they will be excited to learn about the United States just as much as we are to learn about Oman. We have tried to learn some facts about their country and the things that their family likes to do. We hope that this will help to make them feel welcomed and comfortable at our school. References: http://www.omanet.om/english/culture/overview.asp?cat=cult

PERSONAL SIDE OF BIAS, PREJUDICE & OPPRESSION

Several years ago I taught an African American female student who was removed from her home and placed with an aunt when her Mom become incarcerated. I will call her Ann. Ann had transferred to my school the year before as a first grader with about three weeks remaining in the school year. She had to repeat the first grade because of her averages from the previous school and I got her in my class for her second year of first grade. She didn’t always have the best of clothes and sometimes her hair wouldn’t be combed. On the days when this happened I or the nurse would help her with her hair and the nurse would always fix her clothing or give her something else to wear. She was very “street smart” but occasionally had a hard time getting along with the other students. This same year I have had a female Caucasian student who was experiencing her first year in a public school. I will call her Dawn. Dawn, like a few other students in my class, was a little apprehensive about being in a new school with new people. We spent the first few weeks’ role-playing and playing games about friends to help build an atmosphere of community in the classroom. Throughout the year, Ann received counseling and had visits from the Department of Social Services to see how she was getting along and to help her make an adjustment to her new surroundings at home and school. I eventually found out that she had been getting into trouble at home with her Aunt and that she was being treated differently than the other children in the home. Ann became a very angry and confused little girl. Sometimes the students would complain about her bothering them or being mean. We would discuss the problem between the students that were involved and we would work on building friendship strategies during our community meeting each morning as a class. Several times I met with the Ann’s Aunt, along with the guidance counselor, to try and find the best way to help Ann become a positive part of our room. Towards the end of the year, Dawn’s Mother informed me that Ann had made threatening remarks to Dawn several times during the year. I knew that Ann would try and take things away from children on the playground and that she would tell kids that they were not her friends, but I never knew that she had threatened to physically harm a student. Apparently Dawn didn’t tell her Mom until almost the end of the school year. I eventually found out from Ann that she didn’t like it whenever Dawn’s Mother would come and eat lunch with her, whenever she would go on a field trip with her, or whenever she would bring toys for show and tell. When I asked Ann why she acted that way towards Dawn (since other parents did the same thing as Dawn’s Mother as volunteers in my class) she replied to me that she didn’t like Dawn because she was a pretty white girl that had everything. At that moment I knew that I had failed Ann, Dawn, and their families. Somehow I had failed to nurture love between these two students and give each of them what they needed to support their emotional and social development. Ann was a victim of prejudice and the bias opinion that you have to be white in order to be pretty and have financial stability. She was also a victim of oppression because of her situation of being out of her own home, without her own mother, and being placed with family members who treated her differently than the other children in the family, and feeling inadequate in her own skin. Dawn was a victim of prejudice because she was viewed as the enemy just because of her race and her parents’ financial means. Neither one of these students received an equitable year of emotional or social development. When I spoke with Dawn she told me that there were several times when she did not feel safe at school because she didn’t know if Ann would try and hurt her. It took me a long time to forgive myself for not realizing that these two students needed me to provide them with the safeness and security of love that they needed while at school. I thought that what I was already doing in terms of building social skills, character skills, and friendship was enough. I learned from this incident that it is vital to teach, model, and re-teach positive self-awareness to children explicitly! Children must be aware of their individuality and how unique and special they are just the way they are. They do not need to change or look like others in order to be happy and fulfilled. It is also important to respect others who are different than we are. I also learned that children might bring with them preconceived biases/prejudices from their home life that can cause negative behavior and attitudes which can affect their entire view of society.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

As I listened and watched others in my environment this past week, I was able to pick out forms of microaggressions. One of them happened on Wednesday by a member of my family. A group of students from one of the local high schools left campus for lunch to go and get something to eat. This is exam week and students were allowed to leave campus with permission if they did not have an exam. The students include four Caucasians and one African American. When the father of the African American found out that his son left campus without permission he was very livid. One of the comments he made when he was telling family members about it was…”now if they had stolen something while out there, my son would have been involved or could have been left holding the bag”(Personal Communication, 2012). I considered this to be a microaggression of gender and racial forms. It was immediately assumed that since the people involved were a group of young males they would probably be involved in something illegal or would break the law. Also, the father felt that his son would be left holding the bag because he was African American and the others were Caucasian. From his comment the father has provided verbal and behavior indignities based on what he perceives our culture to believe about young men. The thing that was more alarming to me when I heard the story was that many others felt the same way as he did (Laureate Education, 2010). In the article “Test Yourself for Hidden Bias” ( n.d. ), our willingness to examine our own possible biases is an important step in understanding the roots of stereotypes and prejudices in our society. I think we have to be more vigilant about changing how we perceive others in our society based on what has happened in the past. Reference: Laureate Education, Inc. (2010). Microaggressions in everyday life [video]. Perspectives on Diversity and Equity. Baltimore, MD: Walden University. Teaching Tolerance. (n.d.). Test yourself for hidden bias. Retrieved May 25, 2011, from http://www.tolerance.org/activity/test-yourself-hidden-bias.

PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY AND CULTURE

It is always fascinating to learn how people perceive the world around them. The assignment this week included finding out how three people in my network of family, friends, or colleagues feel about diversity and culture in our society. The three people I chose are my husband (age 44), an African American male, a family friend (age 25), a Caucasian female educator, and an acquaintance (age 48), a female teacher’s assistant from Ecuador. Kenneth, my husband, gave the following definition of culture…”culture is your beliefs, your religion, your upbringing and all that your parents has taught you combined with the way that you present yourself in your community. Diversity is the differences between groups of people who live together. Some groups are treated better than other groups…they have power because they join together in certain situations. These groups receive certain privileges that other groups do not because they are thought less of in society “(personal communication, 2012). Amy, my friend, said,”your culture is your way of life. It defines who you are and what you believe in. It is how you relate to others in society. Diversity is making sure that you are aware of the differences between people so that everyone feels valued when living together” (personal communication, 2012). Sylvia, an acquaintance from Ecuador, said, “culture is your family and traditions. It’s the stuff that families do with each other. It is your heritage. America is much different than Ecuador…we do lots of family things together. Your weather is different…we only have two seasons in Ecuador. We have summer and winter. We have much delicious fruit and no humidity. Diversity is difference. Some of the children in this class have a hard time understanding me…I’m trying to learn the language. They do give me lots of hugs…they are so sweet. In Ecuador there is more school work…children work very hard to learn about English too” (personal communication, 2012) Each of the three interviews reinforced what I have learned about culture. Kenneth, Amy, and Sylvia all share the belief that culture portrays a valuable part of a person’s life. It encompasses what you believe in and what you have been taught through your family, your experiences, and your environment. Kenneth and Sylvia both agree that diversity mainly consists of the difference that is reflected in each individual. While I agree with both of them, my perspective is more closely related to Amy’s view that diversity is making sure that you are aware of those differences in order to successfully guide your own thoughts and views. Sylvia looks at diversity on a much larger scale. Many things that guide her perspective on diversity are things that I have never really thought that much about…the difference in the weather and the difference in an everyday occurrence like the amount of homework that children complete. This activity helps to reinforce my belief that culture and diversity are a vital part of every society and it defines who we are as a people.

MY FAMILY CULTURE

If my family and I were told that we had to leave our country and move to a different country that had a totally different culture, this would most certainly be very hard. If we could only take three items that would be even more difficult since there are so many things in our home that represent our culture. However, I'm sure that we would agree that the following things would defintely have to go along with us...our Bible, a small family album, and a USA pendant. The Bible represents our strong faith in Jesus Christ and the Christainity that we practice each day. It is a daily guide that tells us how we should live our lives in order to be healthy and prosperous. The family album is a remainder of the family that has taught us values and what we strive to instill in our own children and grandchildren. It is a collection of memories from two families united as one. The USA pendant that was given to me by one of my students many years ago. It represents the country that we had a chance to live in that provides us with rights and privileges that others may not have because of the country that they live in. It also represents the love that a child feels for someone who has inspired them in life. If we were sent to a different country where the culture was different and once we got there we were told that we could only keep one of the three above items we would be heartbroken to say the least. The one item that we would keep would be our Bible. We have always been taught through our faith that you must be steadfast and hold on to your believe in Christ even when the way seems dark and all others around you fail. The Bible would enable us to continue reading and studying God's word which is the one thing that shall truly never fail. Our family memories we would have to hold in our hearts along with our love for the USA. This assignment really made me think about what is truly important in my life. There were so many things I would want to take with me that remind me of all that I have experienced and been taught. It also made me thing about people who have had to come to America against their will or because their homes have been destroyed.