What I Have Learned

One hope that I have when thinking about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that we all need to realize and accept that God made us all different for a reason and we can learn to respect and value people regardless of their race, physical abilities, and the language that they speak. Another goal is that teachers need to address and introduce diversity in the classroom, get to know the children and their families, and learn to appreciate differences.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is that parents/teachers should teach children at an early age to recognize their own biases so that they can see the world as anti-bias and then they can achieve their aspirations, dreams, and goals while feeling very confident that whatever they are trying to accomplish in life is possible.

To All Of My Colleagues:
I would like to thank you all for sharing your blog and discussion posts as well as your personal stories. I have learned a lot throughout this course thanks to Dr. Klein for her feedback and resources that will help me to improve in areas where I am weak in. Now, I am more aware of my biases and discomforts that I will definitely be working towards in the near future to change if it is necessary. I wish you all the best in your educational and life journey. May God Bless!!!!

Creating Art

This poem is my representation of what I have learned throughout this course while doing application assignments, blog assignments, group discussions, reflective journals, and watching media segments on children's identities and development and how it is impacted by bias and discomfort.

I Wish...
As I look through the eyes of
my young black sister I
noticed her looking at the
white girl with the long
straight hair I wish my hair
looked like that as she go
about her day she hear her
lips are to big, her hips are to
thick and her but is to big and
as she look at the white girl
she says I wish I had her eyes,
her lips, her hips, her butt, I
wish I was white and as her
day close to an end she hears
the white girl mom say I wish
you had lips like that and my
little black sister says to herself
I no longer want what she got
because she wish she could
look like me

"We Don't Say Those Words in Class!"

I cannot think of a specific time, so I asked a family member about a time when she witnessed an adult reprimand or silence a child after he/she pointed out someone they saw as different. She told me that one day that her eight years old nephew has a problem with stuttering when he talks, so her son and him was playing the video game and when they were talking he started stuttering when her son began laughing and mocking him telling his mom this how he be talking. So, she stopped her son right than and there and had a talk with him by telling him that is not nice to make fun of how he talks because he had his cousin crying and she made him apologize for it. Afterwards, her husband came over to her nephew and gave him some advice by telling him to stop talking so fast and take his time talking, so he started to talk slow and it helped him with his speech.

One message that might have been communicated to this child by the adult's response is that his cousin was made to apologize for laughing and mocking at the way he talks. Another message would be that people do care about him even though he has a speech problem. The last message is that if he take his time to speak, then he can stop stuttering.

An example of how an anti-bias educator might have responded to support the child's or classroom's understanding is by having a discussion to make clear to the students that laughing or mocking a child with a speech problem or disability will not be tolerated in the classroom.