Reflecting on Learning

Studying about diversity and equity has really been rewarding for me. I never knew how in depth diversity could go. This course has actually given me the most valuable tools as an early childhood educator. I feel more prepared to continue on my journey of creating positive and strong relationships with children and families from all family structures, cultures, religions, and ethnicities. My most passionate hope for my future as an educator is to be the teacher that families will feel that they can trust. I want to be the educator that makes each family feel like “family” when they enter my classroom. I desire to be the educator that is also a strong advocate for families looking for greater ways at helping children and families achieve academically and also as a family.  

I would like to say “THANK YOU” to each of my colleagues for their expertise and the sharing of their personal lives that have helped me to understand diversity more clearly. I am so looking forward to moving on to our next course and stepping out on faith with implementing the tools that we have gained throughout this course and program. I am sure that we each have something special for each child and family that crosses our paths.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

The area and region that I chose to research was Latin America and Caribbean. The countries I chose to look more closely into were Jamaica and Haiti. The reason why I chose this region is because a dream of mines has always been to visit the islands and to see how the people lived in their country. Actually when I see vacation advertisements of the islands they look so exciting, fun and, relaxing. Well last year (July 2013) 3 of my girlfriends and I travelled to Jamaica for our summer vacation. We had an awesome time on the resort but our eyes were wide open to “REAL” life of the people in the community. The country is a very poor country. Children and families are living in horrible living conditions. Children and families stand on corners selling small items and foods for small amounts of money in order to survive. When we went on our tours, we witnessed families living in homes without a roof top, walls, or windows. We learned from our tour guide that many of the residents cannot afford home loans due to the high interest, so families work for many years just to complete their homes. Usually it takes fifteen years or longer to earn enough money. The poverty rate is so high that there is one area of the country named Kingston that tour guides prohibited us from visiting. We had seen men riding on the back of pickup trucks with machine guns. I could not believe what I had seen. Most of the countries revenues are brought about from tourist. The people are very friendly and expect tips for just about everything.  

A few of the challenges that children in this region face are diseases, food and shelter, and natural disasters. These are conditions that children have to face on a day-to-day basis and there is little that their parents are able to do to protect their children. AIDS is a disease that has struck Jamaica very heavy. There are many children who have parents who have either died from AIDS or are living with AIDS. These children have to take on adult roles and care for their parents and siblings. This can be emotionally challenging for these children that have to take on adult roles and support their family. These children face enormous challenges- financial uncertainty, the fear of losing their parents, stigma and discrimination from their communities and an uncertain future (UNICEF, 2011). Many children are left with the loss of both parents and are expected to continue with their lives. In 2003, with the support of UNICEF, Jamaica developed a National plan of action for Orphans and other Children made Vulnerable by HIV/AIDS (UNICEF, 2011). UNICEF makes sure that these children are placed in either a shelter or home that will provide the children with a healthy living arraignment.

The children as well as the families have had their share of emotional challenges. One of the most recent challenges was hurricane Sandy. Many families where separated and destroyed from the hurricane. This has to be emotionally straining on children who have lost their parents or have been separated from their families. Although Haiti dodged Sandy’s direct hit, the hurricane triggered heavy rain and severe flooding in the country between 23 and 27 October, and devastated at least 70 out of Haiti’s 140 communes (UNICEF, 2011). With the much overkill of heavy rain and water, disease quickly spreads through the region. Nearly 50 per cent of cases of tetanus in the Caribbean occur in Haiti (UNICEF, 2011). UNICEF along with many volunteers distribute a solution or pill that will help to uncontaminated the water and foods that the people intake. Many young girls and older women are given a series of vaccines to prevent themselves and their future babies from catching tetanus.

Children are simply children. Natural disasters and diseases have their way with the emotions of young children. Children are too young to understand what is taking place in their community or why it is that mom and dad have died and left them all alone. When children are faced with such tragedy, it is very difficult for these children to be emotionally capable to succeed in school. Their young minds are on an over load with the issues that surround their lives. Sometimes these emotions lead children to behavioral issues. Personally that is why I have dedicated my life to advocacy and education. Besides with parents, children spend most of their day with their educators. When disaster or issues arise in these children’s lives, we are to be their support system and advocate assisting with making sure these children and families receive what they need in order to survive.  

This assignment has given me the insight that educators have a great work to be done in the lives of children. We need to be prepared to serve children and families who have emotional distresses in their lives by providing referrals and other health related services to accommodate these children and families.  We also need to actively encourage families to be a part of and involved in their children’s lives during infancy. Children need parental bonding with their parents so that children will have a sense of connection and belonging to their parents. Healthy emotional development is a key essential in a child’s development.      

Reference

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

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Wow! The article was very interesting and not very surprising. Today’s children are exposed to way too much sexualization. When my eleven year old son is watching television, I often have to ask him what channel he is viewing due to the language, music, and what the screen is showing. Nine time out of ten, the station is a child friendly channel that has gone way over board. Just the other night I was passing through the living room and a Carls’ Jr hamburger restaurant commercial was playing and there was this half naked woman wearing a bra and panties biting down on a burger. I had to call my husband to come to see the commercial for himself. I thought to myself what is this world coming to. They are tying sex in with food just to sell a burger. How awful!  

I can remember when I was child and television was clean and family orientated. With time, values and beliefs have changed within the media world. Now days on any given channel, sex, violence, and even pornography is displayed before all ages of children. Today’s cultural environment bombards children with inappropriate and harmful messages (Levin Kilbourne, 2009). Today’s dolls have large breast, large butts, lots of make-up, and provocative clothing on. To a young girl, the message that she receives is that in order to be beautiful as a doll she has to have large breast and wear provocative clothing to be considered beautiful. These are not the messages that we want for our children to receive.

When my brothers were younger, they played with cars, trucks, army figures, blocks and many other child friendly toys to keep them entertained. Now day’s boys are locked down to computers, ipads, cell phones, and game systems that promote sex, violence, and the killing of others. Boys hardly ever go outside and play anymore for all that technology has to offer them right in the comfort of their homes. Many industries make an obscene amount of money using sex and violence to market their products to children (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). This even goes for the movie theaters. I’ve heard my husbands friends say that a movie isn’t a movie unless there is some action (violence) involved. This goes to show how confused society is. I believe that these industries are aware of the likes of the people and feed right into it by providing movies, games, commercials, and toys that involve sex and violence.

Again, children are exposed to sex and violence by way of toys, games, television programs, cartoons, and definitely music. I kid you not; just today I had at least four of my students singing this song about the “Base”. I had to ask my daughter about the song and she played it for me and the song is about a girl who is proud of her body size but at the end of her lyrics she says “It’s all about that base”. After hearing this song, I had to wonder how these children were able to listen to the song. As parents, we have to supervise what our children are watching and listening to. There are hidden messages within music, television programs, and games. These messages can be very harmful to children of all ages. Girls and boys constantly encounter sexual messages and images that they cannot understand and that can confuse and even frighten them (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). Just as the nine year old girl who wrote the letter to the boy, she received a message regarding self that left her in doubt about her appearance. She says, “I know I am not the prettiest girl or the thinnest girl but I love you and I just want you to love me” (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). This type of confusion leads young girls who have low self-esteem into a world that can be very harmful to their lives. A 2003 Newsweek story on the rapid rise in teen prostitution in the United States reported that girls as young as nine are becoming involved (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). This is very alarming to my knowledge! Nine year old girls are to be playing with their dolls and friends and not being involved with neither boys nor men.

The messages that children receive can affect them throughout their lives which causes damage to their overall development. She showed how the harmful lessons by the younger children often lead to serious problems in later years, such as increasing objectification of women (by both women and men), eating disorders and depression, and even sexual violence (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009). It can even have children of ages degrading the value of self and excepting whatever comes their way in life. As a mother and educator, I believe that parents have to take a stand against what the world/media is feeding their children. Parents are their children’s first educators and must teach their children right from wrong. I know that at a certain age children do not like to talk with their parents but making sure that there is someone available that the child can trust to help the child process the negativity regarding sex that is displayed. Children have always been curious about sex and sexuality from an early age, and it is good for parents and schools to give them honest and age appropriate information (Levine & Kilbourne, 2009).

This article along with this week’s resources, have only re-opened my eyes to understand how children are influenced with negativity by way of television, media, games, and toys. As an educator, I want to encourage my families to be more involved with what their children are doing. Parents need to be their children’s first educators regarding sex and sexulization. Children should not have to depend on the outside world and their environment to figure what sex is. This is such an intimate subject that should be shared amongst a child’s parents in the most age appropriate way.

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

As racism and other ism’s effect children and families, educators are not exempt from the harsh effects ism’s have on individuals. Educators are neither exempt from having biases of their own towards other individual either. When I think back over the past few months, I can recall having a certain feeling towards same sex relationships. Due to my upbringing, I had believed that relationships were to be between a man and a woman. Since then, my feelings regarding this issue have changed. I now understand that as an educator, it is my responsibility to support children and families and not try to bring harm to their family structure. If I had those same feelings as before, I am sure that it would be very challenging to work with families especially if they were aware of my bias.

As I think back over my life, there was an incident in my life where other individuals were prejudice towards me because of the color of my skin and culture. I am an African American female and have felt offended at times because of my race. Years ago I worked for the housing authority in a predominantly Caucasian community. Every day when I would take my lunch break, I would have multiple individuals stare at me as they drove pass my vehicle. It was so awful that I was even called a “Nigger” and other numerous names by these individuals. Working in that community was very uncomfortable and I eventually resigned from my job. Even though this incident took place, I do not have any resentful feelings towards Caucasian individuals.

If I were resentful to others of that same race, I do believe that it would not be a good situation. When working within the education field, educators have to work with children and families off all cultures. Educators cannot be prejudice against children and families if they expect to create close relationships and partnership with families. I do believe that if an individual has a bias towards another, it will show through the individual’s words and actions. That is why there is no room for bias remarks or gestures when working with families and especially young children. As in all other areas of learning, young children try to make sense of their world by organizing what they observe and experience into “theories” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). For example, if I were to have a closer relationship with African American children and keep a distance when working with children and families of other cultures, over time I will have created a message regarding the type of relationships I have with certain children and families. These are indirect messages that are like “social trace contaminants”-tiny or unseen messages that accumulate over time to create harm (Pierce 1980).

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).