Considerations, Reflections, Aspirations

For the past eight weeks I have learned so much about diversity and how unique each individual is. Because of this I am more motivated to advocate for early childhood in my country and to spark the fire in each and every individual the importance of early childhood education. When I see people around me I no longer look at them with a close mind but I realize that each of us are all special and we all have unique roles to play in making society a place where we can all exist in peace and learn to love and respect each other no matter how different we all are. I have said this before and I will say it again the world would be so boring and drab if we were all the same color, size and culturally identical. But in a sense we are all the same, because we really share the same needs: food, shelter and clothing but most of all we all want to be accepted for who we are, loved, appreciated and just are given a chance to live life to its fullest. It is therefore my hope as an early childhood professional it is my hope that I will be fully prepared to deal with challenges that are associated with diversity. The goal that I would set for the early childhood field as it relates to diversity is continue this master’s journey. I believe the best thing for a person who hopes to bring about positive change is to be knowledgeable. With the necessary information we can develop our resources and tools to help make early childhood development better for the generations to come. I would also like to thank all my colleagues who have commented on my blogs, responded to my discussions and have offered some great insights and encouragement. I you wish all the best in the future endeavors as we continue to make the field of early childhood development shine bright.

Considerations, Relflections, Aspirations

Welcoming Families From Around The World

The family I would love to prepare for culturally and welcome into my home would be from Pakistan. Pakistan is located in Southern Asia. The Pakistani culture and customs are different from the Western culture and I believe having a Pakistani child in my home and learning her about her would be quite interesting. Before I can welcome a Pakistani girl I would have to learn about her culture. The first thing I would want to learn about her is which ethnic group is she is from because the country of Pakistan comprises of many ethnic groups. The second thing I would want to learn is her name. As we know a name is a source of identity and it is very important as the host I am able to pronounce her name properly and even know the meaning of her name. The third thing I would do is to find out the kinds of food my child guest eats. Food is very important and having a guest in your house not eating what you have prepared for meals can be very distressing and I definitely would not want my guest to be hungry. The fourth thing I would to prepare for my guest is to learn a few about their language such as a few minor phrases. Probably I would get a language book to help with interpretation of basic words. Learning a few words from her language will allow some amount of communication. The fifth thing I would want to learn about the Pakistani is about some general customs and etiquette. This very important too because how Pakistanis relate to each other especially in terms of gender relationship will impact on the kind of relationship formed. Unfortunately girls are treated as cattle in the Pakistani culture and many times are married before they reach the age of 16 years. Being prepared for a person of different culture is very important. Even though we might be different in cultural practices we basically are the same and have the same needs such food, shelter and clothing. To benefit from a cultural exchange we first must understand each other and, be very open-minded. Many times we become misled by what is being said in the media about persons who may be different from us. We do want to be stereotypical and bias in our behavior and therefore it is best that we are informed about the persons who are different from us culturally.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice and Oppression

I have experienced so many prejudices and biases happen to me and to persons in my immediate surrounding. I am from a mixed ethnic family and I my first experience with prejudice came from my family. As a child growing up I always thought that everybody was equal and basically the same. I never thought about the color of your skin or how rich are poor you were but I became aware of these types of prejudices as soon as I was introduced to kindergarten. The experience that stood out for me was my high school years although I experienced much prejudice and biases before. Hampton school is a boarding school for girls. Upon entering high school I realized that the only children of a certain class were given much attention. I was considered poor but I never thought of myself as being poor because from very early, I believed poverty was just your state of mind. Although designer clothes, shoes and other material things were bought with lots of money I always believe these things did not complete you or defined who you are. The teachers at the institution did not hide their prejudicial and biases towards persons who were considered poor. I became very ill at school and was sent to the sick bay. I got no medical attention, my parents were not contacted about my illness and I was kept in the sick bay for a week without any proper care. I cried and felt rejected. I got mid term holiday break and I was sent home. My father realized I was ill and my temperature was extremely high but because of how simple he was he did not realize how ill I was because if the school did not make an issue of the illness he believed everything was okay but when I fainted and he took me to the doctor, the doctor told him I was very lucky because I was developing pneumonia. Because he was intimidated by the school’s authority he did not do anything about it. I realized I was treated unfairly because I was not one of the favorite, yet the policy of the school specifically stated that once a child becomes very ill, the parents must be contacted immediately. Other children who were considered rich were not only sent to the school’s doctor but there parents were immediately contacted so that they could come and get their children. This experience has taught me so much. As a mother of three children I am very protective and can get very defensive for my children. Once I detect any form of biases or prejudices for against children in any social institution whether at church or at school I defend my children and I make my voice be heard. I used my experiences at Hampton school to strive above the obstacles. I remembered the day of graduation like yesterday. The students were excited and of course we were making lots of noise before the start of the ceremony. One of the senior teachers just came to us and started shouting at us that we were the worst and that we would never come out to anything good. I used her words as a motivation to strive above the obstacles. I entered the field of teaching to help children who were labeled as ‘no good’ and ‘poor’.

Week 4-MICRO AGGRESSION EXPERIENCES

My micro aggression experience happened quite a few years ago. I was asked to help with the choir at church because they had a cantata engagement and the choir director was not able to assist. I decided to help, but I was not married at the time. I helped and everything came out more than what persons had expected. I married my long term friend and the father of my first child the following year. I decided that I would try and have my second child as soon as possible because I did not want any children in my thirties. Even though my husband objected I became pregnant. I was astonished when persons in the same choir that I helped so well made very insinuating remarks to my parents, myself and even wrote a letter to my father, that the only reason I married because I had become pregnant and so I needed to cover up for my sins. I found the entire situation really offensive but I made it pass because I knew the same people I helped were just being vindictive and wicked. The second mircro aggression happened this week when I decided to start looking around for secondary schools for my daughter. When I mentioned a particular school to my fried she simply looked at me and said ‘only students of certain sexual orientation attends this school.’ My step daughter attended this secondary school and I know she is not a lesbian.

WEEK 3- PERSPECTIVES ON DIVERSITY AND CULTURE

For this assignment I was asked to call at least three persons and to ask them to give a definition of culture and diversity. I decided to ask the following persons: My colleague, my eldest daughter and sister. These three persons are close to me. My colleague believes that culture is about our beliefs systems and the simple things in life that affect our lives every day and she believes diversity speaks to how unique an individual is. My colleague who is a very close friend works in the early childhood field as a sector support supervisor. She has to interact with many persons, including many of the external stakeholders. My colleague’s definition speaks to one of the main characteristic of what culture is. She mentioned that the nature of her job must take culture into perspective because in planning projects and workshops it is integral to understand the culture of families and practitioners. Although diversity is not a big issue in her job, she also believes that diversity must also be taken into consideration because the early childhood field is slowing changing in Jamaica. There are small evidences that diversity will soon be a factor to contend with in the future of early childhood. My sister is older than I am and she teaches and is a guidance counselor at very prominent Catholic high school. My sister believes culture relates not only to our way of life but to our value system. She also sees diversity as having a various persons who might share different cultures and religions. My sister says diversity is not prominent at her school but there is a small population of children from two particular ethnic groups present, that is, the Chinese and the Indians. She says it is important that as a teacher of religion she must be very mindful of the diverse groups in her class because they are small in numbers they become lost in the system. My sister also pointed out that although many of the children shared many common cultural attributes, the families from which these children came from had what we could refer to as a sub-culture and so it was sometimes difficult to get children to align their cultural beliefs and adopt to the belief system of the school because this high school is influenced by the Catholic faith. This simply means that the children had to conform to the belief system during their time at the school. My daughter was the youngest of the three persons I chose to ask about culture and diversity. My daughter has had her encounter with different cultures and diversity as early as her prep school years and so I thought it would be interesting to get her opinion about what she believed culture and diversity are. My daughter defined culture as the way we live our lives such as the traditions, the lifestyle such as fashion, food, trends and how we interact with each other. She sees diversity as very paradoxical; because even though we might be different in the way we look, our language and our heritage she believes we are so similar because our human nature is that need to want to have a feeling of belonging and to be loved. She believes that we all do things differently but most times it ends up with the same result. I learned from this experience that different persons have a different view of what culture and diversity are. It is also important that we learn to accept each other for who we really are and be open -minded and be willing to learn from each other. I also found my daughter’s reaction to diversity really different from my colleague’s and my sister’s because my daughter believes that no matter how different we are we are similar. Diversity and culture are very wide topic but I believe my daughter came the closest to incorporating many of the characteristics of culture and diversity.

PERSPECTIVES DIVERSITY & EQUITY- MY FAMILY CULTURE

This week I am asked to blog about three precious items I would take along with me and family if I was faced with a terrible catastrophe and had to leave my homeland. This is very hard because when I look at the few possessions I have acquired since my lifetime and what helps to define my culture and who I am is very heart rendering. After thinking about it I realized I would not be able to take my pets --Caine my cat and Benz my dog because they are far from being small items but I know I would be devastated to leave them behind because they are a big part of my family. The three items I would take with me are (1) a small family album. I would ensure that this album have pictures of every little thing that reminds me of my previous life such as pictures of my parents, brothers and sisters, wedding and birthdays and my pets, and other special events. (2) My bible is very important to me. My spiritual life is embedded in the bible and because I have special scriptures I use for prayer, this is definitely of great importance to me. (3) The third item I would take with me is my documents to identify who I am such as my passport, marriage certificate and birth papers. My family knows that these three items are very special not only to me but to them. The bible is important because our lives have always been embedded in strong Christian principles and these principles have always brought us through some very difficult times in our lives. The album is also very important because the pictures capture so many memories and we can always look at the pictures and be hopeful for a better tomorrow. The documents are also very important. To be evacuated to another country without any proof of who you are is very difficult and the documents would still give us hope that we might be able to go back to our country one day and having our travel documents would make the ease of passage much easier. For me to leave behind two items upon arrival would also be very stressful. But when you are faced with adversity you are not even given time to really think or rationalize; however, I would definitely keep the family album. The pictures cannot be reproduced but with time I can always get a new bible and regain documents to prove who I am and where I am from.