Professional Hopes and Goals

     These few weeks of studying anti-bias education has been an amazing journey.  I have a strong desire to continue on in my work.  The hope that I have about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to do what ever I can to make a positive difference in their lives and to make every child and family that I work with feel important and valuable.
     One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity and social justice is to become an ally, to be that voice for those that can not speak for themselves and to inspire other early childhood professionals to become aware of there own bias behaviors and to help them to take notice of the negative and bias comments that they often make. 
     This course has been one of the best courses that I have taken. I thank all of my classmates for sharing such touching and inspiring stories and for providing such wonderful feedback on the assignments given.  Good luck to you all and I wish you the best as you continue on your journey as an early childhood professional.

Welcoming Families Around the World

     If I worked in a childcare center and was told that I would be getting a new student from Japan that could not speak English, there are certain steps that I would take in order to prepare the student and family for their arrival.

     I will first prepare by doing research on the family culture. Next I will conduct a family home visit to begin building a relationship with the child and family. During the visit, I will ask specific important questions about the child.  I will then prepare the classroom environment by putting up pictures and anything else that will make the new student feel comfortable.  I will also ask the parents to help teach me key words in their native language that will help me throughout the day.

      I believe that these preparations will benefit not only the child and family, but the entire class. I believe that doing my research will help me to understand and not stereotype.  I can ask the parent(s) to share culture experiences with the class, such as holidays.  In making my preparations it will be important to make a consistent schedule. Keeping a consistent schedule will help the child to learn what to expect each day. and doing things repetitively will help him/her learn to feel comfortable information on how to manage around the classroom.  I believe that doing things repetitively will make the day to day experience a lot easier on the student as well as the teacher.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

     Recently, my daughter was the victim of bias and prejudice behaviors at a former job where she worked.  She wants to be a chef and loves to work with food.  She was hired work in the deli section of our local grocery store and was very excited when she got the job, little did she know what she was about to face.  She began to come home and talk about the experiences that she would have daily dealing with the public; many would make your mouth drop.  I will just like to share just a couple with you.

     I would start the first story off by describing it as a microinsult.  See, my daughter is a very beautiful dark skinned woman.  One day a lady walked up to her and said, “You colored people always have beautiful skin”. My daughter said, mom I know that she didn’t mean any harm and was trying to give me a compliment.  But for some reason I felt awkward and a little offended, I guess it was the way she said it and the “you people part”, I don’t know.

     The next experience I would like to share deals with how many older white people would not even want my daughter to serve them.  If she walked up and said, “May I help you?” many would walk away.  At first she blew it off but it became obvious with the regular customers.  If she’s there they will say no thank you and if her white co-worker is there they would go ahead and order.  Some would even what until my daughter would go in the back and then walk back up to be helped by her white co-worker.  One man was so bold that he told my daughter “no, I want her to help me” pointing to her co-worker. 

    Now as a mother, it hurt to know that my daughter was being treated in such a manner however; I told her that it is a lesson that she has to learn.  Prejudice is real and does exist; some people are still stuck in the past and refuse to look at us all as equal.  For many older people, I don’t know if they will ever change or if there is anything that we can do to get them to see things differently.