Professional Hopes and Goals

 

One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that they find acceptance wherever they go, especially for the children as they enter school.

One goal I would like to set for the early childhood field related to issue of diversity, equity, and social justice is that more effort gets put into making everyone feel safe, secure, and accepted no matter where they are from. We need to assure everyone who enters our classrooms feel comfortable, welcomed, and accepted.

Thank you to all of my colleagues for taking the time to read my posts. I pray that each of you continue on with your collegiate goals and are successful in everything you do. 

 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

For this assignment, imagine the following scenario:

You are working in an early childhood setting of your choice—a hospital, a child care center, a social service agency. You receive word that the child of a family who has recently emigrated from a country you know nothing about will join your group soon. You want to prepare yourself to welcome the child and her family. Luckily, you are enrolled in a course about diversity and have learned that in order to support families who have immigrated you need to know more than surface facts about their country of origin.

The name of “your” family’s country of origin

•  Jamaica

At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family

• Research 
• Learn about Jamaican traditions
• Find books, pictures, toys, etc for the classroom so that the new student and his/her parents will feel more comfortable
• Educate the other children about our new student and his/her culture
• Speak with the parents and child so that I may get to know them prior to the first day of class  
  

A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family
 

• These preparations will definitely benefit both me and the family in many ways. First, it will show them that I respect them and their culture and that I want to better understand where they come from. Second, it will make all of us feel more comfortable and less insecure about having their child in my class. Last but not least, the child will feel more comfortable in the class and will also feel welcomed. 

 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

One memory I have of an incident when I experienced on facebook. I had commented on the page of my of my parents who is white, and her boyfriend's cousin who is also white responded by calling someone the "N" word. It bothered me so much that I had to speak my mind. Needless to say, she look the comments down.

The "N" word was used as a way to discriminate against black people. How can we expect to make a positive change if people are still insistent upon using language that is so degrading and hurtful?

This incident made me extremely mad. I know that the world is alot better than it used to be but there's still alot of changes that need to be made.

Clearly everyone who feels that that word is appropriate to use needs to change their way of thinking in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity.