What I Have Learned

This class has made me take a close look at myself and how this may affect my interaction with students, families, coworkers, and stockholders. The goal in my life is to help young children enter into school prepared academically and, more importantly, social emotionally. To give a good base will help children develop into positive citizens of the world. I have also learned that reading everything I can about bias and diversity is a good thing but I must also speak with others to learn their experiences and worldviews to be more bias aware and to set up an anti-bias classroom.

My goal for the future is to develop an anti-bias, trauma free classroom that is an example to those within my Head Start program and then spread it to other Early Childhood classroom within my area (for starters). Our area is a popular location for immigrant families and those escaping refugee camps form war-torn countries. These children and families need a program like I hope to create. I might even study more about creating a blog to reach others about the importance of anti-bias, trauma free classrooms. 

Thank You so much for all the help you have given me in this time together. I have learned from our discussions that I am not alone on the journey to learn about my bias and discomforts. I have learned ways to face those discomforts and to learn from them with the goal of being a more compassionate and tolerant human being. Good luck in the future and I hope to see  you in our next class. Happy holidays and happy New Year.

Creating Art

From week 1 to week 7 we have learned ways to address bias in ourselves, students, and their families with respect and acceptance. This collage is an attempt to represent that respect and acceptance. Just to explain:

Self-concept picture- looking to ourselves for hidden bias.

Anti-bias Classroom- teaching anti-bias.

Types of families- families come in all shapes and sizes, what creates a family is a shared sense of responsibility toward the children and each other.

Cinderella-movies can create partiality as those who create story plots from their own bias.

Mom and Dad on cell phone/ monkeys- bias and tolerance both begin with how families teach their children both openly and unknowingly.

Learning styles-not all of us learn the same way and we should not expect that our students will either.

Rabbit’s Wedding- like movies, authors write based on their own bias and these stories can affect those who read them.

Adult and child sketch- trauma not only affects a child’s self-worth, it actually affects their brain development setting up a generational cycle of trauma. We are an option to teach resilience.

"We don't say that in school!"

This example is taken from my mother about me when I was around three. We were grocery shopping in an all white neighborhood that I grew up in. There was an African American man who worked at this particular grocery store who my mother said I noticed. I then said, out loud, "Why is that man wearing a mask?" My mother said she was mortified and told me to hush and hurried past. No words of explanation were given or words spoken when we got home. I was raised during a time where we did not "see" color so it was not talked about because it was considered rude. 

     The message that was planted at this young age was it was embarrassing to be different than myself and it was not to be talked about. I was to not discuss a major feature of a person of color. We can speak of the color of a person's hair or eyes yet not their skin.

     An anti-biased response (whether an educator or my mother) would be to speak of my mistake right away. It could have been explained that the man was not wearing a mask and this was the color of his skin. His mommy and daddy had brown skin just like my mommy and daddy have white skin. There were no real anti-biased books back in those early days but books about animals and their babies would also work. A mommy horse would have a baby horse, a mommy cat a kitten and so-on.

    

We could have also made a trip to the library to look at pictures of African Americans in a positive environment, although at the time those would have been difficult to find as well. Any action would have been better than none at all.

"Start Seeing Diversity Video" Blog: Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Todd Parr is my absolute favorite author with his colorful pictures which depict various ways we are all different and how it is okay. Did you know it is even okay to eat macaroni and cheese in the bathtub?! These books address many different forms of the human families and peoples. I used to teach Sunday School with a goof friend of mine who is gay and he read this story to the class but felt he had to leave out the pages which state; it's okay to have two mommies and two daddies. I find it sad that he felt he could not mention what he was actually living each day. 

I am struggling a bit in the area of approaching the area of LGBT family make ups ONLY because I was brought up with this being not okay because of what the Bible says and these teachings go back to my childhood. I also have been taught to be loving and not to judge others so I am working very hard to learn how to approach this subject and to be more inclusive to LGBT families within my classroom. If a school said I was not to approach this subject I would most likely do research on the affects this type of exclusion would have on the development of the students both of the LGBT family as well as those who had other family make-ups and not learning tolerance. Also, if a parent were to approach me with the same request I would listen to their point of view but at the same time give documented cases of how this will not affect their child in any different manner than a heterosexual teacher. I am afraid if a family is adamant about not having a LGBT teacher for their child I most likely will not change their thoughts and might suggest other programs they could explore.

I have heard co-workers make remarks about children in ways that are awful and it makes me see red. I cannot tolerate any negative statements made about children and especially to their face. If I were to hear the words such as mention in our examples I would probably loose my mind. I guess I need to work in this area as well.

I know we need to teach our boys differently when they are with us in the classroom, girls too for that matter. I have done a few papers about the different learning styles between boys and girls and it is very interesting. My inner battle with being more inclusive with the LGBT families is frustrating and embarrassing and I am not sure what to do in this case. I do have a new element added to this dilemma this year. I have a little girl with lesbian parents, one she calls mommy and the other daddy. I cannot seem to get myself to call another woman "daddy" and I do not know why. I hope I have not offended anyone, I am just trying to be honest so that I may learn and change.