Reflecting on Learning (EDUC 6358)

Reflecting on Learning

     The course, Strategies for Working with Diverse Children, has taught me so much in the past eight weeks. Although a lot has been said and done in regards to anti-bias education I feel like there is still so much to learn and practice. My most passionate hope for my future as an anti-bias educator is to be able to become a strong voice and advocate for the children and families I serve as well as to educate and inspire my colleagues and teaching community. The most important part of becoming an anti-bias educator is feeling confident and with enough knowledge to share and express the importance of ant-bias education.

     This has been a long and sometimes stressful journey and I could not have done it without the help and support of my classmates. Thank all of you for your words of encouragement and comments that have motivated me to continue to do my best. I wish all of the best of luck! For those are starting your last class to graduate, this is the final stretch and I know we can make it. Thank you for everything!!!

Impacts on Early Emotional Development (EDUC 6358)

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

For this assignment I decided to choose Colombia that is part of the Latin American region since it is where I am living now and also where my family is from. Living in this region and experiencing all of these difficulties first hand has definitely been a learning experience as well as an eye-opening experience for me.

Children in this region are facing many challenges. 40% of children are being displaced due to violence, natural disasters, and the use of landmines (UNICEF, 2013). Due to these displacements, children lose school time or an overall opportunity to attend school. Due to these hardships, many children have also been “recruited” for non-state armed forces. Children are taken away and armed with knives, guns, rifles, and led into the dense brushes to go and kill and seek out things they know nothing about. From these experiences many children also fall into alcohol and drug abuse to try and relieve the stresses of life at such an early age.

These experiences also alienate them from their neighborhoods, friends, family, and everything they know as true. This lack of attachments and consistency make these children vulnerable and with no expectations of anyone. When they have things that are constantly taken from them, they learn to not get attached with anything because they might lose it as fast as they got it.

From these experiences and resources I have realized the importance of continuity and persistence. For many of these children, school and school life might be the only constant in these children’s lives. Not only children in these countries but children everywhere need the consistency and support that the educational institution can offer their students. Knowing these issues that affect children everywhere, we can be prepared to handle these children and the issues they may enter the classroom with.

The Sexualization of Early Childhood (EDUC 6358)

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Unfortunately, sexualization of early childhood is something that has become more common and less restrictive over the years. Usually parents are the first ones we want to blame but many industries make an obscene amount of money using sex and violence to market their products to children (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). How can we judge parents for exposing their children when the media and vast amount of industries shove themselves in the eyes of young children?

Something that I witness more and more every day is the exposure to children and music with very sexually explicit lyrics. There is a bachata song by Romeo Santos named Propuesta Indecente (Indecent Proposal). My students know ALL of the lyrics to this song. From the title of the song you can probably tell what it talks about. The song is about a man that sees a girl with another a man and straight off the back says that it doesn`t really matter who he is, but that he wants to get with her. He tells her to drink a Martini to take her shyness away and that it will calm her down. He goes into details about what he would like to do with her and that if she will accept his indecent proposal.   

Another example of these exposures is watching new episodes of cartoons on the television. A new show called Monster High shows really skinny girls in short skirts, high heels, colored hair, and a lot of make-up. These girls are supposed to be in high school but look like they belong on some corner. It sends very bad messages to girls about their appearance as well as high school expectations.   

Luckily for our school, and many schools around the country now, children have uniforms to wear to school. On special days children can come to school with “regular clothes” instead of their uniform. Here is where we can see each child`s fashion and way of dressing. Many times we have had to tell girls to change into extra clothes we have at school or to put their jacket on and zip it up. Girls come to school in some outfits that are not age appropriate at all. While we can try and blame the parents for buying it for them, the kid clothing company should not be making outfits and clothes like that for children of their age. Society is the one that pushes these fashions and styles on the children.  

Having these so called “role models” for children can greatly affect their self-worth and their understanding of what is valuable and accepted in society. Such lessons will shape their gender identity, sexual attitudes, and values, and their capacity for relationships, for love and connection that they take into adulthood (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). Knowing the damage it can have on children from such an early age, it is never too soon to start acting on society`s impact and implications.  

My awareness of the sexualization of early childhood has increased due to the resources from this week. Many times we also get tangled in society`s web of sexualization and bad examples that we don`t notice everything that is going on around us. The article this week made me think of a lot of things that happen right in front of us and we do not even notice. Being more aware and knowledgeable on the topic will definitely make the difference in the changes we make towards our children and their view on society`s traps.

References

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.

 

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice (EDUC 6358)

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

          When we experience isms in our own lives, it not only affects us but everyone around us. An ism is about the institutional advantages and disadvantages people experience due to their membership in certain social identity groups (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Because of these isms we are treated differently and looked at differently within society. Even as adults we can be tormented with these isms and biases that bring us down. A specific ism that I have dealt with in the past has been with that of classism. As a child and even into my teenage years, I was bothered about the clothes I wore and the brands that I didn`t wear. While other people in my school dressed in Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger, and Polo, my brother and I dressed in clothes from no-brand names. I was always looked down upon and talked about and bullied about my clothes and how I dressed. On top of this, I was overweight and not part of the “in” crowd. This ism definitely crushed my self-esteem and my self-worth. I felt like a `nobody` and therefore acted like I was a `nobody`.

            As educators, if we are supposed to support and encourage our students to build and establish positive and strong personal identities, how can we do this if we don`t feel it ourselves? Personal identity is what educators think about when planning ways to nurture children’s positive self-concepts (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). If we as the educators feel down and discouraged by what is going on in our personal lives, it is very difficult to portray this positive and uplifting part of ourselves to our students.

            If these isms are coming from the same community you work in or even closer as the same work setting, the work environment and confidence that you eradicate towards others will not be the same. For example, if there is a family that constantly looks down upon you, makes comments about what you wear or how you look, and makes judgments based on your appearance, there is a very little chance that you will be willing to open up, communicate, and want to participate with them. It is because of these issues that it is very important that we learn how to overcome these challenges and teach the children how to avoid but also overcome these isms if they are faced with them. Our negativity and past experiences cannot reflect in our work and that is one of the hardest things about anti/bias education, being aware of our own biases and past experiences and learning how to teach beyond them.