What I have Learned

I must say that engaging in this course has really opened my mind up even more to the injustices that burden down many children and families. As I make my final post for this course, I will share my hopes for children and families, my goals, and a note of thanks to my colleagues that have journeyed though this course with me.

One hope that I have as I think about my work with children and families, is that I will be able to give them a Priscilla that understands the issues that affect them and works hard to ensure that these injustices does not occur in her presence. I will do my best to share my current knowledge about Anti- Bias Education with other my colleagues at work so that they can be just as mindful as me about the issues that hinder the health and well being of children and families.

One goal that I would like to set for the early childhood field is that all early childhood educators will begin to see each child and family for who they are and instead of comparing them to others, meet them exactly where they are. This means celebrating the good in all they encounter.

Lastly, I would like to give a special thank you to Teresa and Anabel for all the supportive and encouraging members of the early childhood field. The children and families that you work with should be blessed to have you. You two will go far and I look forward to working with you in future courses. It's count down time ladies!! We're almost done!!!

Issues Related to Diversity Collage

The pictures featured in this blog are just a glimpse of what I have been learning about in my Diversity course. Child abuse, lack of education, single-parent homes, rights for LGBT individuals, racial disparities, medical care for all families are just some of the issues impacting our communities everywhere.  Quality early childhood programs, strong families, and advocates such as you and I  are all important to making the world a better place for ALL children in the world.  So let's all do our part!! 

Omg! Did she just say that!!

For this blog, I will be talking about an incident that occurred and the how it was handled. I will also be talking about how implementing the Anti-Bias curriculum can help to ease that uncomfortable feeling for both parent and child.

This summer as my children and I vacationed in Pennsylvania we were picnicking at one of the state parks. This particular park had two sides one side was a make shift beach and the other side was full of trees, grass, and picnic benches. It was me, my children, my sister and her family, and some of her military friends and their families enjoying the water as we barbequed under the warm sun. The incident occurred as we walked to the beach side of the park. On our way to go take a swim, we stopped in the changing area to put on our swim wear and to wet our bodies. As we were leaving the changing area, there was this woman that was extremely overweight. As this woman struggled to walk to the beach, a little girl and her mother were approaching the bridge about the same time the lady was preparing to cross. The little girl said, " Look, mommy that lady is really fat." Her mother's face instantly turned red and she immediately put hand over the little girl's mouth and said," That was not a nice thing to say." To this day, I am not totally sure whether or not the woman heard her or not, but I am definitely sure that we did. When in all essence, young children are curious and tend to question the things that they see in the world around them. According to Derman- Sparks & Edwards (2010) children notice subtle cures and draw conclusions about issues adults do not talk about, as well as formulate ideas after picking up emotional tension from adults. This little girl probably felt her mother's tension as her mother covered her mouth and did not address the issue, but instead sent unspoken messages to the little girl that she was in trouble and had done something terribly wrong.  If the mother was aware of anti-bias teaching then she probably would not have told her that that was not a nice thing to say. The mother would have handled it differently, because the anti-bias education allows us to engage our children in conversations that allows up to talk freely about differences, in order to help them to understand the various differences they will encounter in their world. If the mother would have been informed about anti-bias education she could have told the child that people come in all shapes and sizes for example.

references:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).