Reflecting on Learning

My most passionate hope for the children and families that I will work with is that each person can learn to treat everyone fairly. In order to do that, I have to help everyone understand their misconceptions, and we have to talk about them and then work through them. I also have to set the example of being an unbiased professional. As a teacher, I am fortunate to have each child and family for a year, and I believe this is a lot of time to make a lot of changes. I am walking away from this class realizing that I have the power to change society around me one person at a time.

I want to thank all of my fellow colleagues for taking the time to read my blog each week. Thank you for sharing your insights and experience with me. We only have one more class, and then we graduate! I am wishing you all the best of luck.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

This week I had to study what kinds of challenges children are struggling with around the world. I chose to take a closer look at children living in Latin America and the Caribbean. I chose this area because I do not know anything about this region. The rest of the world is making the news every night, but it seems to be rather quiet south of our country. All of my research was taken from the UNICEF website.

I learned about a lot of challenges that children in this region are confronting. About 60% of children under the age of 12 live in poverty. HIV and Aids is wiping out the region, and the Caribbean is the second largest region with Aids. One out of every five children suffers from chronic malnutrition. About 85,000 children die each year due to violence in the home. Natural disasters are common in this region. Children are still struggling from the big the natural disaster in Haiti two years ago. About two million children mostly girls are sexually exploited. Many times it is at home. It seems as though these children do not even have a fair chance at life.

I can only imagine how these experiences are taking a toll on children’s emotional wellbeing and development. Children probably feel neglected, alone, and hopeless. Derman Sparks & Edwards also stated that children may feel shame, self-limitation, and self-hate. Children may feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully programs like UNICEF are offering these children hope by providing help with the donations of many Americans like you and I.

This assignment forced me to reflect on a lot of things. Personally, my heart just ached when I read all of these statistics. It seems like these children do not even have a chance at survival with all of the challenges ahead of them. I want to share this site with others when they begin to complain about the smallest things in life. Professionally, my eyes have been opened. I have seen with my own eyes children living in straw huts in China, but I cannot even begin to fathom all of this in Latin America. As a teacher, I would love to teach my students about what other students are struggling with around the world. I would also like to invite them to help. We could have a coin drive to send to UNICEF and we could collect donations. I realize now that I have not only been called to be a teacher, but I have been called to be a child advocate as well and speak up for those who cannot.

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

This week we read, "So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids." I was pretty speechless when I was done reading this article. I was aware that young girls are having self esteem issues today, but I did not realize how big sexualization of early childhood is. Levin & Kilbourne (2009) shared that young kids are talking about “blow jobs” and girl’s Halloween costumes now look like they came from a Victoria Secret show. I am just amazed how true everything is. They really shed some light on a topic in our field that needs to be addressed by professionals like ourselves.

I can recall a few examples of how prevalent sexualization is in early childhood. First, my best friend’s daughter is currently being mocked at school because of her large chest. This started when she was in second grade, and it is to the point she just does not want to go to school. Second, there are quite a few tv shows that are glamorizing little beauty queens. It is so sad because we get to see little girls hearts being broken on national television because they are not pretty enough. Third, I have witnessed little four and five year old boys kissing girls on their cheeks. I am sure they learned this while watching television.

Sexualization in early childhood is a big problem because children are still developing themselves (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009). Children are growing up too fast and missing out on their childhood because they are worrying about adult issues. As an early childhood professional, my suggestion is sit down with children and talk about. Children need to know what is age appropriate compared to what they have seen or heard. My team could go a step further and do an assembly on this topic. At the moment, I will intervene immediately and respond when I hear children talking about sexualization.

This topic of sexualization in early childhood has really opened my eyes. I think children today have it a lot harder than when we grew up. They have to worry about so many things. This discussion this week has made me aware that children are growing up to fast because of the bias environment they live in. I also feel that I need to become more of an advocate because families especially need to be aware of this new trend. I may only be one person, but I realize that I can make a difference.

Reference:

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. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

This week we were asked to imagine that we are experiencing some type of “ism” at work, and we are to share our reactions from those around us.

I am pretending that I am struggling with racism. A family in my class is from India, and I have unconsciously avoided speaking to this child’s parents in the afternoon when he is picked up. The parents have not verbally said anything to me because they are responding back with stereotypes. They sent me a Valentine’s Day card that was written in Spanish thinking that I speak Spanish because I look Hispanic.

While I am experiencing this “ism,” the people around me are suffering. The child is also most likely feeling uncomfortable in my class because he is mimicking his parent’s stereotypes. He does not want to talk in class because he must feel that he is not that important because I do not make time to talk to his parents daily. The parents most likely feel shunned and feel that I do not value their opinion or even their presence. After receiving the Valentine’s Card, I also feel a little down to because I wish I could speak Spanish, but I do not. I also feel offended that people continue to assume that I speak this language simply by the way I look.

My struggle with racism has left a lot of people including myself feeling unimportant. My “ism” has interfered with my parent/teacher communication, and it has taken a toll on my student. As early childhood professionals, we need to take time often to self reflect how we really feel about diversity. Do you treat people differently because of the way they look or what they do for a living? We need see ourselves for who we really are, and then we need to make changes to become anti-bias. We need to set a good example for our students!