Reflecting on Learning...

I will truly miss this class. Of all the courses I've taken with Walden, I believe this is the one that has had the biggest immediate impact on my day to day interactions with families.

My most passionate hope for the future as an early childhood professional is to have a positive impact on the students I work with by providing a meaningful learning experience. My goal would be to instill in each child the passion and urgency to pass along what I've taught them to all those they meet. I would love to instill the value of differences and pride within themselves for all students. I hope that each family will also find value in the anti-bias education I present and honor those same ideas at home.

I have had a great experience learning with my colleagues here at Walden. I would have never thought that I would enjoy an online school and find a bond as much as I have since attending Walden. I love the fact that many of us share the same values toward education, we seem to have the same passion and urgency to take what we've been taught and use it in our daily quest of educating children. I wish all my colleagues nothing but the best as we all continue this journey of completing our masters. I would also like to thank our professor for laying such a great foundation and providing great resources for a topic that has not been easily discussed in the past. I wish everyone the best of luck in all future endeavors!

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

I decided to focus this assignment on the children of Rwanda. I first became interested after watching the movie Hotel Rwanda many years ago. Although children were not the focus, being an early childhood educator my main focus was and has always been the children in most settings. This was no different. Children were like many people in the movie, victims. We watched as they were tortured, abused and scared. Many of them eventually became orphans.

As I researched the UNICEF website I found that the children of Rwanda have continued to suffer from many things depicted in the movie - HIV and malnutrition. Many of the children who's suffering began in 1994 during the genocide has continued. Although for many it has gotten better for others it has remained the same. There are many organizations reaching out to children of Rwanda to aid those with HIV, orphans and many who are malnutrition.

Many children who undergo these circumstance began to suffer emotional problems. The toll that many of these stresses put on adults is unbearable and children are no different. As the children grow older, their development too begins to suffer and as a result their overall health declines.

I can't help but to think about these children and some things I would do to help. As an educator my first thought is their education. I look at education as a tool that can get you far and can never be taken away from you. I believe by providing this tool to children in similar situations it would be beneficial. I understand that there are major factors that may stand in the way of this including basic necessities such as access to food.

While reading through the UNICEF site I noticed detailed information of many of the organizations aimed at helping the children of Rwanda. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in my thought process of continuing education despite the circumstances. It seems that many organizations have worked together to tackle many of the factors that hinder these children from developing and moving on. I will continue to check the UNICEF site for updates about the children of Rwanda.

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

When I think of sexualization of early childhood education my mind instantly turns to a particular controversial show Toddler and Tiaras. I've watched the show in awe a few times myself. Girls are, in my opinion shown and given a stage to showcase what they've learned as "sexy". The topic in itself is quite alarming to me as it seems that children in this age group and sexualization should not go together.

This weeks reading resources discuss the issue of sexaualization and the the affects the media play on that. According to Levin and Kilbourne, children are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sexiness from the media (2009). As a mother to 2 young girls I constantly check what my girls are watching and exposed to from the media. Its unfortunate but many of the shoes on Disney channel (which my 7 year old loves) are infiltrated with sexually graphic messages. From flirting to actual kissing.

As an educator and mom I believe watching what children are exposed to is important. I believe it will be hard as educators to take away all the negative exposure children endure from various media outlets. I think opening up the dialogue and talking to children about it can be helpful. I feel sexualization in ECE has not been a big topic but as it becomes more apparent and evident in media outlets I believe it will be a topic that must be addressed.

Resources

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). 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

As an owner of an in home preschool I often get many parents who love the fact that our school is much like a center in the details and activities but has the small child-teacher ratio of an expensive private school. My class of 6 students over the year has been pretty diverse usually predominantly comprised of African American children but usually 2 children are Caucasian or bi-racial. This has always appealed to non-African American families.

A few months back I received a call from a parent who's child recently graduated my school. This family, a Caucasian family had been with my school for almost 3 years so I knew them pretty well....or so I thought. The mom explained that the local elementary school only had a few kindergarten classes and that none of them had Caucasian children in them. The mom was extremely worried about how this would affect her child. She said once she gets to kindergarten she would see other children that looked like her but until then it would be hard for her. I explained to her that while her daughter attended my school she was the only Caucasian child during that time and she was ok. The mom thought because the class size was so small it may have not been an issue for her child then. The mom mentioned during the conversation that she thought it was fair that she speak with my current 2 Caucasian preschool families about their options after leaving my school. I explained to her that I thought that would be inappropriate - she didn't care to hear that. After hanging up the phone I was really upset. I was upset because through the entire conversation each time I asked the mom how her daughter felt about being in the class she ignored it. She would just mention that she didn't like the idea of her being in class with families whose background she knew nothing about. She said she felt that most African American families in our neighborhood were very different than myself and the families I enroll in my school. I asked her what she meant by that. She kept saying you know what I mean.

This whole conversation took me by surprise. I thought I knew her. I had let my own African American child stay the night at her house. I had done favors for her as she had done for me. I felt like all this time she looked at me a bit different opposed to me looking at her without the view of starring at her skin color. I believe as a result of her prejudice toward African Americans her child will also inherit this -ism. Its unfair that her child has grown in a school (my preschool) where differences were celebrated and all cultures and races were valued. No child was ever singled out or made to feel uncomfortable. It seems like all the values I tried to incorporate and teach went unnoticed by this mom. As a result I think this child will eventually inherit the same prejudice toward other races.