Reflecting on Learning

My hope for the future as an early childhood professional and for children and their families whom I work with is to be an anti-bias teacher who makes children and their families feel comfortable coming to my classroom. I want them to feel welcomed and know their children will be in a classroom that has a teacher who will not exclude their child because of differences.

 

I would like to thank all my colleagues for the all the constructive feedback. It has helped me grow into a better person (personally and professionally). I wish you all as we embark on this anti-bias journey.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

I chose to research Latin America and Caribbean. I sometimes see stories on the news about other countries, but I do not see anything about this area, this is the reason for my choice.  I wanted to know what challenges are the children and families confronting. I researched the island of Barbados.

Countries in east Caribbean have high levels of poverty, inequality, and high levels of unemployment. The children are exposed to many kinds of abuse and exploitation, which includes sexual abuse, neglect and abandonment, physical abuse, which is meant as a form of discipline, child labor, and child trafficking (UNICEF, 2009). In Barbados they use corporal punishment to discipline children at school and home (UNICEF, 2010). Even though they have evidence that hitting children is harmful to their development, they still do it (UNICEF, 2010).

Some factors that contribute to these problems are poverty, an ineffective truancy policy to mitigate against children being out of school, and the administration system is weak when it comes to justice so it discourages reporting and prosecuting sex offenders, amongst other things (UNICEF, 2009).

These issues are difficult for a child to endure. Children dealing with issues as these may develop mental illness, behavior problems, and social development problems. Children may become depressed, act out in school, and withdraw from others.

As a parent, grandparent, and early childhood professional, I cannot imagine anyone having to endure such traumatic issues. This opened my eyes to the fact that the children in the United States are dealing with tragic events, but nothing compared to the children in Barbados. These children will one day be adults. I only hope they have healed from all the emotional scars they’ve endured as children.

 

References

 United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). (2009). Eastern Caribbean

            Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/barbados/overview.html

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). (2010). Barbados works to

change attitudes, implement positive discipline in schools. Retrieved from

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/barbados_53912.html

 

 

 

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

I think sexualization is too advanced for children in early childhood. The focus should be on learning your coursework, not sex. I know younger children are more aware of sex than they should be, but for it to be a topic in the early childhood field is surprising.

Music videos play a big part in exposing children in a sexual environment. The videos tell them it is alright to dress sexy or participate in sex. “Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture”, Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, pg. 2.

I have seen girls at the school where I work be sent home because their dress was too short or their shirt was too low cut. I have seen some of the girls where eye shadow, lipstick, and false fingernails to school.

One day I was walking through the lunchroom after lunch was over and I found a note one of the fifth grade boys wrote to one of the fifth grade girls. The note said he was breaking up with her because he wanted to talk to this other girl because she was prettier. This might make the other girl he broke up with feel as though she has to do something else to be prettier so she could keep a boyfriend. She may start dressing promiscuous or wanting to have sex.

When I worked at the middle school I remember some boys talking about a girl they “ran a train on”. They were in line talking about how they took turns having sex with her.

Children who are introduced to sex or sexual behavior too soon will not have a chance to be children or do children activities. They are doing adult things way too soon. If any of these encounters are observed I think as an early childhood professional, parent, and grandparent it is important to address these issues with the parents. Children need to know this is not acceptable behavior.

My awareness of sexualization has been modified because I never knew it was this serious until my studies this week. Children are exposed to many sexual environments, some are at home.

 

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

Working with children and families so have challenges as well as rewards. The “isms” I want to focus on are racism and classism. I have had the opportunity to work at different public schools over the course of almost 12 years. The school where I am currently employed has been the most challenging of them all.

The school is majority African American and has been stereotyped as a “ghetto” school because of this and the behavior problems of some of the children. I have heard some people say “I do not want to work there” or “I do not want my child to go to that school”.  Comments like these amongst others, bothers me. There was an issue where a mixed race student (African American and Caucasian) had been suspended several times because of his behavior. The grandmother of this student came to the school and blamed the school for her grandchild’s behavior. The grandmother swore at the principal and called the principal a racist. The principal is an African American female and the grandmother is Caucasian. After the last incident the mother and grandmother have been coming to school with the student and observing his behavior during the day. The grandmother came into the cafeteria with him for breakfast and lunch. I felt uncomfortable when she entered the kitchen area. She was not very friendly and her facial expression was unpleasant.

The school does have children with many behavior issues, but I will not let that deter me from wanting to educate these children. It does not matter what area a school is located, all children deserve a chance at education. If everyone felt this way what will happen to our future generation.