What I Have Learned

One hope of mine about working with children and families is to gain a broader understanding of other cultures. A goal of mine is to become an advocate for anti bias education. I want to strive to work hard to open doors for children from all backgrounds. My hope would be to teach children and families that they are each valued and important members of society. I want to do this by continually educating myself and the children I am teach about how to be anti-bias. I also want to resources and materials that will help me better meet this goal.

My goal for the early childhood field is to one day work in a field and an environment where there will be equality within the field. Whether male, female, black, white, purple, pink, green, gay or straight that each person will have an equal opportunity to work in the early childhood field. I think it is crazy that there are still restrictions within this field. I think one of the best ways to teach children how to be anti-bias is to have many different people represented within the field.

I would like to thank each of you! I have learned a lot of things from your posts each week and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with each of. I think it is important to collaborate with one another and I feel as though it has been helpful for me to do so with all of you.

“We Don’t Say Those Words in Class!”

A couple of months ago I was standing in line at the grocery store behind a woman and her son. In front of us was a woman who was missing a leg and had a prosthetic. The child shouted out, “That woman has no leg!” The mother looked mortified and her face turned bring red. She then proceeded to lean down to her son and whispered something in his ear and the child did not say anything else.

I assume that the message communicated by the mother to the child was to not say another word and her facial expressions also let him know this was not an acceptable comment. Once the child saw his mother’s face and also heard his words he stopped talking and stood there quietly.

An anti-bias educator might have responded to support the child’s understanding by giving the child a respectful understanding of others. Young children need caring adults to help them construct a positive sense of self and respectful understanding of others. They need adults to help them begin to navigate and resist the harmful impact of prejudice and discrimination (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010 p.11).

References Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Blog 1 Week 3 – Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

Throughout my 40 something years of life, I have often heard the term “fag,” “gay,” “homo,” “sissy,” “tom boy,” and “lesbo” used very often in real life, media and on social media. As a Head Start teacher for 14 years I have even heard children use these terms to describe or observe them to do name calling using such terms. Hearing a 3yo call another child a “sissy” or “fag” was quite alarming because they have no idea what either word represents or means, they are only repeating what they have heard from home or from the television. These types of comments would influence other children in the classroom to use these terms as well. In these types of situations, the children are go back and forth calling each other these names and again never realizing what they meaning is of any of the these terms (Laureate Education, n.d.) .

Personally, I often put myself other person’s shoes. Society tends to operate as though there are two genders, male and female. In reality, gender is on a spectrum and male and female are but two genders on it. Every person is the expert on their own gender identity. Trust what they say to be true for them, even if you can’t relate to it or haven’t heard of it before. Some people feel male or female. Some people feel both, and some people feel neither. Some people feel more one gender than another, and some fluctuate from day to day. Operate from the standpoint that you are there to honor and respect their gender, not decide what it is or what you are comfortable with. The only way to have a relationship with someone is to honor them for who they truly are and not to allow our own biases to get in the way of this.

References:

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Gender [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

 

Profile of a Volunteer

When I think of the word “volunteer” I think of someone who gives selflessly to others, to their community, and to the well-being of others.  Someone who wants to give-back to others and cares about others. I think of my friend Peggy, who finds the time to volunteer at the church on many missions, volunteers at our children’s private Christian school and is very active in the community on so many aspects.  Peggy gives her time freely to these organizations to ensure that our community is safe and that the children in our community are supported.

I know that Peggy has had an enormous impact on the lives of others within our community.  Children have given testimonies at local churches regarding how much her advocating has impacted their lives in a positive manner. Many children have also mentioned that they would not have a ride to school if she didn’t come pick them up. She has also been awarded many honorable recognitions at church, in the community and by the school board for her efforts.

I feel as if my most valuable take away message relative to this work in terms of my own volunteer efforts in fostering the well being of children and families is to have passion and dedication and to always put 100% of an effort in whatever one is trying to accomplish. I think this is the reason Peggy has been so successful advocating for the youth in our community.

Using Social Media to Get Connected

I’m not a huge social media person, however, I do have two forms of social media. One of which I use several times a day and the other many once a week. I have had one social media account for about 6 years and the other for about a year. I have no experience with twitter and many other forms of social media.

I think social media is a great in many ways. For example, I’m part of my son’s school PTO and this is a way we use Facebook to notify our parents of upcoming events and reminders. My work agency also uses social media as a form of learning, providing links and other resources to ECE providers. Therefore, the same aspect can be done with an advocacy group. As a ECE profession I often share links many links related to ECE topics and advocacy topics.

Social media is a group took to educate and inspire other in their advocacy work because if one isn’t one to be in the “lime light” he or she can post things on social media, the information is distributed via text rather than publically speaking.

Can you think of any other suggestions and/or their help with using social media as a tool to promote advocacy efforts.

 

Advocacy Messages

For this week’s assignment, the two Advocacy Messages that stood out to me are Children’s Oral Health and Food Safety Education. Both of these messages fall under the Ad Council’s “Health” campaigns. Just last night my best friend and I were discussing the struggles of teaching our children the importance of oral health and what long lasting effects it has on an individual if they don’t learn these good practices as a child. Therefore, when I was googling the internet I saw these ads and I immediately knew I was would choose these two topics because they were topics I had just discussed with my friend.

Oral health is an excellent campaign to promote dental hygiene in young children. This advocacy message takes an activity of tooth brushing which many children view as a chore and turns it into a fun activity. Both of my boys view brushing their teeth as a chore. The video recommends brushing teeth for a total of 2 minutes and Tooth-Savers provides a 2 minute demonstration video for children to watch while they brush their teeth. As a former Head Start director we were required to brush teeth after every meal. As a result, the goal was to promote healthy habits which will go into adulthood. I think showing children video gives them a visual on what is expected inside of an adult standing up and talking about the importance of brushing.

Make sure your kids brush for 2 minutes, twice a day. http://2min2x.org/  http://www.cleveland.com/healthy-eating/index.ssf/2010/10/healthy

Something else my friends and I were talking about this week was the importance of healthy and safe eating. This This advocacy campaign goes into detail about how much sugar and preservatives are in many of the sweet drinks, sodas, cereal and other foods we are feeding our youth. I think this campaign is effective because the videos and picture illustrations that the ad consist of. The ad also has great facts about how sugar is located in a cup of Trix for example. The facts are what I think I is most effective. The one thing that caught my attention was the baby was in the baby bed. This illustrated to me just how much sugar our youth are consuming on a daily basis.

http://www.cleveland.com/healthy-eating/index.ssf/2010/10/healthy-eating_advocates_seek_ways_to_fight_multimedia_food_marketing_to_kids.html

 

 

My Own Capacity

There are several issues impacting the early childhood field that fuel my passion for the field. One of those issues being the poverty, When I worked for a Head Start agency I worked with families regularly that lived at or below poverty and I saw the positive impact our program had on their lives. Not only is poverty an issue but is the fact that universal quality childcare is not being provided in this country.

As a director I had a lot of resources available to me within our agency as well as outside the agency to support my advocacy efforts. Within our agency we had the opportunity to express our concerns about the early childhood field and educational programming, We also our executive director was involved with government and policy making on a state level.  Within the community I was actively involved with several local agencies that provided services to these families. Thus far in this course I have also discovered other resources through research we have explored.

Being an advocate involved with social policy is new to me however, but advocating for the best for children is something I have already been doing for several decades. However, as an advocate in social policy I hope that I can continue to learn of ways to get involved and make a difference.

My Role as an Advocate

What motivated you to start advocating for very young children? 

At a very young age, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. From there, I developed the interest in wanting to work with children. As I entered college, education was a major and I have a desire to help support children and families.

Why is it essential to acknowledge and foster advocacy efforts at the micro as well as the macro level?

In order to have effective advocacy efforts, we all must comprehend the root of advocacy, understanding both aspects of the good and the challenging.

What does it take to be a community leader on early childhood issues?

I feel that a community leader must be knowledgeable with issues in the field, has a passion and interest in helping families and children and to stand up for the rights of the families and children.  

What resources does it take to be a state leader on early childhood issues?

The resources it takes to be a state leader on ECE issues is to be informed and communicate with the local CCRR’s, the ECE state agencies, and the state ECE associations. When effective communication takes place between the state leaders and state agencies, the outcome will demonstrate positive action.

What tactics or strategies do you use to mobilize others?

The tactics/strategies I used to mobilize others is to be involved in effective communication and listening. When we listen to each other we learn a lot therefore listening along with effective communication will give me the opportunity to inform others about ECE.

What advice would you give to someone who was interested in taking a leadership role in advocating for young children and their families?

As I reflect on why I have an interest in a leadership role in advocating for young children and families the advice I would give is that the person would have to be a dedicated hard worker, and have a passion for the field. One must also realize that this is not an easy task, there will be challenges but the outcome make all the difference when you witness a positive outcome.

Personal Advocacy Reflection

During the last 20 years of work with families and children I have always tried to advocate for others when I could. One incident in particular reinforced the path I have chosen to pursue.  This incident occurred with one of the children who were enrolled in my classroom. The basics of the situation are this little boy had been allegedly subjected to physical abuse from his mother’s new boyfriend.  Because he was only three-years-old at the time and had been diagnosed with autism, the investigative worker through Department of Children and Families made the statement to me that this child had no say so.  She did not see why she should keep the case open since the child’s mother recanted her corroboration of the event which took place. I reminded her that this was not a good thing since I would be calling her supervisor in order to discuss the situation.  Suffice to say this investigator was taken off the case and a case was opened in order to make sure the children in the household were being taken care of and not being subjected to abuse by the mom’s boyfriend.  I am happy to say that mom eventually left this guy and the children are doing great.  The little boy in question is now eight-years-old and has been mainstreamed into the regular classrooms at school.  I see this situation as the reinforcement I needed that I was heading in the right direction with my studies.  This is similar to the situation Jazmin and I discussed this week in our discussion. If you don’t see results with the current case worker, report them to their supervisor. The children must be our first priority and ensure their safety in all situations.