My Personal Birthing Experience

For this assignment, I choose the country of El Salvador due to the recent heightened political interest in illegal immigration.  I had always thought that the majority of our illegal immigrants were from Mexico, however, according to recent data that is incorrect.  Central America, India and China make up the most of our illegal immigrants.  In this blog post, I will discuss what challenges the children and families of El Salvador face (United Nations Child Emergency Services Fund).   El Salvador is plagued with violence and poverty.  It is the smallest country in Central America and is the most densely populated and most industrialized.  Central America consists of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.  It is the most violent country and has the highest murder rate in the world.  El Salvador had 448 rapes of minors in 2008.  In 2009 there were 241 children killed between 13-17 in the first si...

I felt very strongly that the views presented in the article So Sexy So Soon:  The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids.   I have taught first grade in my school for over twenty years so I have been able to witness shifts in parenting and behavior firsthand.  Children are exposed to sexual images and sexual situations all the time on TV, on the internet, online, other media and in their environments.  What used to be considered inappropriate is now considered normal.  I have students dressing like little adults and making statements that another child is “hot” or another child is their boyfriend or girlfriend.  They shake their buts when they dance and sing songs with adult themes.  I have even seen children draw penises on their papers.  Even children of the best parents can’t keep their child from this type of exposure.  It’s everywhere (Levin & Kilbourne, 2...

The biggest take-away I have from all the coursework I have taken on anti-bias education is that we need, as educators, to set the example of what we want our children to be. Children learn biases early on in life, from family systems, friends, classmates, well-meaning teachers and even different types of media.  Adults, even the most well-meaning adults, pass their biases and stereotypes onto children without even intending to.  My parents, when I was young, never really spoke out negatively about people who were different in my hometown.  As I have mentioned before, I come from a hometown where the people are almost all Caucasian and are from two parent families.  Anyone who was different was avoided, even if we were never given the indication that those different people were bad people.  So instead of speaking out negatively about these people, our lives were just arranged so that we would not come into contact with these people...

When communicating with young children, one should show them sensitivity, respect, reflective listening, acceptance as well as allowing space for their unique self.  Lisa Kolbeck states that teachers need to watch children’s play and ask questions.  Their play ideas are often “metaphors” for what children are thinking.  When teachers develop a safe play listening place they help guide in relationships so children can play together with adult guidance.  They ask questions about their play such as “What do you need to play?”.  Sensitive adults help children use their imagination instead of interrogating them through the use of “I” statements.  An example of this might be “I love cats” so then they see the child act out being a cat through their imagination (Laureate, 2011).  Teacher language is also important in children’s development.  It helps build their perception of their self and others as well as conv...

As anti-bias early childhood educators we should begin to strive to create an environment that our students can see themselves in.  Our students learn as much from what they can’t see as what they do see.  Our toys, materials, equipment, posters, books, etc. should all represent the both the children we work with as well as other groups we do not work with.  Our materials should be free of stereotype and bias; and if they are not those materials should be used in whole group for discussion as examples of stereotype and bias. As much as children should avoid exposure to stereotype and bias they should also know how to identify it when they see it (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010)(Pelo, 2008).   In an anti-bias classroom, the furniture should be arranged in a way that reflects the students and their learning.  Children should have a whole group meeting area, tables for smaller groups as well as areas for individual work if need...

My hope for working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that they see that even my I am just starting my journey in working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds that I am working towards making connections with those families and bridging the home-school connection.  I hope that all the families I serve see that I am working to equally represent all families in my classroom and serve all students with equity.  Even though I am in the beginning stages of culturally responsive pedagogy, I hope to expand my skills and knowledge as my educational career moves on and that culturally responsive pedagogy because almost instinctual as opposed to something I have to do intentionally.  A goal I would like to set for the early childhood field is to provide more training and resources to both teachers and students to adequately educate in a culturally responsive way. Until I took these classes, I never even heard...