Thank you all !

Hope:

I hope that educators understand the privileged situation of diverse families and provide the necessary tools to support them.

Goal:

The goal that I would like to set is a compromise. A compromise for the early childhood field to keep promoting issues related to diversity, equity and social justice in the classroom, as well as in professional trainings.

I would like to thank my fellow classmates for posting and showing me ways to grow and learn. Their honesty and feedback were very important to me. I would also like to thank Dr. Tuthill for her unconditional support throughout this course, for the first time I really felt that my instructor was with me in all my assignments.

"The passion comes from the vision"- Louis Derman-Sparks

Thank you all and we’ll keep in touch J

Elisa

Overcoming Cultural Differences

My family origin:

Russia

At least five ways in which you will prepare yourself to be culturally responsive towards this family

1.   Check out some instructional Russian cd’s at my local library, it doesn’t hurt to learn some words in other language.
2.    Learn about traditional Russian family structure, though I know that each family is different, I think it will be a good idea to have some sort of information and take precautions.
3. Visuals will also show the welcoming of other ethnicities, such as having some words posted throughout the classroom on the different languages we have, and definitely flags.
4.    As we get to know each other, I will learn more about the peculiarities of the family and establish trust.
5.  Facilitate the ways of instruction and provide strategies to the child to learn English, just as it happened to me when I learned English in school.
6. I need to be cognizant that language is not the only barrier. My acts and behaviors also influence his optimal development in school and in this country. Therefore a pre-talk with my students need to be arranged so that everyone will be welcoming and enthusiastic.
7.  If possible, look for an interpreter.
8. With the help of technology I think it will be a good idea to get in contact with a Russian teacher so that he/she can instruct me on the academic terms equivalent to English.      

A brief statement describing in what ways you hope that these preparations will benefit both you and the family

By doing this I think they will appreciate what I’m doing and they will be more willing to work with me besides language barriers. In an effort to show that we can all adapt, I would actually talk about all the effort I will be doing to provide a secure and welcoming environment for them so that they would also feel held accountable to support me and be more open with me. 

Impotence

I would like to share a very sad story that didn't happenend to me, but definetely impacted me. A friend of mine, who is Mexican-American had a very sad racist incident with an elder Caucasian neighbor. As she was driving to her assigned parking space; the neighbor was going on reverse, she honked at him to make him aware she was there. He got mad and approached her and cursed in her face then proceeded to make racist comments about her nationality. She was in total shock and stiff; as he got closer to her, she warned him: “step back I have pepper spray” so he furiously went back to his car. A neighbor saw the aggression and chased him off. My friend was trembling, because she felt harassed and devalued because of such agression. She called the police and they got both statements, nothing happened because to the police’s point of view she was overreacting and the neighbor never had intentions to physically hurt her. What has to happen then?

She lived by herself and was afraid of her neighbor, she went to the office and the Caucasian administrators told her the same that she was overreacting. She then told them that she wanted to end the contract because she didn’t feel safe but they didn’t let her. She then had to pay to end the contract and leave. When she was telling her story to me she said that at one point she believed everything the neighbor said because she was petrified, she believed in the stereotypes and insults he was communicating to her aggressively. By the end of that day she got sick with high temperature and migraine. She even told me that it took her weeks to mentally recover from the incident.

All the authorities in that scenario seemed to agree with the elder Caucasian male and totally marginalized my friend. The authority figures preferred racial invisibility and didn’t want to dig deeper.  She did everything to defend her cause and even talked to corporate, but nobody wanted to get involved with the racism act.  When I was hearing her story I felt impotent, furious, mad, aggressive, weak, powerless, frantic, sad, etc. I mean, it was a deep issue because she was a woman and was being harassed by a man who deliberately approached her and insulted her. On top of that, the police did nothing, and the complex’s administrators did nothing to protect her. The police and the office manager didn’t act with equity in this case. They took it as an overreaction and not as an act of racist aggression. My friend had a witness and other people also complaint with the manager. It is of my belief that the elder Caucasian was lucky enough to get passed by thanks to the shared ethnicity of the authorities in place.

Microagressions

I remember going to a lady gaga concert in Phoenix and I was having a conversation with a girl sitting next to me and she told me “Where do you guys come from?” and I told her that we were from Douglas,AZ and she told me :  “Really? You have a different accent. You speak English very well though”. I know that she didn’t say it maliciously but it kind of made me feel separated from my own culture.

This week’s readings made me reflect on the actions and behaviors of my own. I’ve not only been the receptor but the perpetrator in conversations as well.  I think it is important to consider somebody else’s feelings and think before we act. During this week, I was aware of any microagression that could be happening around me; I found some jokes on TV about cultural differences and homosexuality as well. I’ve learned and liked the topic about microagression because it has made me grow as a professional and human being. No matter if we think the comment we’ve said can’t be that offensive, in somebody’s heart it is.