Professional Hopes and Goals

There are a couple of careers that I really would love to take on as I have been seeking for answers through the Perspectives on Diversity and Equity course. Becoming an Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist or Infant therapist is very close to my heart. I really want to take time to get to know the families and children as we work together to create the best developmental outcome for the child. I also want to help parents understand their child's cues , that their silent language is still a language, then I want to the parents to feel empowered to make wise decisions about their child's rights as all of the facts and resources are presented to them,  I would also love to teacher early childhood education at a community college.  To you my classmates, this course has been very emotional for me, and to read your backgrounds with many highs and lows, I thank you for sharing. I hope my words have supported you for the last eight weeks. My hope for you (as I  speak to myself as well) is that we take risk for the "great" cause and that we truly work where our hearts have a desire to be , that is my prayer!

Thank you, be blessed!
Val

Welcoming Families From Around the World

Welcoming families from other countries into a child care center is both exciting and intimidating.
Not knowing a lot about different countries  can feel intimidating due to the lack of knowledge. However, the excitement  alone of  learning something new brings rich conversation for the teacher , child and parent.

As an example I picked the country Yugoslavia. I thought about how I would conduct the  orientation to the center and how I would implement diversity.  For an effective quality program we want parents to share their talents, interest and occupations with our small citizens.

I have a few ways  of culture responses to the families that I would demonstrate are ( not necessarily in this order).  

1.Inviting parents to serve on the Center's Support group meeting. The design will allow reflection  to meet needs of families.
2. Social and educational gathers annually  to encourage interaction between staff and families.
3. Become familiar with basic language and have words printed in areas of the room with pictures as a description, even an alphabet book available for children in the book area
4.Invite parents  to cook with children and explain their countries favorite food.
5. Get to know the parent child-rearing style and have conferences outside of daily talks/reports.
6. Last ( while always more) ask for information on sports that the country enjoys and Holidays that are celebrated.

Having parent surveys completed regularly will  make staff aware of  concerns or praise of follow up.
All of  my thoughts are to help the families have a positive experience while our staff grows in knowledge and the center as a whole grows in quality, effective care.

       

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

In this touchy subject of bias, prejudice and oppression I thought some comic relief  of the hit 70's series Good Times would show the oppression of a family's trials in a dominant society. The Son J.J. of James and Florida Evans  is arrested ( mistaken identity of a robbery)  they found the criminal ... he is white, yet J.J. is black,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBOXXTY4tbA

Equity was diminished when police wanted to quickly  blame a black man for a crime that a person of a another race had committed.  My feelings of this incident reminded me when my brother was arrested for another mans crime of breaking into a house. The other man was caught, however this effected my brothers trust or mistrust of the law.  In this case officers of the law could have taken the opportunity to have detailed conversation with staff and citizens about who they were looking before jumping to conclusions. This video speaks volumes. so many men in jail now for crimes that they  did not commit.