• My hope is to effectively construct an environment for all of the families and children who come from diverse background. An environment that is I inviting and incorporates anti-bias education and curriculum which promotes healthy and courteous interactions, along with social fairness and integrity for all involved parties.
• My goal is to bring probabilities that demonstrate variety, evenhandedness, and community reasonableness within the learning environment that involves the developmental realms of all families by executing plans that foster awareness without being biased and prejudice in the field of early childhood education.
• For many of you, I have had the opportunity to connect with you on a personal level and will always be available as a long distance colleague. Throughout this course, I have been interact for the most part via cell phone because I was in the hospital having major surgery and recovering. I entered the hospital during the second week of this course and I was just released last week. That made my interaction with all of you very heartwarming because, for several days you were the only interaction I had. I take my hat off to all of you for your kind, encouraging words. I would like to thank all of you for your continuous support as we trekked through this program. It has been an honor and a privilege to have collaborated and interconnected with such a proficient group of individuals. Thank you for your remarks and for sharing your personal and professional visions regarding the matters on diversity in early childhood education, as well as your personal lives. I would also like to thank Dr. Ferrari for her enthusiastic approach to learning and her kind words of encouragement throughout this course. Wishing all of you the best of luck in all of your future endeavors. Continue touching the lives of families and young children and I will do the same.
Young Schoolchild
By Janella Malone-Barnes
The hurt and pain that mold a child
Can often make their minds go wild
To tame a soul living in a cloud
We must first tame the wild child
The wild child that reside inside
The hurt and pain that mold a child
Who has now been labeled wild
Listening, learning, observing and hearing help bestow calm to the crying child
But who consoles the lost, confused, broken child
Who will save the young schoolchild
Those were the exact words that came out of my mouth when a student last year referred to another child’s parent as a “Gay bird”. The two boys were playing in the house area, and I overheard one of them say “Your father is a gay bird!”, and I told him “we don’t use words like that!” I was stunned that a 4 year old used that wording, and was using it “fittingly”. I felt bad for the other child because his parents were same-sex so I sat down with the children to find out how each of them felt.
Because I had notice how his parents body language towards the other couple, their feelings were transparent. Therefore, I did not feel the need to ask where the student had heard the terminology he learned to the appropriate people and help them change their opinion about his classmate’s parents. I asked him what he thought a “Gay bird was, and he told me “A man that wear pink shirts that mommy and daddy don’t like”. I asked him “Do you have a pink shirt?” He shook his head yes, so I told him that “We all like different colors and we all have different ways that we like to wear but, that does not make us a gay bird.” The child’s response was “Oh, I am not a gay bird because I have a pink shirt in my drawer?’ I told him no and then I explained that “When we play with our friends we try to say nice things so that they are not sad, do you think that you can play with your friends and use nice words?” The other little boy smiled and said “Gay bird is a silly word, what is a gay bird?” Had I made a mole out of a mole hill?
Throughout the day, I observed the two boys as they played together and they were so content. The following week, something had changed the children no longer played cohesively and whenever the little boy with same-sex parent attempted to play alongside the other child, he would get up and go to a different area of the learning environment. I observed the disjointed behavior for several days and when I spoke to the child’s parent’s at the end of the week, I was told that he was no longer allowed to play with the child and that they had put in a request to have him moved to another classroom. This was disheartening because the two children were being separated for reasons out of their control. They were no longer jovial and their ability to interact with other children was strained.
As an early childhood educator, I know that the beliefs or biases of a family can have a negative impact on the lives of young children. The mother of the first child wanted to know why her child was not as talkative as he had been in previous weeks and why he seemed so withdrawn. The door had opened and I was elated! It gave me the chance to explain that the two children were very good friends and that the restraints that the parents had set prevented the boys from talking and enjoying each other’s company as they matriculated around the room. The mother had a quizzical look on her face and said “I did not know that he played with that child, does he play with anyone else?” I expressed how important it was to have social interaction in the learning environment and how children develop as they interact acknowledging that there was nothing wrong with the two boys playing together. She was apprehensive but, agreed to let the children play together until there was an opening in the other classroom. As luck would have it there was not an opening and the two boys continued to laugh, converse and play together in a positive manner. I always wonder, if I could have done more as an educator to help the parents understand.
janellamalonebarnes 