REFLECTING ON LEARNING

            “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”

                                                                                      Martin Luther King. Jr.

We contend that students who interact with diverse students in classrooms and in the broad campus environment will be more motivated and better able to participate in a heterogeneous and complex society (Gurin, Nagda, & Lopez, 2003).  Early childhood educators have deep faith in the principles that all people deserve the opportunities and resources to fulfil their complete humanity (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Now I am convinced more than ever before that there are many benefits that an individual and indeed the society gained when diversity is embraced and valued.

As an early childhood educator, my most passionate hope for the future is to see children from diverse backgrounds and differences in my class and in the society interacting amongst themselves and with people around, flourishing and blossoming. A hope for the true fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream that one day little children will live in a nation- in a world- where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, by where they come from, by the circumstance of their birth, but by the content of their character.

My learning in this course has been of great benefit to me and has helped me in setting some goals which I know if I pursue, I will be a better and a more effective anti- bias early childhood educator.  Having said this, I will like to say a big thank you to our professor for facilitating such a wonderful and highly beneficial learning activity that this course is. I also thank my dear course-mates for the privileges and benefits of learning together, the valuable learning experiences that you shared through weekly discussion postings, valuable comments and responses are cherished, valued, and highly useful. I wish you all success in your future academic and career pursuits.

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

Gurin, P., Nagda, B. A., & Lopez, G. E. (2003).  The benefits of diversity in education for democratic citizenship. Retrieved from http://www-personal.umich.edu/~pgurin/benefits.html

IMPACTS ON EARLY EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The early years of a child is very important as it lays the foundation for healthy development and growth or otherwise of that child. For example, if a child experience neglect, inadequate medication /health care, and imbalanced nutrition from age 0 to age 6, the child stands the risk of having an increase in overall poor physical health as well as having the potential to develop permanent physical disabilities. Research on early childhood has underscored the impact of the first five years of a child’s life on his/her social-emotional development, negative early experiences can impair children’s mental health and effect their cognitive, behavioral, social-emotional development (Cooper, Masi,& Vick, 2009). What happens to a child in early childhood (socially, emotionally, and physically) matters and can influence the child’s development later in life.

For my blog post this week with the above heading, I explored Middle East & North Africa Region and specifically took interest in Syria as a country. My choice of Syria is deliberate. I live and work in a country very close to Syria and with the situation presently in Syria we’ve had an influx of children from Syria, not necessarily Syrian children but also children from other nations whose parents are relocating from Syria joining my school. It will be a useful learning experience for me to know and gain a deeper understanding of what children in Syria are going through and having an understanding of how these is affecting them will be of great help to my teaching and classroom relationship with these lovely children

The war that has been going in Syria constitutes the major challenge that children faced in that country. Schools are being attacked and even when other places are attacked, children are the more vulnerable and the major victims. As recent as April 29^th this year mortar attacks at Al-Shaghour, a suburb of Damascus killed 14 children and left more than 80 other children seriously injured.  That same day two other incidents, another mortar attack and a car bomb, caused the death of more than 100 people with the majority being children and women. According to Maria Calivis, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, every day, across Syria, children who are simply trying to go about their everyday lives are being killed and maimed by indiscriminate attacks on populated areas. Youssouf Abdel-Jelil, the country’s UN representative recent statement on the situation is both revealing and a wake-up call, he said, “The children of Syria continue to pay the heaviest price of the conflict. The recent escalation of attacks makes this cost unbearable.”

Another issue that is affecting children in Syria is scarcity of safe water. “The scarcity of safe water-adding to the impact of the ongoing conflict and the intense summer heat-raises the real risk of more population displacement and the spread of disease among vulnerable children.” Maria Calivis. A desert country, Syria is experiencing her worst drought in about 50 years with lowest levels of rainfall. This situation is having a serious effect on more than 4 million children by putting their lives in greater risk than the war.

What children suffer both during war and after war can be devastating. When the war is going on children are being killed, maimed, displaced with some even recruited as soldiers thereby damaging, permanently, the kind, innocent and empathetic nature of the child in them. The psychological effects of the war linger on with children even after the battle is over, many children will be unable to forge healthy relationships and some will turn to alcohol or drug misuse as a coping mechanism. Yet, the gravest effects of war on children is that it disrupt their healthy development by disrupting and destroying their education and also by removing and sometimes completely destroying supportive, caring and responsive relationships meant for their healthy growth and development.

The insight I gained based on the information I got from my exploration this week will go a long way in helping me to provide necessary and effective support for children that recently came from Syria to join my class. I realized and now understand why one of the students always wanted to discuss issues about what is going on in Syria even at that young age (5). I have resolved that I will encourage her and others to discuss their feelings, concerns and the experiences they have regarding the situation in Syria. I will also be an empathetic listener.

References:

Cooper, J.L., Masi, R., & Vick, J. (2009). Social-emotional development in early childhood: What every policymaker should know. Retrieved from http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_882.html

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/syria.html

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

“Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture.”

                                                                                      Levin & Kilbourne

Perhaps there has been no time in human history when children, indeed very young children are inundated, dangerously overwhelmed and flooded with explicit sexual messages. From simple advertise messages on products to adverts and programs on TV, to video games, movies, music and even toys children see and get messages that are embedded with sex and sexualized images. Unarguably, the sexual messages that children got from the media is second to if not at par with violence messages.

The media remains a powerful influence that shapes the young ones. From my experience as a preschool teacher, young children got their information about sex mostly from the media. As captured by the Deseret News, "Kids learn from many sources (Steve Thomsen communication professor at Brigham Young University). It's true they learn from parents and other socializing agents like church and school, but they also learn an awful lot from media. They rely on media as a way to learn about their world. What they see is what they assume is normal."

Sexualization is to make something sexual in character or quality.  It refers to the process whereby a person or group of people comes to be seen or interpreted as sexual in nature. Sexuality and sexualization of children is not the same thing. Sexuality in children refers to children developing a healthy curiosity and awareness of their bodies as different from sexualization which occurs when a child sense of value is solely based on his or her sex appeal. The other day a child in grade two was been teased by her friends for not having a boyfriend, she told the parents to find a guy for her as life is meaningless and dull without a boy-friend.  A child in grade 1 as told by a colleague of mine reported that a classmate pull down his pant and “he asked me to do a disgusting thing, to lick his private part!”

The pains and depravations caused by sexualization of children are evident everywhere. Sexualization, experts say, devalues accomplishment, intelligence and character (Deseret News, 2011). Children are been exposed so earlier and are demonstrating sexual interests, behaviors and actions at earlier age. Could the broken homes, unwanted pregnancies, and such that are prevalent in our societies not be the results from sexualization of children?

As a parent and an educator I feel something needs to be done and I am deeply concerned. Sadly enough it seems the adverts, the exposures cannot be stopped. It is case of the fact that you cannot stop a bird from fly over your head but you can stop it from building its nest on your head. If we take it upon ourselves as parents and educators to speak and educate the young ones honestly, with care, love and concern about the sexualized world around them and counter the negative effects of it, we would succeed in not allowing the evil birds of sexualization build their nests on the heads of our young ones.

References:

Deseret News (2011). The end of innocence: The cost of sexualizing kids. Retrieved from http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700180194/The-end-of-innocence-The-cost-of-sexualizing-kids.html?pg=all

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

“You called me monkey, but you got mad when I became champion with Galatasaray and the saddest thing is you called me monkey and forgot that you jumped when my ‘monkey’ brother scored twice yesterday ... and you call yourself a true fan?”

The  above is a response by the renowned football star Didier Drogha to racist attacks on him and another African footballer in Turkey during a match between his team, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, the two were insulted and were subjected to vile racist chants from fans in the terraces during the match with some fans throwing bananas at them. Funny enough Fenebahce won that match 2-to-1, and ironically both goals were scored by Pierre Webo, another African who is from Cameroon.

Derman-Sparks & Edwards define racism as an attitude, action or practice of an individual or institution, backed by societal power, that undermines human and legal rights or economic opportunities of people because of specific physical characteristics, such as skin color. Some racist actions can be hidden while some are so glaring. While some actions that portray racist inclination might be deliberate, some are unintentional. Working here in Turkey, I have seen and experienced all of these. Of particular mention is a situation where a child asked me “where is your tail?” Shocked, angry but I was calm and decided to know what informed that question and where the child is speaking from.

Though I used that incident to teach my class about the evil effects of racism, it took me some times to be able to get over it and have normal relationships with the child and the family especially when I discovered that the child got that message from home. She actually said her parents told her that Africans live on trees and eat bananas like monkeys.

Racist comments and racism incidents like the one I mentioned above do have some consequences on the teacher, the student, the school and even families. It might portray the particular student as a racist thereby ostracizing him/her in class which will affect his/her ability to have friends in the class. This can results into the student having trouble learning and concentrating in class. For the teacher, it might have effects on his/her work, attitude and expectations in the class which will consequently affect the atmosphere in the class. Truth is, the academic and general classroom atmosphere is greatly influenced by the expectations of the teacher. For the family it can cause a schism between the teacher and some families thus affecting their relationship. It may result in conflict between the teacher, the student and the family thus turning the school environment into an unfriendly one.