“Professional Hopes and Goals”

The one hope I have when working with children and their families is to make a positive connection with the families while having an understanding that they are different, and that is okay. Therefore I want to learn about what they expect of me and what their needs may be in order that I may help assist them in all ways possible. Furthermore I want the families to feel comfortable working with me while showing that their culture or diverse background will have no effects on how the family or their children will be treated any differently than any other family when it comes to showing full respect for them, and their culture.  

 

Additionally the goal I would like to set for the early childhood field and others about diversity, is that being different is okay and because of your differences, whether by choice or not, does not mean that you should be treated any differently than any other group of people because of your dissimilarities. Moreover, as early childhood professionals we have to make sure that the families that enter their children into our early childhood programs feel that there is equity for them and that all within the program will be shown social justice no matter their culture background or any other differences they may have within their family.    

 

Last of all I would like to thank all of you I have worked with, and learned from with your countless insights, and views on diversity, equity and social justice for all people. I have enjoyed your experiences you have shared, and your help in guiding me to having a better understanding of the overall course through your questions and answers share on our discussion boards. Therefore I thank everyone and look forward to working with you again in the near future.   

 

Welcoming Families From Around the World

 

The name of the child family’s country of origin is Bolivia. In preparing for the child’s arrival, and her family that will be arriving from Bolivia I had to first find out what the child’s family background culture was and their language, understanding that in Bolivia the Spanish language is dominate but there are other spoken languages as well. Therefore working in the social service agency it gave me the benefits of searching out information about other cultures and their backgrounds. However in preparing myself to be culturally responsive towards the family I first found out that the family’s main cultural language was Spanish speaking. I found that the family is a close knit family, and that more than just the mother, and father may live in the household and this is considered to be normal. Also that the mother stays at home and takes care of all the home and family matters, while the father is the one that works in the family. The mother also use her maiden or along with the husbands last name which sometimes both last names are passed on to the child or the child will have the fathers last name while the mother still use her maiden name. I also learned that the family when meeting people prefer a handshake and direct eye contact. The culture also use a specific greeting for the time of day when meeting people. Moreover in understanding that there are many classes and groups within this country I would find out about the family’s cultures beliefs, and values in order not to offend them.

 

In preparing for the child, and her family I hope these few facts about the family will help me and the family form a beginning relationship that will help the child settle in comfortably and allow the family to build some type of trust with our agency, and the early childhood program.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

 

On Tuesday of this week I was standing in the customer service line at Walmart and overheard a young lady being treated unjustly by a manager and another worker. The line at customer service was backed up with at least 10 people in line and I was the sixth person in line. The young lady was the only person working behind the counter at this time, but what upset me most was I overheard the manager say to the other worker, “she need to be working by herself because she can get some exercise” and they both laughed. Of course it was obvious the young lady had more weight on her than some people, but this was no reason to attach her in such a way of not giving her some assistances with the customers in line.

 

This incident made me feel not only did the manager not care for the young lady, but nor did she care about the customers standing in line. Therefore I made sure the manager, and the other worker heard me say to my son, “this young girl is doing a great job in being polite with the customers even though she has all these people in her line”. Then a lady in front of me said, she sure is. I then stepped over to the manager and said, could you tell me who I can call and tell them about how well this worker is doing under pressure with all these people in her line. At first they just looked at me, then the manager said you can call the 1-800 number but am about to get her some help. I said that would be nice since we have been standing here for about 20 minutes and still have a way to go before we reach the counter. I wish you all could have seen the look on their faces. Lol!!

 

But the main thing is the young lady should have been treated fairly in the first place. However in order for this to have occurred the manager should have given her help right away and not judged her by her appearances. Furthermore for all the manager and the other worker knew the young lady could have an unknown reason for her weight. Nor should they have assumed that a person that look overweight is a person that does not exercise.