What I Have Learned

Wow, can't believe that this class has come to an end. There are some many new things I learned in the past eight weeks it is crazy. Out of everything I have learned about anti-bias education and how to foster and promote it, one thing I hope that I will think about when working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds will be that I need to keep an open mind and get to know the children and family before I judge and make assumptions about them. I have learned that creating an anti-bias classroom starts with the teacher getting rid of their biases, so hopefully I remember to think that when dealing with children and family from diverse backgrounds.

One goal I have for myself for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to continue to not form biases towards groups and to promote diversity in the classroom. I feel that if i promote diversity in the classroom, then the children will be able to see that everyone is different, which is okay, and maybe learn that we should treat everyone fair and equally.

I wanted to thank all of my colleagues for their continue support throughout this class. This was a pretty challenging eight weeks for me with starting a new teaching job, planning a wedding, and doing this class, but your support gave me motivation to keep trudging along. For that then, I thank you all!

Start Seeing Diversity

Thinking about everything I have learned through the media segments throughout this class, the collage I have created above looked at all the issues we talked about throughout this course and that were addressed in media segments. This collage shows that throughout this class, I have learned to be accepting of everyone even if I have bias against them, such as homosexuality. It also shows what I have learned as well. I have learned that trauma can be very impacting to a child, and can be a lasting effect. I feel in order to really have an anti-bias classroom, I need to get rid of my personal biases, help children through traumatic experiences, and promote diversity in order to help children develop an anti-bias mindset.

Children Curiosity

I remembered one time after my car accident in college, I was at work at the local grocery store, when I heard a child ask her mom what was wrong with my eyes (I took a lot of impact to my face during the accident, and one eye was about completely blood shot and bruised pretty bad and the other was about half blood shot). The mom quickly told the daughter that she shouldn't ask those questions and that they were rude to ask. I wasn't surprised that the child noticed it, because it was something that a lot of people noticed, and it was a question I had been getting a lot since I went back to work. I told the mom that it was okay, and that I knew my eyes looked weird. I remember telling the little girl that I was in an accident and hit my head, but the eyes were getting better everyday. The mom apologize that I had to say it, but like I said, I was use to it by them.

I think the message that the mom communicated to her daughter was that it's not nice to ask what is wrong with people, and that it is rude to say something like that. Even, though the little girl was just being curious, and noticed something different. Instead of the mom reprimanding her, she could have said something along the line of not being sure why my eyes or different, and sometimes people have accidents that hurt themselves.

I think an example an example of how an anti-bias educator might have responded to support the child's understanding is to explain the truth. If the anti-bias educator doesn't know why someone is different, in this case my eyes, then maybe encourage the child to ask the question. Instead of yelling at them for their curiosity, which is very common for young children, give them the chance to ask and find out for themselves, especially if the anti-bias educator is unable to tell the child why.