Professional Hopes and Goals

     The journey into early childhood has brought about many lessons, awakenings, possibilities, and of course many smiles.  Each time you see the little smiling faces or their cute little laughs or the look of the feeling that you know your children are developing skills, mastering concepts, or writing their name for the first time, you realize that having the ability to be part of these moments is what makes the field of early childhood so rewarding and we are lucky to be a part of it.  With each new day, a new experience, each new family, an opportunity to build a new relationship, and an opportunity for a new learning experience.  As early educators we need to embrace, differences, change, diversity and be activists for our families promoting social equity, anti-bias behavior, and inclusive practices that will make each an every children feel loved, respected, and proud.
     My hope for working with families from diverse backgrounds is that professionally I will have all of the tools, trainings, and education to prevent a children from feeling the effects of cutural discontinuity and be inclusive and flexible in my practice to adjust and mold my program to give each child the same opportunities of academic success regardless of barriers such as language or economic hardship.  Personally, I hope to be able to build relationships with families that will allow for their sharing of culture and traditions in a way that I will be able to work with them to create equilibrium between home and school for their children and they will experience what it means to be "truly bicultural."
    In the field of early childhood, I have found that with each individual child and family there is something that despite all of the resources that we have available, there is always something that we don't know or that we could be educated more fully on.  Cultural and diversity in our environment is all around us and families have many resources in multiple languages that are consistent with what their needs are.  The shocking reality that I have learned is that despite all of the planning, the individuals who do not always have the answers they need, is the elders in my community.  After the insight that we have gained from the positive effects of young children working with elders, I hope to bring more of this into my program and my hopes is that besides for the positive effects it should have on the two groups, that it will help to cause attention by the community of what their needs are that we are not meeting.  It is very sad to me to see that a community that has suffered through wars, poverty, and employment that provided them with very few resources or compensation are struggling now just to keep warm.  We should be learning from them and embracing their culture, traditions, and knowledge.
      The other issue dealing with equity and diversity that is actually my second goal is to become better educated and trained to assist children with differing learning abilities.  I have had some experience and training to help children exhibiting symptoms associated with attention deficit disorder as well as sensory processing disorder but my new challenge is to become trained to help children with dyslexia. My goal is to receive certification in this area and add it to the tutoring services that we now offer for school age children.  The drive for this is not just professional but has recently touched our family on a more personal level and it is my goal to know as much about what children are experiencing at each stage with this barrier in academics.
      I just would like to address to send out a personal note of thanks to all of the students in the program for all of the interesting and eye opening discussions sharing personal and professional experiences that have been a contribution to my program in multiple ways.  As well as the professors who I have learned so much from throughout the duration of this program so far and a personal thanks to Dr Kien for her guidance, direction, and understanding throughout this course as well as through child development. See you all next class!
   

Welcoming Families from Around the World

     Families immigrate from countries all over the world in search of better employment, education, and a better way of life.  This week we are faced with how we could help a family to make the transition from another country to here in the United States.  In this scenario, I am a hospital worker helping a family who has just relocated from Bulgaria.  This is a challenge for me considering at this point I have no knowledge of the culture, heritage, language, medical care, or education system  in Bulgaria.  It is located on the Bulkan pennisula in south eastern Europe, borded on the east by the Black Sea, on the north by Romania and the Danube River, on the south by Greece and Turkey, and on the west by Macedonia and Serbia (everyculture.com).                                   

Map of Bulgaria
In order to be culturally responsive to a family arriving from this country

1) The national language of Bulgaria is Bulgarian, which uses the Cyrillic script (everyculture.com)  The turkish minorities speak Turkish, and the Gypsies speak Romany (everyculture.com)  For this reason, the first thing I would need to do is find a translater to overcome the language barrier that will exist for this family.

2) Bulgaria's basic economy is made up of about 16 percent agriculture, 60 percent industry, and 24 percent services (everyculture.com).  Many women entered paid employment during the socialist era and women make up nearly half of the workforce in the last twentieth century usually employed as teachers, nurses, pharmacists, sales clerks and laborers but are largely responsible for the household tasks; childcare, cooking, cleaning,and shopping.  This information will be helpful in getting the family started on an employment search if they have already not been sent to the United States because of a job opportunity.

3) Marriages is mongomous and marriages are free choice (everyculture.com)  Early infant care is provided my the mother, working mothers receive a paid six month for maternity leave, children aged three to six years of age attend state run kindergartens when available, otherwise early education is left up to the grandparents (everyculture.com)  Helping this family to find the right education and childcare program for them that would embrace their culture and diversity would be neccessary for the children to receive a smooth transition.

4)Most ethnic Bulgarians belong to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church but small numbers are Muslim, Protestants, and Roman Catholic, Gypsies are often Christian (everyculture.com)  Helping the family to find a church that practices their religion or another area that celebrates their religion will help them to continue with their religious traditions.

5) Families from Bulgaria celebrate many of the Christian holidays that are celebrated in the United States but they also celebrate others as well such as festivales of kukeri, which marks the beginning of spring and the agricultural period (everyculture.com)  Finding photographs of these celebrations and encouraging this new family to share with us their experiences and memories of the celebrations will help them feel more accepted and welcome.

6) Bulgarian children receive many of the same immunizations that American children do but sadly tick borne encephalitis, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C and the H5N1 virus are common in Bulgaria (cdc.gov)  For these reasons, setting them up with a healthcare provider early on will help them to know where to turn for help.  Along with this educating them about all of the resources for assistance that are available for families will help the families to know who to turn to.

References

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/bulgaria.htm

http://everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Bulgaria.html
 

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

     Unfortunatley in our society, negative behaviors such as bias, prejudice, and oppression exist in many forms.  We do not only encounter these behaviors in interactions and experiences from our daily lives but in information from the media, television, movies, books, and in music.  I just often wonder if the individuals performing these acts are even mildly aware of the long term damage that they are instilling on the recipiants of the act.  Maybe if individuals were a little more aware of it's implications, then they would do it, or maybe they still would?
     When I think of bias, prejudice or oppressive behavior in movies, the first movie that comes to mind is Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere  The scene that comes to mind is when Julia Roberts walks into the dress store with all of the money that Richard Gere had given her to buy a dress for their dinner engagement they had that evening and the women in the store without even knowing her decided that based on her appearance, she could not have afforded to shop there.  I think most people who have seen this movie had that overwhelming feeling of sadness for Julia.   The fact that circumstances in her life had led her to prostitution and now even though it was not the best of circumstances someone had entered her life that could rescue her from this dangerous and sad life that had become hers and without hesitation, these two women let her know she did not belong nor did she fit in dressed in her current attire.  There was not equality in this situation.  Even though, she had more than enough money to shop at this elaborate store, they would not even allow her to try on any of the clothes.  Besides for this, they would not show her the common curtosy that they would shown other customers.  The incident made me very sad because even though many of us dream of having enough wealth to buy anything we want, the fact that most of us are looking down at our faded black pants that we have had for ten years and hoping that no one will notice that they are not quite black anymore and that we just did not have the ability to buy a new outfit.  To turn this situation into an equitable one, the women in the store would have to see past the surface characteristics of Julia's attire and not judge her based on what they could see on the outside.
       I often think that some people not everyone have to experience some kind of struggle or disadvantage to truly understand how hurtful it is to be on the receiving end of biased, prejudice, and oppressive behavior.  This is not true for everyone, many individuals do encompass empathy for others, but in this particular case and in many cases that I have witnessed first hand, income and wealth or lack of can serve as a foundation for oppressive behaviors to happen.  I have witnessed first hand even in my own child care parents who will comments about children who are on vouchers and how they would not put their children in care with a child receiving one.  It's as if because a family needs help, there must something wrong with the child.  Poverty is not contagious!  All children deserve the same equal chance at a good education regardless of their family's income.