First, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my classmates for their support throughout the past 8 weeks. You have truly helped open my eyes to seeing this differently. I will admit that I did struggle at some points to see different perspectives and I realize that I will never understand how your lives are different from mine, but I appreciate your insights and thoughts. You are a great crew and I am glad that we can go through this journey together!
One hope that I have moving forward in my career with regard to working with diverse children and families is that I can remain open minded. I have been the new parent in a classroom and I have also been the seasoned parent in a classroom. I realize that both of these "roles" take an enormous amount of time to get used to change. I have also been the new teacher in a school and I am currently the seasoned educator in the school. I believe that I am extremely open to welcoming new families, but I am not always open to change. Therefore, my hope for myself is that I continue to stay on the path I have set for myself and continue to be open to accepting new children families and that I can learn something new about the new cultures that I may encounter. By learning something new, I can tuck it into my back pocket for use in the future. We all have those pieces of information that we store in our brains for just the exact moment it is needed.
A goal that I have for the early education field in regards to diversity is similar to my personal goal. Not all teachers think like those of us in this class, and I would like to think that as teachers we can be accepting of everyone in our classroom: Seasoned teachers are more accepting of change and open minded to new ideas and that new teachers are able to bring something new that they have learned to the school to teach everyone. I realize that this could be useful for any topic, but especially with the state of our nation right now, I feel that it is extremely important. If we all had the same mentality that we preach in my school that everyone is everyone's friend, and that we can all play together no matter what color your skin or hair color is, the world would be a better place. I think my final word on this topic is that we all need to follow the golden rule and remember to treat people the way that we would want to be treated.
Leanne, you also have been a great support in this class. I have always respected your perspective from our very first course together and I can tell that you that this business of education seriously. I hope to continue this journey with you.
ReplyDeleteLeanne,
ReplyDeleteI do believe in the golden rule as well. I want you to know that you have an ally in me to pass that phrase on to as many people as I can touch. Who knows how many people we can change. Thank you for all of your contributions to this course and sharing your views and reflections as we moved through this course.
-Scott
Hi Leanne, thank you so much for this honest and intriguing post. I am glad that you have grown more in your journey of learning about diversity and seeing things from another person's point of view. I couldn't agree more with your ending statement how we need to treat others the way we want to be treated. I wish you the best of luck in your journey of early childhood education!
ReplyDeleteHello Leanne,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts during our class. I have enjoyed reading your interesting posts and learning from your perspective. It is challenging to keep an open mind, but I agree that this beneficial as an educator and it is a goal of mine as well because it has a significant impact when interacting with all children and families, especially those from diverse cultures and backgrounds. We all can learn from each other as long as we are willing, and accept that there may be misunderstandings at times. However, having a open mind will help us achieve our goals. Best of luck in your future classes.
- Juanita