I think about young
children so differently than I did a year ago. It sounds a bit corny, but I
hope that young children have an opportunity to attend school in a classroom
that reflects diversity. While diversity
in general is important, it is even more important to represent the diversity
of the children whose classroom becomes their home for many hours each
week. The importance of this has become
clear to me because of my diversity learning.
However, before our
classrooms can truly reflect diversity, early childhood educators need to be
taught as we were. A class or two in
diversity needs to be required where teachers have an opportunity to interact,
question, and reflect. Throughout this
course, I have grown because of the time taken to look back and understand (and
admit to) my stereotypes. Without this
reflection, I do not think that I would have changed, because I entered my
initial diversity class believing that I was not a biased individual. So, for me, I think that early childhood
educators need additional knowledge on diversity. I’ll make an effort to include a bit of
diversity into each of my workshops, because diversity education needs to be a
part of everything we do in our classrooms.
For me, this class has
been intense. I have met many colleagues
that were new to me. I have shared a
tremendous part of myself, and I thank my colleagues for giving me the
confidence to share. Your comments have
helped me on my voyage of growth. I am
glad that I changed my specialization to diversity from adult learning; it has
been a pleasure working with each of you.
Thank you, and I look forward to our next class together.
Dr. Kien, thank you for your extreme organization and patience. Your notes regarding each week’s assignments
were extremely helpful, as we knew exactly what was expected. Due to my job, I need to work ahead, and you
were patient with me, answering my many questions. Your comments throughout the course have
helped me grow and look at my own biases in a light that will enable me to be a
better ‘me’ and a better early childhood professional. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Lois,
ReplyDeleteThis class sounds like it was a truly positive experience for you. Like you, I feel I shared a lot, and admitted a lot to myself.
I agree with you. I do beleive that diversity training should be part of most careers, and not even just education fields. As I am not a teacher, and have not trained as one, perhaps you can answer the question. What aspects of diversity are discussed in education degrees? Is the only discussion surrounding those who learn differently, and therefore may not get help from a typical classroom?
Thank you for all of your wonderful posts this semester. You blog and discussions were always of value to me.
Lois,
ReplyDeleteWe all should have diversity training because unless we are trained, we do not think about it. Before this course, I never gave a thought to diversity and the importance of it. We have been given useful tools and numerous resources to aid in becoming the very best anti-bias educators.
Thank you for your wonderful, insightful posts each week. I have enjoyed them! Good luck to you in your future courses!!
Blessings,
Susan
Hi Lois,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your personal stories and experiences with us throughout the course. I agree that the reflection that we did in this course made a huge difference in our learning styles and working styles as well. I used the reflection notes in my work before, which was helpful for me to have the clear understanding of children, but I gave it up later, as I did not have time. Now, I am thinking of going back to the habit of taking the reflection notes to help me know my children better. I think it is really helpful.
Lois,
ReplyDeleteYou are a great inspiration for me, by just reading your post and question have inspired me so much. I may not comment back to everyone but I reads everything. All early childhood educators need additional knowledge on diversity, because learnig in the early childhood professional is and on-going process. Good Luck! Lois I just love your pictures on your blog.
Thank you so much for demonstrating a willingness to be open with your learning and for sharing with us all of your knowledge and experiences. I wish you lots of luck in the future!
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