To prepare for this particular assignment this week we had to do three things:
- Recalled what we have learned about child development, family systems, and the significant influences adult relationships have on children’s social, emotional, and cognitive growth and the forming of social identities from previous courses.
- Then, we had to think about what we learned about classism, racism, gender stereotyping and sexism, and other”–isms” that are prevalent in our society while considering the ways in those “–isms” influence people.
- And lastly, we had to imagine that we are early childhood professionals who are experiencing one or more of those “–isms” in our personal lives.and how it might impact our work with young children and their families
MY (COMPLETELY FABULOUS) FABLE:
I am 38 years old and have been teaching kindergarten children in my predominantly black community for about 10 years now. I've recently, had to move to a new community which is predominantly white because my husband had to take over the regional office and now for the first time I am the only black face in not only an all white school but (just about) an all white town.
In my 38 years I've never experienced racism and have always been friendly and bubbly and have never had no problem making friends. But now when I walk in the teachers lounge, conversations stop and people leave. When I try to strike up a conversation I get offensive looks and my co-workers ignore me. It's been the better part of two weeks now and other than me being introduced by the principal that first day, no one has talked to me. Being a people person this is hard for me but I've tried to not let it affect my teaching. But one day as I was doing an activity that I've done every year to help children with manipulatives a co worker said to me "I don't know how your used to doing things with your people, but our children have a higher standard of learning and we expect more. You need to reevaluate your teaching methods if you want to continue to work with our children". I was completely appalled and taken back by her comment. Never in my life did I feel so 'less-than'. After that, I did what i've never done before...second guess myself and my teaching strategies. And in doing that the consequences have been less than satisfactory for the children I teach and even more horrendous for their families. My students seem to be uninterested and I believe they don't even want to come to school anymore and I've even had a parent say to me that her son doesn't like me as a teacher and she wanted to know what I did to her child to make him dislike school and me so much. She even implied that I was abusive.......
If this was really a true story and I was talking about myself, I believe the children would feel the discouragement I was feeling and it would change the atmosphere and dynamics of the class. It would make a child depressed (in a way) and trigger them to not want to be a part of my classroom. As a parent I know I would be very concerned and livid if my child began to feel any type of way towards a teacher when they were normally eager to be in school and now they don't. And I have become upset when I thought a teacher was mistreating my child, and did everything I could to make sure he never felt that way again. It did cause some animosity between the teacher and I in the beginning but eventually we were able to see eye to eye. If this was a real story; having to deal with racism and the feeling of being worthless and/or powerless would take it's toll on me. I know I would pack up and leave and find a place where people treated me like an equal. I'm glad this isn't a real situation for myself, but it is real for so many other races out there and it's so important to keep breaking down these barriers of isms, so that we can truly make this world a better place for our children and our children's children. :0)
