Sunday, February 23, 2014

country of origin - Mexico

I am working in a child care center and a little girl from Mexico comes into my classroom. The first thing I would do after meeting the little girl and her family is look up the Mexican culture and traditions. When looking up Mexico, I learned there is no actual language for Mexican people. Most of it is in fact Spanish, but there are other kinds of languages too. I would learn about their religion to know in fact if I have any children in common with them. The internet said that "90% of Mexicans are Catholic". I would look up the Catholic traditions and what they celebrate to be sure I am not offending anyone. The next thing I would look up is how they live. I found that they enjoy having parties and celebrate things every chance they get. They also take family very seriously and are always there for their immediate family. This allows me to make sure I get to know the family and make them feel very comfortable in their new setting.
By doing these things, it will allow the family to feel welcomed into our classroom and see that their child is not being discriminated against and that we accept everyone regardless of where they are from.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

discrimination

The incident that I have experienced is not really that serious but in my class the boys and girls have this idea in their head that boys can ONLY play with the superhero's and the girls can ONLY play with the dolls. They also will bring in stickers and if its ninja turtles the boys will not give them to the girls because they are girls. The girls do the same thing if they bring in princess stickers they don't give them to the boys. I have made sure, as the teacher, to have them share everything they bring in and making sure they realize that it doesn't matter what gender you are, you are allowed to like the ninja turtles if your a girl and your allowed to like princesses if your a boy.

This example diminishes the equity in the classroom because in their own simple minds they are discriminating against the genders in the classroom because of what they see on tv. They never see a boy playing with a doll on tv, and if they do, the boy is most likely being made fun of or questioned about why he is playing with the doll. It goes the same way for the girls playing with the boy toys. She is immediately thought of as a "tomboy" or she's gay because she likes things that boys like.

I have made sure that if they are playing something that they are letting everyone play regardless of what gender they are. I make sure they aren't saying anything mean to each other and I am always sending the message "gender doesn't matter, anyone can do anything they want to". I think the kids in my class have come to an agreement that everyone can play even if it confuses them sometimes why a girl wants to play dinosaurs or a boy wants to play house. I have made my classroom judgment free and they all are now playing and sharing nicely.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

microaggression

I have recently observed microaggression by one of my guy friends who was being ignorant and was making wise cracks about me liking girls. He was saying "who wears the pants" and "you guys have your own president, right?' Things like this just shows how unaware our country is about people who like the same gender. No one is the same, no matter what they look like or who they like. I felt embarrassed for him and for myself because he said this in front of all my friends and I dont like having attention brought on me because of who I like. I also felt anger too because there was no need to talk about who I like and say dumb things like that.

This put a perspective on being prejudice to me because now I know how people of different race feel. I now understand why the African American people get all fired up about having rights and not being judged. I now understand that it doesnt feel good to be put down for what you look like or who you like. Everyone deserves an equal oppurtunity in life and shouldnt be judged on their own personal looks or gender that they like.