Microaggressions are very harmful !

            This week I was observing a parent child visit. The child was attempting to build a house from Duplos. As the child continued working and struggling with the project the parent (I believe they thought they were being supportive) continued a cheering section with comments such as:

This should be easy.

Just set them on top of each other.

Come on, even you can build a simple house.

Build it like your brother.

I know even you can do this sweetie.

            I had to intervene and ask her to simply watch for the rest of the visit. When I had the chance later to speak with her about her comments (without her child present) I was able to explain how hurtful her comments were. At first she didn’t seem to get it. After I was able to give a couple of examples that she could relate to she felt really bad. We talked about the fact that she now realized that certain words really could hurt; she would instantly be able to make a change for the better. Three days later the same mom and child had another supervised visit. As much as it was heartbreaking watching and listening to the first observation, it was heartwarming to see the mom really paying attention to her words and to see the reaction of the child. At first the child looked at the mom hesitant, but after a few true compliments were given with a genuinely caring voice the child responded to the parent with a smile and engaged her in play.

            This particular story reminded me that so many of us naturally repeat vocabulary and actions that were our culture growing up.  It is important as teachers to not judge parents. It is our job to help provide healthier more appropriate ways of communicating. Instead of telling this mother that I thought she was an awful parent, I acknowledged that her parents might have talked like that to her and they loved her, that there still might be a gentler more appropriate way of talking with her child. We also talked about as adults we need to decide which thoughts, beliefs and behaviors that we are going to keep from our family upbringing and which we choose to discard.

Jenn Pore`

Three Interviews

     This week I spoke with three of my friends and colleagues to get their definitions of culture and diversity. I was given an array of answers from listings of their genealogy to their language. All three people that I interviewed spoke English and identified themselves as American partly because of that fact.  I found it interesting that the women (2 of the 3) used descriptors of gender such as mom and daughter while the male did not, designate or identify his gender. A personal thought causes me to wonder if this has to do with most men or should I say that the dominate culture’s influence on males being so self assured that it doesn’t need to be stated?

     One of my colleagues described his self as American-Mexican. He explained that both of his parents are Mexican but all three boys were born in the US and were raised American. He says that they do enjoy traditional Mexican recipes but that is about the extent of their old heritage that they bring forward. He knows very little Spanish and does say that he regrets not having more of the language, but his parents came here for the opportunity to have a career, make money and they needed the family to speak English in order to fit in.

     None of the people that I interviewed brought up environment, values, health, community or education (directly). However, all three stated their career choice as part of their culture. I would say over all most of what was discussed was what we have learned as surface culture.

     One interviewee was honest about some biases (relating to personality types) that she struggles with when we were discussing diversity. The other two considered themselves to be pretty diverse thinkers and knowing them I would have to agree. They live the motto of working from on open mind. All three agreed that coming from a family of money or from a family that was poor was seen as being diverse. The example that I was given as two different cultures was a ranching family and a blue-collar family.

     Had we talked for a longer period of time we may have gotten deeper into the description and meaning of culture and diversity but as a fact gathering, what’s your first thoughts questioning, most of the answers as I have already mentioned were surface and not really deep. I feel that this exercise gave me a good insight into what the majority of parents might be coming from. As an early childhood educator it is important to remember the family when working with the children. We want to give the children opportunities to learn and practice open thinking and be diverse thinkers but we must be respectful and knowledgeable in the presentation of information.

Jenn Pore`

If I Had To Leave My Country

            This week we are being asked to assume that the infrastructure of our country has been completely devastated and that my immediate family and myself are being relocated to another country very different from my own. Each person is being allowed to take one change of clothing and three small personal items.

            I would already have the first item with me, as it is a long necklace with a pewter heart that I wear every day. Sealed within the heart are ashes of my Mom. The second item would be a photo that again, I always have with me. This photo was taken at a reunion a year before my Mom passed and is of my whole immediate family (I have photo shopped in a photo of my Grand Daughter that was born a year later). The third item would be my phone. As silly as that may sound my phone holds 4,000 photos of family and friends along with information and it gives me the ability to contact family. For this scenario I am assuming that I will be able to have service available to me in the new country that we are being sent to.

            I think my description of the items gives the reader a fairly good idea what these items means to me. If there is any doubt I can tell you that my Children, and Grand Children, Siblings (all immediate family) are the air that I breathe. I recently read a quote that goes something like “If I were asked to chose between breathing and my children, I would use my last breath to say I love you.” (Unknown).

            If I were told upon arrival that I could only keep one item it would be my Mom. I would be grateful that my family was with me and we could take more pictures. I am also taking the liberty to pretend that this new country would allow me the time to transfer information to one of my children’s phones, as I am certain that their phone would be the one item that they would keep. All of my old family photos would still be preserved. We would work together so that each of us had our most treasured item. That’s just how we roll.

             Many have described me, as an old soul and that I must have gypsy blood running through me. I am flattered by what I consider to be a compliment and I concur. I am a self-sufficient person with a touch of MacGyver in my old soul. As long as I have my family I am able to make a home. I have lived through some pretty tough circumstances, but everywhere I have lived has been a loving home. I have no doubt that my family would not only survive but we would find a way to flourish because we would be together and taking care of each other is what we do. My family culture is one of honor, trusting your intuition and doing the right thing. 

Jenn Pore`

Hello to all my new Peers and Professor

            Just a quick hello to everyone in EDUC 6164: Perspectives on Diversity & Equity! I look forward to conversing with you and sharing thoughts over the next eight weeks.

Toodles, Jenn Pore`

When I Think of Research

           Wow! Week eight this has been one of my toughest classes. I had always assumed that research was a very intense thing to do. I have learned from this class that it is even more complicated than I could have imagined. The direction of my thoughts have not changed, just the depth of how much I have realized that it is not for me. There is much more to collecting information and documenting that information in ways that meet approved models for the field in order to make sure that your research holds its validity. I am not meaning to be disrespectful when I say that this class has confirmed for me that I will be sticking to observations and assessments with young children and I will not be branching out to do research projects. I will stick to what I do best. This class certainly raised my respect for those who do research.

            I can see some similarities between research and running a classroom. Such as planning, knowing what direction you want to take, knowing child development and what is appropriate, and things like knowing when you need to get permissions. My favorite thing about research and would be my choice if I did a research project is the mixed-methods. I feel the combination of quantitative and qualitative designs in most cases will give the fullest amount of information.

            The most challenging piece was coming up with a simulation question. I would change mine almost each week and in the end reverted back to my original question. Of course the other huge challenge for me was that the specifics of research was so very new to me and I found that research has its own definitions which are opposite of the mental health field, such as the word triangulation. Triangulation in my world is a very bad thing where in the world of research it is a good thing. The way I dealt with these challenges was I repeated my reading each week to really try and solidify the new information.

            In the end this class was very beneficial to my overall learning about early childhood. I would like to extend my thanks and good wishes to all of my peers and Dr. Ferrari for all of the support and guidance. I look forward to seeing you in future classes along with meeting new peers. To any of you graduating I wish you all the best.

Jennifer Pore`

            

Research Around the World

     This week I have spent some time looking at websites around the world to see what interests are in other parts of the world. It was not a big surprise to find that most countries have many of the same issues that we have here in America. I spent most of my time at Early Childhood Australia (http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au). This site has a multitude of interesting links. I signed up for their ECE Webwatch newsletter. One of the interesting articles was on the new transitions to help address the issue of there being a shortage of providers in rural areas.  Another great article was from the Parliament of Australia (www.acecqa.gov.au) was on raising the bar on quality.
     The National News portion was promoting a Long Day Care Professional Development Programme (LDCPDP) where there is $200 million to be used for registered centers for professional development, particular trainings and resources to bring up the quality level of ECE. What intrigued me the most is that there was link to a blob that parallels my job. KidsMatter Australian Early Childhood Mental Health Initiative has a Shared Thinking Blog at www.kidsmatter.edu.au/earlychildhood. Most of the articles and information that I read was dated May 2014 and was very current. As I have already mentioned there are a lot of links to multiple interests within the EC field. I found this site to be of quality and interest. If you have the time I would suggest checking it out.

Jenn Pore`

My Choice of Research

Hello again!
 
            Today I have chosen to write briefly about a personal experience with research and my dream research. My first child was born 2 months early and we were a military family. The day after he was born I was approached by a member of a research team and she asked my permission to have my son be part of their study. She explained that the purpose was to see how long it took infants to have their developmental abilities match their chronological age. I agreed and once a month for a year I took Elijah to the base where his developmental abilities were observed and recorded. They would test him by having different toys and soft structures for him to manipulate and climb. Elijah had a wonderful time and at no time was there even a hint of risk. I have no idea how the study itself turned out but I do know that my son had overcome his 2 months of prematurity and was on task with his developmental abilities before his first birthday. This whole experience was very beneficial to me as a first time mom. I had a specialist at hand to explain and comfort me that my son was doing well on a monthly basis, along with the knowledge that he was doing great this was a very educational experience.
            If wishes came true I would wish for the ability to research resiliency in children without causing any distress or harm. Wouldn't it be amazing to know how we could build resiliency in all children? Actually I have an even better topic of research. I would want the ability to research adults before they had children and know which would be abusers so that they could be helped and educated before they were able to cause harm.

Jenn Pore`