Welcoming Families From Around the World

I chose Paraguay as my family’s country of origin. I have never heard of this particular country before. Our nation is made up of many cultures and diversities.  Ways in which I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards the Paraguay family is to first recognize my own culture so I will be able to understand my family’s culture.  Then I would take steps to examine my attitudes toward people different than me. Next, I would gather information about Paraguay family’s culture, values, beliefs and traditions to be able to communicate with the family to find out more. I would implement strategies to bring rich cultural content into my classroom and teachings to expand their knowledge also incorporate their interest.  Finally, I would help children and families develop their own culturally sensitive skills to be successful in our diverse and global world.

I hope that the family from Paraguay and I would benefit by gaining a better understanding of cultures, values beliefs and traditions. This knowledge would provide an opportunity to further develop my internal biases and inform my relationship with others while helping the family to develop their own skills to be success in our nation.

 

References

Sparks, L. & Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. NAEYC: Washington, DC

Miranda, E. (2010). Going global in Arlington, Virginia. Journal of Education for Sustainable Development 4(2), 219--226

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

The movie “Queen” by Alex Haley had examples of racial prejudice in it. In the movie there was a biracial girl name Queen that is the daughter of a slave and slave owner. She is being mistreated by the slaves and slave owners family because of her color and position.  When Queen turned five years old her slave owner father moved her to the main house so she could learn to serve and be a lady’s maid. The slave owner’s wife didn’t accept that his daughter from a slave would be living in the same house and being treated the same as them. The daughters grew up as playmates queen also served her half- sister until her death. Everywhere Queen went she was resented by others.  Towards the end of the movie Queen ended up going crazy and having a break down because she was so busy trying to please and be accepted by others. Queen’s grandfather died and she wanted to bring her children so they would know where her life started at. There were still negative comments by the slave owners family member towards Queen so she told her children” that home is where you are loved.”

 

The racial prejudice treatment that Queen received because she was a black slave diminished equity when she approached some slaves because she was hungry. They made fun of her because of the way she ate and because she knew how to read and right.

There was an incident where she met two ladies that hired Queen to work in their home because of her qualifications. Once she started working with the ladies they tried to push their religious beliefs on her and wanted her to stop attending her church and attend theirs.

This movie brought back how there are still prejudice people in the world today of every race. There are still organizations that represent the klu klux klan in the south. Parishes in Louisiana within the last five years just started holding High School Proms and taking senior trips together.

We as a people should become more united to bring about a change. We as a nation would have a greater equity if we can come together for the good of the people. Learn to get along, share views and ideas to bring a greater chance for change.

Reference
Haley, A. (1993). Queen

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

The conversation I observed between two students in my class identified gender microaggression.  A girl and boy student wanted to assist in putting up nap cots. The boy student told the girl student she could not pick the cot up because she was a girl and did not have any muscles. The boy student felt because the other student was a girl she was not capable of lifting the nap cots.

My feelings toward gender microaggression are that it is wrong to have preconceived standards of any individual. Children model adult’s behaviors and actions and begin to develop microaggression that they may hear or see other do

The observation between the students show me that at a young age we start to develop and gain prejudice biases against particular groups, sexualities, genders, disabilities and race. We as individuals build relationships that are supportive of our children and their families without any biases.