My Professional Hopes and Goals

The one hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is for the families to treat each other like they were all extended members of each other’s families.  My goal is to have an educational facility that encompasses diversity in such a way that all that is involved in the facility will be of different backgrounds but call each other friend.  It has been done in the churches and I am sure it can be accomplished in the educational arena as well.  It is an old saying that it takes a village to raise a child.  I would like to extend this idea and say it takes a partnership of families to raise a child.  Each child will have friends of different ethnicities from birth until they enter the public school system.  They will be so culturally diverse that they will not tolerate anyone being mean or racist to their friends of the different cultures.  This will help children and their families to flourish.  In an anti-bias world:

1.       All children and families have a sense of belonging and experience

affirmation of their identities and cultural ways of being.

2.       All children have access to and participate in the education they need to

 become successful, contributing members of society.

3.       The educational process engages all members of the program or school in

joyful learning.

4.       Children and adults know how to respectfully and easily live, learn, and work together in diverse and inclusive environments.

5.       All families have the resources they need to fully nurture their children.

(Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p.2)

 

A goal that I would like to see realized in the early childhood field is for it to be a starting point of helping parents and the community to accept others although they have a different culture.  I would like for the Early Childhood field to make it mandatory that the staff be trained in anti-bias curriculum and that they follow them.  Currently, it is not mandatory and centers usually will not choose to be culturally sensitive if the director is not pushing the idea.  Many centers will include Spanish culture in the curriculum and environment but will not relate to the other cultures that are represented in the center.  In Florida, the centers are required to be culturally sensitive if they receive funding to pay for their enrolled students.  But that is only a small portion of the centers in operation.  Can you imagine if every center had to be culturally sensitive and teach using an anti-bias curriculum?  This kind of system will allow children to feel special right from the start and they will have a higher self-esteem.  “In an anti-bias classroom, children learn to be proud of themselves and of their families, to respect human differences, to recognize bias, and to speak up for what is right.”  (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010, p. 1)

I would like to thank my colleagues for all the encouraging comments that have been posted on my assignments.  Some weeks I would feel that my comments might not make sense but the responses from you really helped me to gain confidence in myself and what I was contributing to the course.  It has been a joy to look at the class roster and see familiar names.  I cannot believe it has been almost a year.  I know I will be sad once I enter into the specialty courses and not see the names that I am familiar with seeing in the past.  However, I will be excited to meet the new colleagues that are traveling along the same track. 

I will also like to thank Dr. Tuthill for all of her comments and guidance throughout this course.  Every time I read your comments I get a sense of pride that I actually know what I am talking about.  Thanks for understanding during my tough weeks.  This course has been an eye opener and I do not think we could have been given a better instructor.