Blog Post #4- Gender and Sexual Orientation

I really enjoyed the presentation last night. I thought it was well organized and thoughtfully presented. I especially loved the yummy snacks they provided! I found it interesting when we began talking about the issue of same sex parents and how to approach this with children. Personally, I have been in this situation as a teacher and found that with young children, five and six year olds, a simple explanation will suffice. But, with the older age kids, I feel like the teacher needs to get more in depth about choices when one gets married. All in all, it’s about supporting the child and reinforcing the fact that everyone is different and has different family structures.

The media plays a huge role in how children of different gender view themselves. Girls are expected to play dress up with Barbie’s and boys are expected to build structures with Lego’s. They learn this from commercials, magazines, movies, TV shows, and other marketing tools. Men are displayed as the tough moneymaker and women are the weak homemakers. As educators, what can we do to show children that this is not always the case? On the same topic, we have come so far with women’s equality but men and women are still not paid equally in the work place. Do you think this will ever resolve? Will men and women EVER be EQUAL? And how do you prove to our students that they are equal when their salaries don’t show that?

When the topic of single sex education came up in discussion last night my ears perked up. This has come up a lot for me as a teacher in a school that only goes to fourth grade. Parents always ask my advice about sending their kids to St. Marks, an all boys school or Hockaday, an all girls school. I always tell the parents that what matters most is where the child feels most comfortable. Some personalities are not cut out for single sex schools. It is only a fit for certain kids.

Blog Post #3-Class and Socioeconomic Status

Although I was absent for our presentation this week, I really enjoyed the research and planning that went into preparing for this unit with my group. Looking more into the different classes in the world, makes me reflect back on how I was raised. My parents were both raised in low class working families. My Mom was the oldest of 6 children and she had the task of helping raise her other 5 siblings. My Dad was the oldest of 2, and grew up with nothing. His mother would buy him one pair of shoes, one pair of pants, and one shirt at the beginning of each school year and he would have to make that last until the next. After my parents got married, they worked very hard to build their furniture business and then 20 years later, they were able to retire at a fairly young age.

Growing up, I didn't realize how lucky I was or what class group I fell into. I went to a small private school, we had nice cars, I lived in a comfortable house, we took fun family vacations and I never went hungry. I thought this was normal. In high school, I dated a boy that went to the local public school. When we would hang out with his friends, they would tease me and call me "Rich Girl" and go on and on about how I was spoiled. This was news to me! I noticed that they lived differently than my family but I didn't think that was a fair reason to treat me differently or for me to act weird around them. This was my first experience with people treating me differently because of what I had, they were labeling me!

Now, looking back on it, my parents gave me everything I ever needed or wanted. I feel very strongly that they worked hard for what they have and they wanted to share that with me. When I am a parent, I want to do that and more for my children. I just hope that when that day comes, my kids won't feel "left out" or "picked on" because their family worked hard to give them everything they need!

Working in a private school setting now, I see what money does to young children. They think it's normal to jump in a private plane and go to the Bahamas for the weekend! Also, when the kids get older, they start to compare clothing, accessories, and material objects. Keeping this under control is the job of the parents and the educators to stay focused on what is truly important in life. (WHICH IS NOT MONEY)

Blog Post #2- Race and Ethnicity

I enjoyed yesterday’s class and the presentation on Race and Ethnicity. I thought the group was perfectly constructed of all different types of people, which made for an authentic delivery of information.

I liked our group discussion of the different Critical Questions. My group had a great talk about Group Assimilation and the possibility for different positive outcomes from groups staying in their homogeneous culture. We thought a positive would be the idea of the culture appreciating their own upbringing and traditions. Also, it is a way to bring family together.

After the presentation, it’s clear that I feel the same way as the presenting group. People, not nature, create our identities. But, I do feel like "races" are real and a serious issue in the world today. In order to understand them, however, we must look into culture and social interaction rather than just biology.

It's so important to send a positive, accepting message to children about people being different. This diversity video teaches a simple song to children, to facilitate positive ethnic and racial identity development and awareness of global citizenship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BBEJYpumLU

Blog Post #1

Coming into this class, I have to admit I was a bit unsure and felt a little unprepared to discuss and understand diversity. This is due to the fact that I grew up in a predominantly white community and wasn’t exposed to a lot of diversity. A small private school in Tulsa, Oklahoma didn’t open me up to the big, scary “Real World.” After two nights of Diverse Learners I realized being in this class with such strong and intelligent women from all over the world, is going to be very inspiring.

In yesterdays lecture I enjoyed our discussions about how multicultural education has evolved in the U.S. In the 1920’s, different cultures began disagreeing about their differences regarding religion. At this point, the wars decided which religion was dominant and held the power. Then the issue of race came into play with the Civil rights movement. After this, gender became the focus with women’s rights when women made their presence known in the world by showing men that they too could contribute. These are just some of the controversies that have evolved in the United States in multicultural education.

A lot of pressure and strain is put on school systems to be politically correct and be inclusive of all of the children’s differences. These differences could be in religion, race, or a different learning style. I think the problem is that the expectation is for everyone to be equal, but no matter what people do in the world, I don’t think this will ever be the case. As much as I would love to see everyone get along and respect each other’s differences, it’s not going to happen anytime soon. I do have to say though, in my 27 years, I have seen a difference in the way children see other children that are different than they are. When I was growing up, I would refer to another child that looked differently than I did by calling them by a name. Now, young children are less likely to acknowledge children of other race as different than they are.

I also liked the topic of patriotism in schools that we discussed last class. It doesn’t exactly apply to me because I teach in a private school, which isn’t funded by the state. But, I do agree that patriotism should be a school requirement if the child is attending a public school that is being funded by the United States of America. The child doesn’t necessarily have to take on the culture, but I believe it’s important for them to understand it and respect it. I liked the example Hillary used in class. She told her students, “You don’t have to love me, but you do have to respect me, because I am your teacher!” I feel the same way about patriotism.