A Special Thanks To My Colleagues
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights with me over the last eight weeks. This small town southern girl has learned a great deal about diversity in the world we live in and the importance of providing all children with an anti-biased education. I have always been an accepting person but lacked the knowledge to truly educate children about differences. I appreciate all the stories, posts, and responses from each of you that allowed me to grow as a professional and a person.
My Hopes For Early Education
My hope for early education is that we teach all children that importance of diversity and accepting others for who they are. Children need to learn from an early age about other cultures and understand that it is okay to be different from your friend and neighbor. If we teach children acceptance for others and respect for all people when they are young, our schools and communities will be better places to learn and live. In order to accomplish this goal, educators must be willing to understand the importance of diversity so that they can share this understanding with young children.
Good luck to each of you as you work to be an anti-biased educator! I wish you all success in your future goals!
Tabitha
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Impacts on Early Emotional Development
I chose the East Asia and Pacific because I do not have knowledge of the impacts on early education in this area. The other areas it seemed that I have some knowledge on and hear more about in the media.
Challenges of children in this region:
Childhood poverty: In Lao PDR, while 38 percent of children are assessed as income poor, as many as 75 percent are assessed as living in poverty. Inequalities are the major factor to child poverty in this area. Adults see poverty primarily as a lack of income; children see poverty as not having enough to eat or not being able to go to school.
Nutritional Status: A survey reported that one in three children under age five in Viet Nam do not currently meet their full height potential which causes problems with cognitive and social growth. This is caused by chronic nutritional deficiency during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. The damage caused by this deficiency to a child’s development is permanent.
Fiji Floods: 14,000 people (5,000 children) had to leave their homes due to the flooding in Western and Central Fiji. These people are sheltered in evacuation centers that are lacking access to water, food, and other items. There is concern for sickness and disease, as Leptospirosis, diarrhea and typhoid are a real threat in the flood-affected areas.
Any time a child is living in unsafe or unhealthy circumstances it can affect their emotional wellbeing and development. A child that lives in poverty does not get proper nutrition, and experiences horrible natural disasters will have challenges in development.
Exploring this website and reading about the challenges in East Asia and the Pacific reminds me of the many emotional challenges that children all over the world experience. Although issues of severe poverty are not prevalent in my local community, I know that we have these issues in parts of our country as well. I would be interested to dig deeper and try to find out if there are government programs that support some of these families in this region. Reading information like this inspires me to find a way to make a difference (even if it is a small difference) in the emotional well-being of young children.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
The Sexualization of Early Childhood
As Levin & Kilbourne (2009) states, "Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture." Like most parents and early educators, I am extremely concerned about the effects of sexualization in the media on our children. As a parent of 9 and 5 year old boys and a 10 month old baby girl, I am terrified of the things that they may be exposed to when I am not around.
The most recent example of sexualization in the media is the song, "Sexy and I Know It." This song is all over every radio station, used as theme songs in numerous television shows, and even in a M&M commercial that aired for the first time while my family was watching the Superbowl. My five year old son loves music and loves to dance, so obviously this song is one that makes you want to dance. However, the lyrics and moves that go along with it are not appropriate (what so ever) for children. I have tried really hard to avoid this song at all cost, but it is hard to do when it is plastered all over the media. I have attached a link to the commercial for those of you that have not seen it. It may seem somewhat innocent; however, the original song and video are so inappropriate and the commerical is making reference to what is now called "the wiggle dance" made famous by the singing group of this song. You can also look up the original song on YouTube (just know that it is totally vulgar).
Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q33drZUXSzY
Another example of sexualization that I have experienced as a parent happened when my oldest son came home from school to tell me about a drawing on the school bus seat. Apparently, a middle school child had drawn two people doing sexual things on the back of the school bus seat. Well, of course, this led to the elementary children discussing what they thought the picture represented. My son came home very confused about things that some of the older children said on the bus. Unfortunately, my husband and I had to clear up some things with our 9 year old child that we were not yet ready for him to have to comprehend.
As an educator of fifth graders, I am often disturbed by the things I hear these children talk about. They seem to be very informed about sex, sexuality, and sexual content. I hear them talk about television shows, movies, music, and video games that are clearly not appropriate for children. Not only do I blame the media for completely exploiting sex to make money, I also blame the adults that are suppose to be supervising these children. I am not naive enough to believe that parents have complete control of what their children are watching and being exposed to; however, I do believe that part of the problem is the lack of supervision of children.
As educators, we can continue to provide positive, age-appropriate learning experiences for children. I would love to read this entire book, so that I can be prepared to help children survive and thrive in this sexualized world.
References:
Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1–8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf
The most recent example of sexualization in the media is the song, "Sexy and I Know It." This song is all over every radio station, used as theme songs in numerous television shows, and even in a M&M commercial that aired for the first time while my family was watching the Superbowl. My five year old son loves music and loves to dance, so obviously this song is one that makes you want to dance. However, the lyrics and moves that go along with it are not appropriate (what so ever) for children. I have tried really hard to avoid this song at all cost, but it is hard to do when it is plastered all over the media. I have attached a link to the commercial for those of you that have not seen it. It may seem somewhat innocent; however, the original song and video are so inappropriate and the commerical is making reference to what is now called "the wiggle dance" made famous by the singing group of this song. You can also look up the original song on YouTube (just know that it is totally vulgar).
Commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q33drZUXSzY
Another example of sexualization that I have experienced as a parent happened when my oldest son came home from school to tell me about a drawing on the school bus seat. Apparently, a middle school child had drawn two people doing sexual things on the back of the school bus seat. Well, of course, this led to the elementary children discussing what they thought the picture represented. My son came home very confused about things that some of the older children said on the bus. Unfortunately, my husband and I had to clear up some things with our 9 year old child that we were not yet ready for him to have to comprehend.
As an educator of fifth graders, I am often disturbed by the things I hear these children talk about. They seem to be very informed about sex, sexuality, and sexual content. I hear them talk about television shows, movies, music, and video games that are clearly not appropriate for children. Not only do I blame the media for completely exploiting sex to make money, I also blame the adults that are suppose to be supervising these children. I am not naive enough to believe that parents have complete control of what their children are watching and being exposed to; however, I do believe that part of the problem is the lack of supervision of children.
As educators, we can continue to provide positive, age-appropriate learning experiences for children. I would love to read this entire book, so that I can be prepared to help children survive and thrive in this sexualized world.
References:
Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1–8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)