REFLECTING ON LEARNING

It has been a thrilling journey discussing, sharing, and examining different aspects of diversity and anti-bias education. As indicated anti-bias work  is essentially optimistic work about the future of our children as teachers are committed to the principle that every child deserves to develop to his or her fullest potential (Derman -Sparks & Edwards, 2010). Through anti-bias education it has sort of given me everything in my life that I always thought was right  about equality and justice. It has thought me to become tolerant about people who are different from me in their sexual preferences and see them as unique individuals.

My passionate hope for the future as an early childhood professional is to see that all children can grow up fully nurtured and are able to blossom, thrive, succeed in school, work, and in life, and live in a world where all of them have equal opportunity to become all they could be; in a world with no barriers of prejudice, heterosexism, discrimination, poverty, war, micro-aggressions, stereotypes, racism, ableism and sexism. A peaceful world where all children are empowered and families and teachers work hand in hand to support children’s emotional, social, physical, and cognitive development.

I learned a lot reading your different perspectives which really reflected the theme for this course. Thanks to those who honestly shared how they felt about certain societal issues. When we collaborate and discuss authentically we learn a lot about ourselves. I hope each one of you is going out as determined as I am to embark upon social injustice, and be an advocate for children who are unfairly treated. I hope your students would be excited and proud to have one special awesome anti- bias educator. Be that educator who teaches by example the values of respect, love, and tolerance towards children and their families. My wish for each one of you would be that you cherish every family as they are, and support all children’s families and foster in each child fair and respectful treatment of others whose families are different from the child’s own family. As anti-bias educators let us be ready to deconstruct children’s misconception and focus on activities for critical thinking to enable children to make distinctions between inaccurate and untruthful images and messages; and accurate and truthful ones through open interactions.

Knowledge is power and the more we know the more we can act with confidence, as a result, we should not  relent our efforts to keep building our understanding of the many diversity and equity issues that affect children, in our early childhood field. Joining professional groups with similar ideologies; or forming an action support system would be a great idea to stay abreast with ideas on what others are doing in the field. Finally, attending conferences and workshops and sharing our perspectives on sensitive issues can make a big difference in the lives of children, as we have been sharing in this course. 

I wish you all a wonderful and exciting career as anti-bias educators.

References

 Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and

    ourselves.  Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children

    (NAEYC).

IMPACTS ON EARLY EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC REGION

I chose the East Asia and Pacific region part of the world as a place I long to visit one day. Reading about this region would better prepare me for what to see when I get to the region. As an educator my interest is always on the educational aspect of different regions of the world, to learn about the educational well being of the children. I further chose this region to learn about the social, emotional, and cognitive development of the children and to gain insight into any impact of their socio-emotional development.

UNICEF works in more than 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. On the contrary, the challenges children face in the East Asia and the Pacific, part of the world was very heart wrenching to read about. The melancholic stories of parents asked to leave their children with disability die because they could not afford money for expensive surgery brought tears to my eyes. It was interesting to learn that like all children, those with disabilities have many abilities, but are often excluded from society by discrimination and lack of support, leaving them among the most invisible and vulnerable children in the world. For many children with disabilities, the exclusion begins in the first days of life with their birth going unregistered. Lacking official recognition, they are cut off from the social services and legal protections that are crucial to their survival and prospects (UNICEF, 2013). Their marginalization only increases with discrimination and undoubtedly this could have a very big negative impact on the children. These children definitely would grow up with no sense of self-worth, hopelessness, and they would feel like they do not belong anywhere (Derman-Sparks& Edwards, 2010). Consequently, these children would not be able to develop autonomy and independence as they are able , as well as confidence and pride in their competence.  The children seem to be blamed in a way for their disability; which   indeed is a horrible and insensitive scenario to read about. 

According to UNICEF, (2013) report, millions of children work to support their families, although child labor is unacceptable when it is carried out by children who are too young and who should be in school. In addition, there are many children who are doing work unsuitable for anyone under 18.  In countries such as Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Mongolia, Thailand, cases of children with  severe malnutrition were reported. In Myanmar, an estimated 2.5 million (35.1 per cent) of children under five are stunted as a resulted of long term malnutrition and 8 per cent are wasted as a result of acute malnutrition (UNICEF, 2008). Another emotional and social blow to children is the practice of early marriages in Malaysia where parents consent to child marriages out of economic necessity. The adults view such early marriages as a way to provide male guardianship for their daughters, protect them from sexual assault or avoid pregnancy outside marriage. As indicated, child marriage is a practice that robs children of their childhood, their rights and their dignity; and   child marriage, further inhibits a child’s basic rights to health, education and security, is out rightly condemned by the United Nations as well (UNICEF, 2008). Other challenges mentioned were those of inadequate clean water for drinking, horrible sanitary and hygienic conditions children have to live with everyday in the countries of East Asia Pacific region.

Children who are hungry due to malnutrition would not be able to focus in school. Also insanitary conditions, poor drinking water supplies would culminate in poor health and sickness and eventually death for some of these children. Such impoverished living conditions definitely lowers one’s self esteem and confidence.

The insight I gained from  reading about what other children  faced indifferent parts of the world; only made me to be appreciative of what we have that is always taken for granted. I grew up poor, but a happy child trekking ten miles each day to school barefooted and it enabled me to build a strong resilience that I have today. But to say it was fun growing up poor would be a lie. I felt awful because I know the impact and repercussion of the scenarios described in the article about children in the East Asia Pacific region. Healthy social-emotional development for infants and toddlers unfolds in an interpersonal context, namely that of positive ongoing relationships with familiar, nurturing adults and that seemed to be lacking in some of the countries in the region. Children are viewed like objects and they have to work to contribute to the house hold income, which is indicative of lack of cherished play time for children who live in poverty. That is unfair to them and it reminded me of Martin Luther king’s saying that “injustice any where is a threat to justice everywhere”. As educators we are constantly called to be advocate for the plight of children and to be the voice of the voiceless because invisibility erases identity and experiences; as result, children internalize that they are unimportant and do not fit in a stratified modern society (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2010).

 Hopefully, someone from East Asia and Pacific would read this and feel devastated as I feel now. However, collectively we can do something to change one country at a time. We can partner and share ideas of how children should be made visible and respected in the society developing a professional social network with these countries.  It may take time to reach these remote countries but one day, it is our wish that all children of the world should demonstrate self awareness, confidence and pride, have access to school, and develop positive social identities and in the long run break the vicious circle of poverty in their own lives and in the wider society.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and

    ourselves.  Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children

    (NAEYC).

 UNICEF (2011). East Asia and the Pacific region: Retrieved from:  http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

I think new challenges confront each generation of parents and one of today’s biggest challenges is the issue of moralization as a consequence of the influence of the internet, TV, and the media. Sexualization of early childhood is an embarrassing and upsetting phenomenon we face in our complex society in the 21st century. Children are supposed to grow up pure, naive, innocent but they cannot, given the culture of the society in which they find themselves (Harro ,2010). Children have been subjected to an impulsive sexualization, as indicated by a level of sexual knowledge or sexual behavior inappropriate for their age group.  As a result of these premature sexualizations that include portrayals in the media of sex and related issues, children are exposed to scenes that have led to children putting what they see into practice (Levin, & kilbourne, 2008). There seem to be a moral decadence of the society as depicted in the dresses worn on TV and even the offensive words in songs that children are exposed to and would sing without any qualms. The stores are all bombarded with sexy pinky toys of Barbie representing appearances of fashion and sexy hair dos. The effect is so overwhelming that young girls wear more revealing short dresses, belly-button revealing shirts, and open cleavages to expose boobs more than it used to be in the past. Nearly every television channel has something on sex content. A book such as Fifty Shades of Grey is all about sex, and of course movies, video games, and cartoons are loaded with sexual contents. These sexual contents have engulfed our young children and most of them are negatively affected as they try to internalize what they see and hear.

Examples from personal experience that illustrate the exposure of young children to highly sexualized environment are evident in little girls in tiaras who are dresses up like some hot mamas and divas. They wear heavy makeup and learn to swirl their little waists in order to look sexy and cool. It is shameful and heart wrenching to see parents passionately exploiting their children in the name of wanting them to be famous as seen in the case of the little seven year old girl nick-named “Honey Boo Boo” in the reality TV show that airs on TLC channel. I find the show very despicable, offensive, odious, and outrageous and yet the society thinks it is funny and endorses it. We need to allow children to grow up naturally and not introduce them to do stuff that they may regret in future. In addition, I have seen little boys who are made to grow long hair because it is sexy and cool and are teased by their peers. The boys do not like the long hair but dad and mom has to decide for them. I have equally seen young boys made to exercise rigorously so they can develop abs in order to look attractive. Personally, what I find most offensive is to see young girls or boys being tattooed because this might not be their wish in the future. Parents are partly to blame in all these craziness about sexualization of children. Also, TV shows like the Bachelor or Bachelorette are watched by kids in spite of some inappropriate scenes; it makes children believe it is okay for a girl to be kissed by many boys simultaneously; and more so, the show exposes boys and girls to unrealistic way to love and build relationships. 

These suggestive sexual scenarios are definitely unhealthy for the development of young children. The images on Media of slim sexy girls are an indirect message to children about their body images or physical appearances. Hot young female pop stars wear provocative clothing and dance inappropriately while singing songs with sexual and fierce lyrics. The repercussion has been that many young teens want to look cute, sexy as the celebrities, consequently, most young girls watch their diets these days, they do not want to eat and they get bulimic, depressed, and anxious about their weigh. Another negative impact of the media’s incessant sexualization of childhood can lead to a compulsive sexual behavior, as well as sexual abuse, pedophilia, prostitution, and promiscuity (Levin, & kilbourne, 2008).

The readings about sexualization in early childhood got me thinking what needs to be done to stop this lunacy on “sexy and cool” ideology. No wonder children get matured as early as nine years and some get pregnant even at 12 years. Children are paying an huge price for the sexualization of their childhood. Girls and boys constantly encounter sexual messages and images that they cannot understand and that can confuse and even frighten them (Levin, & kilbourne, 2008). Parents need to take responsibility and help children understand sex education in a more refined way. They need to learn to set rules and routines and unplug or monitor what children watch on TV. Many children are glued to the TV , than with each other as a family. I know of families where parents and children have their own TVs, and computers, thus a limited family time together so much so that at dinner table everyone is texting or maybe sexting to someone else. Parents seem to have no time to help their children deal with the problem of sexualization in the environment, rather they encourage it by buying marketing products with sexual contents to please their children.

Nonetheless, as a teacher, I would not be taken a back if I heard children using inappropriate words, I will know how to respond and help purify the hearts and minds of these little ones that are being desecrated by the media, TV and society as a whole. As an early childhood professional to further tackle this problem and reduce the negative effects that it has on young children, it is crucial to refrain from giving a lot of compliments on how cute or sexy children look. In addition, I would treat both boys and girls the same, answer their questions on sexuality honestly and help them realize that consuming more and more sexual products is not the road to happiness in life. It is fundamental to teach children to love themselves as they are, appreciate where they come from, and be proud of their identity as a way forward to deconstruct the pop cultural ideas of sexy and cool.  The sense of self and social awareness of our young children should be the foundation to build their morality and overcome the pop culture drunken idea of sexualization in being “sexy and cool” in the society.

References:

Harro, B. (2010). The cycle of socialization. In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, C. Castaneda, H. W. Hackman, M. L. Peters, & X. Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social justice (Figure 6.1 on p. 46, 2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Levin, D.e., & J. kilbourne. 2008. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids. New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from