Reflecting on Learning

I have recently made the decision to leave my job and return to the early childhood profession.  I am going to become an au pair for two young children and will be living with the family.  I feel that a great deal of what I have learned about children will assist me in supporting these parents in raising their children to become wonderful people who love their family, are accepting of and loving toward others, and give back to their community.

My most passionate hope for my future as an early childhood professional is to instill good morals and values in the young children in my care.  I hope to help them learn about different people, and to give them a comfortable place where they can ask questions and learn about unfairness and differences that make them uncomfortable or scared.  I want to work closely with the parents and maintain a positive relationship with them that will model cooperative behavior for their children. 

I want to eventually begin my own daycare business in which I can develop an anti-bias curriculum and create relationships with families that will better my center, as well as our community.  I want to stay true to who I am; an early childhood professional; and work hard to stay in the field no matter what financial struggles I may face in doing so.  I want to be successful and I want all of the children and families who walk into my life to be positively impacted by the work I do. 

I want to thank all of my colleagues for their questions and insight throughout this course.  You are all fantastic individuals who are in a noble field that you are passionate about.  We are so lucky to have found something so dear to our hearts that we have chosen to seek higher levels of education to better ourselves professionally and personally.  I wish you all the best in every venture and hope to see you in our final class as we end this part of our journey as anti-bias educators. 

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

I chose West and Central Africa for my focus this week because it is a part of the world I am not very familiar with.  However, I had a professor when I was in my undergrad program who was from Ghana.   He was one of my favorite professors and taught me a great deal about his culture and what his people have suffered through over the centuries and what their communities continue to lack.  I thought I could take this opportunity to learn more about the children in this area and what challenges they may face and who is trying to help. 

It seems to me, after reviewing the UNICEF site and the West and Central Africa region, that the greatest challenge for the children there would be a lack of nourishment.  Many children are not receiving an adequate amount of nourishing food.  In addition, there are diseases in the water and many are being affected; children and adults alike.  A lack of food and clean water can affect children’s emotional wellbeing and development in many ways.  They will be in a constant state of anxiety if they are not receiving proper nutrition.  It is not healthy for them to lack what is necessary in their diet for positive physical development, and therefore, that will affect their emotional wellbeing.  Also, families that are struggling to feed their children will be stressed and this emotion will be easily read by young children.  This will spread the stress throughout the household and may cause children to have difficulty in developing healthy relationships and emotional stability. 

Every child has a right to basic necessities; food, shelter and water; and many children are deprived of all three in these areas.  On the UNICEF website, I recovered the following information; “In Moussoro, the capital of Bar-El-Ghazel province, acute malnutrition among children has been above emergency thresholds (15%) for a decade. But this year will be far worse. People have already sued their food stocks and, when cattle are dying and crops are poor, more children suffer from malnutrition.”  Being deprived of such basic needs will undoubtedly affect every aspect of a child’s development; particularly physical and emotional. 

Personally and professionally, the facts I have learned through the UNICEF website frightens me.  I feel for these children and their families and how hard they must have to struggle to provide their babies with food and clean water.  The fact that these families are suffering, and I work in such an affluent community, makes me want to reach out and see how I could possibly help through our preschools in the community.  What could our children do to assist these families and raise money?  In addition, if these issues are happening in other areas of the globe, they are surely happening right under our noses.  How can we locate local families that need assistance?  How can we recognize signs of malnutrition?  How do we address the topic with families and community members?  I want to reach out and help those who are in need.  It is not fair that some children receive everything and others have to wait for a clean glass of water. 

As a person, I honestly feel humbled and grateful for the blessings I have in my life.  I have never wanted or needed for anything.  I have never known the feeling of true hunger, and I have never gone without water.  I look at the young children in my care and all of the things that they have available to them, and I almost feel embarrassed.  Here are children with the world at their fingertips, while others are just trying to make it through another day.  I would like to think that sharing this information with others would make them feel the same.  However, I feel that there is a strong sense of ethnocentrism and that many people want to help “their country” rather than reach out to all people in need.  In my opinion, we are all people, we all share this world.  If there are children without clean water; and we have plenty; then we should share it.  Eventually, our water will be dirty also. 

Reference:

UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html

Sexualization of Early Childhood

The sexualization of early childhood is becoming a big issue in our society.  I feel that often, children are left out of the equation when there is a creation of music and media.  We forget about the impact of young children when playing songs on the radio, or complaining about our bodies in front of them.  These exposures can dramatically affect our youth and we need to be wary of what we are allowing our children to view and do as far as sex and violence. 

There have been many examples of sexualization and young children throughout my personal and professional life.  I feel that these are difficult to talk about, as some of them are so horrific and shocking that it is hard to write about them or state them aloud.  At a former place of employment, I used to notice the sexualization of young children often.  I would listen to the conversations of my four and five year old female students and be shocked with the topics.  For example, one day, I overheard three of my female students discussing how “fat” they were, and who was the “fattest.”  One of the girls was very upset about this discussion, as she was deemed “fattest.”  I went over to speak with the girls about how silly it was to worry about how “fat” they are when they are so young.  I told them that as long as we are healthy and happy, these things simply do not matter and that we are all beautiful.  One of the little girls responded, “Right.  Miss Raina is fat and her boyfriend loves her.”  It upset me that these young girls were equating love with body size.  “A narrow definition of femininity and sexuality encourages girls to focus heavily on appearance and sex appeal. They learn at a very young age that their value is determined by how beautiful, thin “hot,” and sexy they are” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 2). 

Another example of early sexualization can be found on television.  There are so many shows that not only expose young children to sexual images and acts, but actually display them as sexual objects.  For example, the show Toddlers and Tiaras is disgusting.  It puts small children in tons of makeup, hair pieces, fake eyelashes, and barely-there outfits and parades them around stage doing suggestive dances, motions, and facial expressions.  They are judged mostly on their looks and their ability to schmooze the judges.  In addition to the fact that these pageants actually exist, we are now putting them on television, leaving these girls vulnerable to stalkers, pedifiles, and their own self-esteem issues.  “Many industries make an obscene amount of money using sex and violence to market their products to children” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 2). 

Children are also discovering sexual acts at a very early age.  While working in the early childhood field, I have heard young children comment on penis-size, as well as how large their mother’s breasts are.  I have also heard of children as young as six engaging in sexual acts with other young children, such as licking private areas repetitively, showing different body parts to one another, even kinky things such as choking and putting their fingers inside of each other in groups.  It is disturbing to say the least, and it makes one wonder where they learn about such things. 

Over sexualization can have a profound negative impact on the development of young children.  We are allowing our children to be exposed to sex and warped body images at a young age and not taking the time to explain their confusion or answer their questions.  We are giving children full reign of their households; allowing them to choose video games, television program, and have unsupervised time using the internet.  This is allowing children to look at images and participate in activities that are inappropriate for their age group.  As early childhood professionals, I believe that the best way to help limit the negative impact that social sexualization is having on our youth is to educate their parents.  If we provide parents with resources and information on the negative impact that sexualization can have on their children, they may be more wary as to what they expose their children to.  In addition, I feel that it’s important that we address issues of sex and violence with our students as they arise in the classroom.  These are sensitive subjects and should be discussed with families prior to being a topic of conversation with their children.  I feel that working with parents will be vital in supporting our children through the confusion of this sexualized world. 

Thinking about this topic this week, I have come to realize that this is an issue that stretches beyond economic status, race, and gender.  It is something that all of our children are being exposed to and we need to do our best to shield them from these harsh and disturbing images if we are to help them salvage their youth.  Reading this article and really drawing on my personal and professional experiences has helped me to realize what an issue this is becoming and I will be sure to make this a priority when I return to an early childhood curriculum.  “Today’s sexualized childhood is very distressing, there’s no way around that. We believe that understanding and action are the best antidotes to the alarm this content will cause” (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 7-8).   

Reference

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