The ECE Community

I have chosen to research The National Family Preservation Network, The National Fatherhood Initiative and The National Healthy Marriage Resource. I chose these organizations because they promote my Capstone Project Challenge. My goal is to work towards promoting Family Relationships to improve the overall well-being of our society by making families whole and building everlasting bonds.

The National Family Preservation Network (NFPN) mission is to serve as the primary national voice for the preservation of families. Our mission is achieved through initiatives in the areas of family preservation, reunification, and father involvement. NFPN provides training, tools, and resources to assist policymakers and practitioners to build on a family's strengths and to preserve family bonds so children can be protected and nurtured at home. [www.nfpn.org]

The National Fatherhood Initiative (NFI) is the nation's leading non-profit organization working to end father absence. According to NFI, underlying many of society's most pressing challenges is a lack of father involvement in their children's lives. NFI's mission is to equip fathers to intentionally and proactively engage fathers in their children's lives and improve the well-being of children by increasing the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, and committed fathers in their lives. [www.fatherhood.org]

The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center (NHMRC) is a clearinghouse for high quality, balanced, and timely information and resources on healthy marriage. NHMRC's mission is to help individuals and couples who choose marriage for themselves gain the knowledge and skills necessary to build and sustain a healthy marriage. NHMRC provides quality information, resources, and training on healthy marriage for experts, researchers, policymakers, media, marriage educators, couples and individuals, program providers, and others. [www.healthymarriageinfo.org]

Reflecting on Learning

It is pretty amazing the extent to which one can be both inspired and motivated by complete strangers throughout the course of a few weeks. Though I have never physically met you all, through shared interests, opinions and passion, it seems as though you all may understand me better than the people I come in contact on a daily basis. Through our personal beliefs and dedication to personal growth we continue to stand united. It gives me great hope to know that I am not alone on this unpredictable journey to becoming a better, anti-bias educator. To everyone within the course, as well as our professor, thank you for the impact that you have made throughout this course.

My most passionate hope for my future as an early childhood professional, all other early childhood professionals, and for the children and families with whom I work or will work, is that we strive to stay passionate about our purpose in children’s lives. It is imperative that we understand the importance of positively impacting the children that we encounter, because in many cases, we are all these children have.

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

In West and Central Africa, statistics show that nearly two out of every 10 children, never reach their fifth birthday. Children are dying from malaria, diarrheal diseases and vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles. In addition to their already unfair circumstances, children have their rights violated on a daily basis to an extreme extent.

The country is experiencing extreme violence from a Nigerian militant Islamist group known as, Boko Haram.  The group has an ongoing fight/mission to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state. Boko Haram has caused havoc in Africa's most populous country through waves of bombings, assassinations and abductions. Boko Haram has robbed 1.3 million children of their childhood. Its violence has forced thousands of children out of school. Children are being displaced, abducted, raped, maimed and killed. Over 5,000 children are unaccompanied and separated from their parents. I cannot imagine what these children may be going through emotionally. I am sure that they are afraid and emotionally unstable as they do not know what to expect from day to day and in many cases from minute to minute. Their villages and families are being torn apart and destroyed daily.

Exploring this website makes my heartache to read about all that these children are going through. It makes me appreciate the relationships that I experience with the children that I encounter from day to day. I want to do all that I can to ensure these children have positive impacts in their lives. In many kids, the kids within our program are not as bad off as those in West and Central Africa, but they experience more in their little lifetimes than some adults. In many cases these children are neglected and unaccompanied in a sense and often times have to be dispersed among families, if family members are able and willing. Articles such as these make me want to do all that I can to ensure the safety and well-being of all children while in my care.

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

Unfortunately, I have encountered a few incidents that have resulted from premature exposure to sexualization of early childhood. Within my first year of working with Preschool, I had a little boy draw a picture and smirk as he tried to quietly explain to a friend that he was drawing a bed so they could have sex. The comment really caught me off guard. I felt that he knew that the term was inappropriate because he understood that it was not something that he should say aloud.  I had to explain to the little boy that the term “sex” was not something that we talked about at school. At departure, I explained to his mother what he had said in hopes that we were able to address the situation and ensure that we did not have to address the situation again. It is such a difficult situation because I really did not know how to approach the mother without her feeling as though I was accusing her of doing anything wrong or making her feel bad as a parent. She explained that the term probably came up from her older son that she was having trouble with and she would be sure to address the situation.

Just recently, I took my daughter to see the movie “Sing.” At one point in the movie, three small bunnies, turned their backsides to the camera and began to “twerk.” Of course everyone in the theater though the idea to be funny, even my own daughter was extremely tickled. Though entertaining, it struck me as odd. It made me think of other children movies that expose children to different types of sexualization. I’m not sure where movie productions began being comfortable with so much sexuality in children genre families, but each year is gets worse and worse. I have had the discussion before with colleagues and some feel as though the children’s movies add brief adult moments within the movies to keep the parents’ attention as they watch the movies with their children.  Either way though, I feel as though it’s inappropriate and expose children to things they should not be exposed to so early. 

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

After much thought a situation that came to mind would be someone dealing with racism. As with many isms there are many issues that may arise within a person. An individual may be left with feelings of incompetence, unworthiness, and even feeling incapable depending on the given situation. As a result, when encountering someone of the same background within the classroom, one may over compensate.

For example, an African American, female teacher goes in for administrative position within her program. During her interview, her male, Caucasian director makes multiple sarcastic remarks about her racial group that has nothing to do with her progress within the classroom. He also goes as far as, stating that the teacher’s coarse hair would probably scare the majority of his parents off anyway. The teacher finds that offensive because the dominant group within the center, families and employees alike, is Caucasian.

As a result of being turned down for the position, the teacher may now feel the need to prove herself. She wants to show that rather than be judged by the color of her skin and overall outward appearance, she wants to be judged by her abilities in the classroom and rapport with the children and families that she encounters. The teacher uses her situation as motivation to move forward and leave an impression on everyone that she encounters. She does so well that she is recognized and awarded teacher of the year award within her community. 

Observing Communication

This past week, I observed my husband read to our daughter (age 3yrs) and reinforce her number recognition. This account stood out to me, because I was in the process of completing an assignment for the class as my daughter made multiple attempts to "play school" with me. I tried, but failed to remain attentive to her efforts. She finally threw in the towel on me and moved on to her dad.

I had to pause as I noticed how gentle and sensitive he was with her. He provided a safe play-learning space. His tone was perfect; soft yet firm. He listened carefully as she talked, repeating information as necessary which showed he was actively listening to her. The book that they read was based on items found in New York. The book allowed her to count objects in the case that she did not recognize a particular number. When she struggled, he did not get upset with her. He was very patient from beginning to end. When she got mixed up or irritated he reassured her that she could do it and encouraged her to take her time. Through his effective communication, he kept her engaged throughout the book which provided a successful learning experience which on the other hand can be a bit stressful for her and me.

As I observed my daughter’s body language, I could see that she felt secure and she lay nestled in her father’s arms. She felt confident and accomplished as she correctly identified the numbers.

This week I have noticed that I seem to be shorter and less patient with my daughter in comparison to the children within the classroom. This is an observation that makes me sad, but ready and willing to put forth the effort to change; effective immediately. My daughter and I have lots of fun together, but when it comes to learning I can be a bit militant. Though I come from a good place, simply because I want the best for her, I do not want to communicate to her in a manner that is stressful or cause her to lose interest in learning.

My goal is to make more conscious efforts to be more patient with my daughter. I want to communicate to her that she has my support and that I believe in her. I want to communicate to her that I proud of all that she has already accomplished as she learns and all that she will continue to learn. 

Creating Affirming Enviroments

     When considering the setting of a child care home one of the first things that come to mind a very obvious very direct method of making children feel visible within the classroom. I consider pictures. For me, it is important to have pictures of the children with their families. We would display them on a tree, the classroom family tree. By doing so, we also encourage interaction and dialogue between the children where they are now introducing their families, family roles and traditions or the norms within their families.
       In addition to the family photos, it is important to incorporate different people, of different genders, race and physical abilities participating in different jobs as well as different extracurricular activities. It is important for children to see beyond stereotypical ideas of what certain people should or should not be doing. It is important that children understand that there aren't any limitations to what we can do within this world.
       Puzzles are a great way to make different families and abilities visible within the classroom. Puzzles are perfect visual tools for children. They are also beneficial in the development of children's fine motor and cognitive development.
        It is also important that children have materials and furniture within the classroom that promotes independent exploration. It is also important that the layout is carefully organized for the children within the classroom. For instance, it is important to have shelves, pictures etc, at eye level for the children so it is not uncomfortable for children to maneuver around the classroom. When the children are comfortable and can move most freely within the material they are more likely to stay interested in materials for a longer period of time.
        Overall, it is important that children as well as their families are represented within their classroom. It is also important that children are exposed to people different from themselves to gain better insights of the world around them