The
person I communicated with was Ms. Willingham, Ms. Ross, and Mrs. Hancock. I
Ms. Willingham communicated with me person-to- person because we work together.
Ms. Willingham said, "Culture is the behaviors and beliefs such as, food,
dress, music, language, and holidays. Diversity means everyone is not the
same and a person is unique in their own ways." Mrs. Hancock said, "Culture is
the elements of language, behavior, and values of a group of people." She
stated, "Diversity is a group of people race, religious, language, and
beliefs.” Ms. Ross said, “My definition of culture is the beliefs, language,
values, norms, behaviors, and material objects that are important enough to
pass on the future generation." Ms. Ross said, "my definition for diversity is a
variety of different objects.”
I truly agree that culture come in many different forms
and in everything we do have to do with culture. The food we eat the cloths we
wear, the way we move our bodies have to deal with culture. Example: Culture
has many of rules and qualities such as, how different families raise their
children. The Hispanic raises their children to respect their elders, not to
look the adults in the eyes when being spoken to. African-American believes
strongly in religious beliefs. As young as 6 months, infants demonstrate that
they notice differences in skin color (Katz & Kofkin 1997).
Toddler begins to notice and comment on gender
and racial differences. By age 2, children are using appropriate gender labels
(girl, boy) and learning color names, which they begin to apply to skin color
(Ramsey 2004). Example: Asking questions gender, racial identity, and language.
By age 4, they begin to show awareness of family structures and economic class
differences (Tatum 2003). Example: Why is that boy skin's is black? Between
3-5, children become very concern about their bodies and how it grows (Ramey
2004). One aspect is teaching children to become racial by the environment that
surrounding them. Children learn from adults and the surrounding environment
the children live in. This helps the child to become bias and lead to
prejudice. Not recognizing children with disabilities and giving out negative
ideas about them. Example: If a child has a disease he will be treated
different from the other class. (Ramsey 2004).
My
thinking about the different definitions has encouraged me because the
definition was mainly the same meaning. This let me know the teachers know what
the meaning of culture and diversity is. It is essential for all professionals
in the field of Early Childhood Education are important to know every child’s
culture and especially your own culture. This will help empower the class with
the education they need for learning and development skills. (Ramsey 2004).
Cedar, you mentioned a really good point. You gave a few examples at different age levels children begin to realize differences in the next child's culture; and that's mainly from going to school and being curious. The teacher's job is to acknowledge and respond to certain conversations like; Johnnie is vanilla and I am chocolate. Well as a teacher and any other human being, we know the children are using ice cream flavors to distinguish each other's skin complexion, but as a teachable moment, we can discuss how different cultures have different skin tones, and expand it with a book, puppet show, or findings on the internet!
ReplyDeleteGreat Post,
Sherrell
Colleague Cedar:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post! "Culture and Diversity" are indeed important aspects of children's life that we have to pay attention to.As we work on their understanding of these issues we are providing for them a solid foundation on which to stand for their identity, for their respect and value of other people's culture as well as their own.Looking forward to learn more from your post.
Sharon.
Cedar,
ReplyDeleteI truly agree that children learn things from adults. We as parents have to be very careful about what we say and do around our children. Children pick up bad habits quickly. They start picking up on things at an early age like two. I know that sometimes I may say some things that I shouldn't and my two year old repeats it. It also goes back to people of different races saying awful things in front of their children. The children will in turn say the same thing to another child, which is bad.
Hi Cedar,
ReplyDeleteIt is essentials as teachers that we know about children and their culture. Going back to my childhood this week, brought memories of when I was in school. The teachers only taught what they wanted to, in the required reading from the school board. Just think if these teachers would have accepted the cultures back then, maybe our children would be more acceptable to other cultures as we are learning. I see positive things are going to happen in schools because; of so many teachers as we are that will h better stand on culture and diversity. This post was well done.
Kathleen