Professional Hopes & Goals

The biggest hope I have for children and families that come from diverse backgrounds is that as they enter the environment that are able to make smooth transition and gain a quick feeling of acceptance.  Imagining children feeling inadequate because they are different is heartbreaking to me.

The goal I would like to set for the early childhood field in terms of diversity, equity and social justice is not to it as treat diversity an obstacle.  Embrace the differences with chance and opportunity just as if it was tradition or customary.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for sharing in our assignments. Each assignment offered me inspiration and understanding.   I have view my next class and I see that unfortunately I will not be in that class with many of you.  I am truly sad because several of us started out together and have been on this journey together up until this point. Anyway I wish you all well and know that my prayers are with you.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

My family country of origins is Greece.

The first thing I would due to prepare for them is research the family culture.  I would concern myself with determining who is the power figure in the family.  I would need to know if it is appropriate to communicate with the mother or the father.

Then I would learn their meeting etiquette the way they are accustoms to greeting people with they meet for the first time. Upon their arrival I would greet them with a smile, firm handshake while maintaining eye contact as they are accustom too.

As a welcoming tool I would prepare refreshment such as cakes and fruit for their arrival.  They are accustomed to offering refreshment to guest at major events.

Then I would look into their religious practices.  I would try to obtain some type religious symbol for them such as the sign of the cross or a bible whichevers appropriate.  Most of their religious practices are centered on the sign of the cross.

Next I would try to obtain some cultural related toys or objects for the children to have. Children in Greece usually play with rattles and yo-yo’s.

Going out of town in your own country can be culturally shocking. Therefore, I hope that preparing these accommodations to a new family in the United States it would give them a sense of belonging and providing them with an excellent perception of the U.S.  It is a proven fact that you only get one chance to make a good first impression.  Through this experience I am able to factor in a little bit of their culture in to mine creating atmosphere love and acceptance.

References:

Kwintessential (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/greece-country-profile.html

Sutton,S.(n.d.) Greece. Retrieved from: http://www.everyculture.com/Ge-It/Greece.html

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

It is truly unfortunate that I often get to observe instances of bias, prejudice, and oppression.  The memory that I would like to share took place where I work. We were in the process of undergoing an administration change.  This process is when a new police chief takes over.  This usually means that the whole department is going to be adjusted.  This particular administration was headed by Caucasians. There had be a lot of talk about uniform patrol going to twelve hour shift and deleting the eight hour shift we were accustom to.  These decisions are made by the chief of police with the approval of the mayor and city council.  No officer wanted to make this transition. However it was dynasty it was going to happen.  This entailed longer hours and longer hours provided more stress to an already dangerously stressful job. They divided the shift up into four shifts of men and women officers. Strangely when the 12 hour shift went into effect all the Caucasian female officers were given new job assignment and they did not have to endure the long gruesome twelve hours shift work.  After losing several officer and encountering multiple careless situations and casualties we were able to return to the 8 hour shift.

This incident destroyed the moral in the police department for the African American female and the male officers. Seniority plays a major role in the police department and these young ladies were lower on the totem pole the most of the officers.  The equity was diminished in that the chief had no consideration for the African American female officers because like the Caucasian female officers many of them were single parents and had small children.

My feeling of this situation was disappointment.  Yet I then began to really realize that prejudice and bias are real. I was in denial for many years but as I grew I got a good lesson in racism, sexism, prejudice, bias and oppression. I remember riding in my patrol car once I discovered the way that incident went down shaking my head wondering if this would ever past.  I survived that situation however I know it this job the next bias, prejudice or oppression situation is right around the corner.

 In that situation if the chief was trying to do the right thing by all the officers it would have allowed everyone to apply for the open positions. Then it would have made the placement based on qualification as oppose to gender and race. This would have provided everyone with the opportunity to seek the position and to see how they measured up. Instead this diminished the moral of the qualified officers and caused a slow boil. The worst thing in the world is a lot of upset Police!!!