Professional Hopes and Goals

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have for myself and the world is that we become increasingly color blind.  I want us to be drawn to each other because of our common interests and goals before we even notice the color of each others skin.  My pastor shared a moment when he was so proud of his daughter when she described to him the friend she wanted to invite over to play.  Two girls were standing together and Sadie said she and the girl in the pink shirt wanted to get together to play.  One girl was black and the other white but his daughter truly did not seem to notice.  That is what I hope increasingly for myself, and for future generations.

My goal for the early childhood field is for equal access to preschool for all children.  That would be a good thing to trickle down from elementary school, instead of academic expectations and testing.  We now have plenty of research to show that those early years are of utmost importance to lifelong success.   It is time to turn our attention to funding that will make equal access happen.

I am so grateful to my classmates for all that has been shared during this class.  Everyone was so forthcoming in sharing their very personal experiences from the heart.  My eyes were opened and my life was enriched by traveling this journey with you!  Thanks everyone!

Welcoming Families from Around the World

Welcoming Families From Around the World

If I found out I would be welcoming a student from Qatar, I would need to find out something about this country.  I would utilize an internet search engine, watch YouTube videos about the country, look up information about the country on early childhood websites, ask others if they know anything about the country and try to find a contact in that country with whom I could correspond.  However, throughout all of my information gathering, I would remind myself not to form stereotypes or assume anything about the family I am about to meet.

From my internet search I was led to encyclopedia.com, which provided general information about the country.  I found out it is a peninsula which juts into the Persian Gulf.  It is bordered by Saudi Arabia.  It has a very hot climate with a short winter during which the temperature only gets down into the 50's.  This tells me that the family is probably not used to cold weather and I will need to be conscious and respectful about how they will want their child to be dressed.  I would also be mindful to realize this child may never have seen snow and to make the first experience for them a special one.  I also learned that while the national language is Arabic, English is widely spoken so there may not be too much of a language barrier.  I will want to find out how much the family would like to incorporate Arabic into the child's educational experience.  I learned that 95% of the population is of the Muslim faith and that Muslim holidays are national ones.  As the year goes by I will want to be respectful to be aware of when the family may be celebrating a holiday and to inquire how I can support the child during that time.  Watching YouTube videos about Qatar gave me some mind pictures of where the family is coming from.  I plan to display pictures in the classroom of well-known buildings and the Qatar flag.  I will also be sure to have children of various races in the pictures in my classroom.

From my website search I discovered that only 31% of children attend preschool in Qatar.  I will want to find out if my student was one of them.  I learned that one of the goals set by the Amir for that Qatar educational system is to prepare students for a post-oil future.  (acei.org)  I tucked that in the back of my mind as a possibility about why the family is moving to the United States.  I learned that Qatar is a healthy nation for children with 100% having access to healthy drinking water and immunizations. (unicef.org)

I am waiting to hear back from my contact at Son Ministries who runs the ESOL program I help with at my church.  I asked her to tell me if any of the families we work with are from Qatar and if she has any insights that may be helpful to me.

From the Association for Childhood International website I found contact information for their country liaison to Qatar, Amira Hachen. (acei.org)  I will be able to utilize her experience as I develop learning plans for a student from Qatar.

Feeling Oppressed

A Time When I felt Oppressed

About 10 years ago, when my daughter was 10 years old, she fell off her scooter and dislocated her thumb.  We had to take her downtown to the regular Children's Hospital instead of the urgent care because we knew she would likely need a cast.  When we got there we were given a room to wait in.  My daughter was in extreme pain.  We waited and no one came to see us.  As we sat there we became aware that others were being treated.  One family was Asian and their boy had a toothpick stuck in their foot.  Another had a stab wound and it seemed his entire gang of rough people had come along with him.  Doctors and nurses went in and out of these two rooms but no one came to see us.   My husband went back to the registration desk and asked when we would be seen.  They said we were on the list and it would only be a matter of time. After another half hour he went to the nurse's station and inquired.  He was spoken to very tersely by a doctor who said we would just have to wait our turn like everyone else.  When we were finally seen we were sent to another room to meet with an orthopedic doctor.  When we described how we were treated he said he had been sitting doing nothing for several hours.  He couldn't explain why we had been treated that way.

It felt to us like someone had taken an immediate dislike to us because of the way we looked.  Perhaps we appeared wealthy and seemed snobby compared to the rest of the clientele there.  I don't think we did anything rude by inquiring approximately every half hour if we had been forgotten.  We didn't mind if others had more severe injuries that needed to be treated first.  We just didn't want to feel overlooked.

This incident returned to my mind as I thought about this assignment.  It is a time when I felt oppressed and ashamed to be who I was.  I understood that not all could be treated equally due to the need to triage the more severe injuries.  However, I do not feel we were treated in an equitable way either, because we were completely ignored and not treated with respect.  I now realize that some groups of people are treated this way all the time and I can only imagine how that must feel.  I would never want to be a part of making anyone feel the way we did on that day.