From the Classroom....

I planned to write this blog last evening. However, when I read the word 'passion' in the assignment mine had pretty much dissipated into panic. I had just completed the first draft on our application paper for this week and the enormity of the task was daunting. There is so much to consider: that it be developmentally appropriate; that no one is excluded; that everyone has their individual curriculum that best meets their needs.

Then you have the cultures, ethnicities, languages, personalities, years of tradition, government, laws and being the foreigner.

Not to mention  the poverty; internalized failure and hopelessness; abandonment and years of getting by: doing the best with what they are left with.

Did I mention the disabilities that probably have not been given a name and could be thought to be best terminated or at least thrown away. This could include girls.

And...

But wait....

It is Sunday morning. A beautiful, sunny Autumn day. My world is full of hope and smiles. I am attending my friend's second birthday which means games in the park and pizza. I have wonderful resourceful people around me and live in a country where anything is possible when you put your mind to it. The contacts I have made in the past three months are already walking me along the path of future opportunities.

So..

I will begin where I am - in my classroom. Disabilities are the biggest vacuum in our Nursery curriculum. Right away I need to start putting pictures on the wall, ordering books and teaming  up with an orphanage with whom we can share photos and names. Lucky for me the lady with whom I would like to team up with in an anti-bias adventure, volunteers at just such a place.

Amazing what a good night's sleep and sunshine can accomplish.

The second doable and important thing is building our library with anti-bias children's literature. Books are the very best way to move an idea along, I think. This will garner comments from the teachers and new insights from the students. And perhaps push the borders of our doors open even further.

I will continue my contact with UNICEF here. Also working on an internet, instructional tool on child development that will be sold and gifted to the very places I want to make a difference in. The producer's dream is that when we finish, I could travel to the areas where it has been distributed and do something like a well baby clinic, complementing what they have studied on line. This all seems nebulous right now and I have lived here long enough to know there may be roadblocks up ahead that I could not have imagined.

OK now I am ready for the passion: Keep on keeping on.

May the words and passion of Louise Derman-Sparks remain clear in my thinking. May I see each child as valuable and not turn away anyone. May they learn respect for themselves and those around them through the life I model. May they be equipped to go out and stand up against unfairness and injustice (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010).

Now to my classmates. Thank you for welcoming me into your group. Because I took the summer off, I am a new member. Thanks for the personal and professional examples and the expressions of your passions. I hope to meet you again in the next class. If not, good luck to you and may your flame for ant-bias education keep burning brightly.

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-Bias Education. Washington, D.C.:

            National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)