Practicing
Awareness
This
week I had an opportunity to use what I have learned so far in this
course. I am a supervisor so when I was
visiting a school one of the teachers told me that she was having problems
getting a boy in her class to speak. She
said that his parents told her he speaks English well and she felt he just was
selectively mute because he did not want to learn. I had the opportunity to tell her about being
sensitive to family culture and how culture is more than a language but a way
of living that may be completely different than what he was experiencing in her
class. I hope that my words provided insight
that will help her to think differently about how she can meet his needs and
not just make quick assumptions.
Watching the boy sit alone silently in the corner of the classroom made
my heart go out to him and I thought about how damaging the assumption that
this boy did not want to learn was. At
age four of course he wanted to learn and play with the other children. This attitude by the teacher would only
further the discrimination he might feel and keep her from exploring other
options and ways to help him adjust. As
teachers we must be very careful not to jump to conclusions and try to take on
multiple perspectives of the children and families in our care.
I agree. As teachers and educators it is up to us to be educated on cultural differences, and think about the bigger picture. Sometime we can almost come off as selfish the way we expect everyone to be like the dominant culture. I have heard people say so many times, "if you're going to live in America then you need to act American". I never thought that was fair, because realistically, our ancestors came from somewhere, and maybe THEY were that little boy or girl in class that didn't speak English so well or was too timid to speak in class due to cultural barriers.
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