One day my granddaughters and I
were in wal mart doing some shopping. My oldest granddaughter says, “grandma
grandma look that’s the boy that goes to my school that walks funny and be
acting funny like something is wrong with him”, and some of the children be
picking on him”. I asked her to lower her voice, because she was excited to
show him to me, and I ask her if she is in that group that be picking on him?
She told me grandma I don’t do that. We go and tell our teacher every time we
see them messing with him or any one that’s in the special education class.
We as early childhood
professionals have to help our children to understand that some children are
different from other because they have varying abilities. (Ford, Blanchett,
& Brown, 2006; Harry & Klingner, 2006) states “when there is indeed the
presence of a developmental disability and families seeking services, they are likely
to encounter systems and structures that are not prepared to help them navigate
services while living life at the intersection of race, culture, language, and disability,
which results in them ultimately receiving culturally unresponsive and
inappropriate services and interventions in our schools..
Gloria, the story of your granddaughter was, indeed, powerful and real. Your granddaughters not only knew what to do by sharing with their teachers but they also understand that what their friends were doing was not nice. Good for them! It reminded of Nyla, from the story that we read (Pelo, 2008). Nyla's teacher had to learn a way to incorporate inclusion into her classroom and in doing so, she learned much about Nyla. In addition, she utilized her inclusive classroom as a way to teach her student's about life's unfairness. Yes, this is our respsonsibility as early childhood educators, all of whom need to understand how to be culturally responsive to all children. Thank you, Gloria, for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHi Gloria,
ReplyDeleteAs Pelo (2008) stated in the book that children at the young age can pick up the rules and come up with the conclusions. Your granddaughter did the right thing to tell the teacher what was going on, but I do not think the teacher has come up with any effective solutions to the bullies to that boy. As educators, it is necessary for us to help children grow mentally and physically. We are supposed to teach children what sympathy is and how to build up the positive relationship with others who are different than us. I think the teacher should do more to help the children out of that situation.
Well it was wonderful for your granddaughter to tell you that she don't talk or pick on the individual. You granddaughter did the right thing by going to tell the teacher. I would like to know how that particular teacher addressed the issue. We as educators should teach students why its so important not to talk about someone and to be rude. Everyone has feelings and should be respected.
ReplyDeleteYour grand daughter is very kind for being able to understand how hurtful that can be and to go and inform a teacher who is able to do something about it. I think sometimes we are afraid to have conversations with our children about things that can be uncomfortable topics for us to tackle with them. I think this is one perfect example of taking the time to talk with her about it and encourage perspective taking on how that child might feel when others are engaging in that hurtful behavior. This is part of learning how to understand the feelings of others and learning how to take those feelings into consideration before we commit actions that can be harmful to others.
ReplyDelete