One Child at a Time

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression I earnestly hope that my connecting with children and their families will result in a relationship that establishes trust with families and, ultimately, their children's success. My goal is to advance equity in an Early Childhood setting. All children have the right to equitable learning opportunities that help them achieve their full potential as engaged learners and valued members of society. Thus, all early childhood educators have a professional obligation to advance equity. They can do this best when they are effectively supported by the early learning settings in which they work. In addition, they and their wider communities embrace diversity and full inclusion as strengths, uphold fundamental principles of fairness and justice and work to eliminate structural inequities that limit equitable learning opportunities. Advancing the right to equitable learning opportunities requires recognizing and dismantling the systems of bi

Supporting families who emigrated from Afghanistan Afghanistan is a country that has endured several civil wars over the years. As a result, Afghan refugees are one of the largest and longest displaced populations in the world. Three decades of recurrent conflict have led to the education of successive generations of Afghan refugee children being disrupted, discontinued or forgotten, due to a range of barriers that are primarily outside their control. Many of the displaced children and families are beginning to arrive in the United States. Unfortunately, these children and their families are coming to the United States with little or no English, and as such, they will need a lot of help as they adjust to their new environment. As a Preschool teacher, I believe these are the five ways to benefit significantly emigrated families coming from Afghanistan. Make them feel welcome.  Making immigrant families feel welcome. A welcoming environment that celebrates students' cultures and enco

Whether it's microaggressions, bias, or discrimination, dealing with prejudice is physically and psychologically demanding. But avoiding it is not always an option. Jumai, a close friend of mine, recently told me a story of what she went through in her past marriage, which was an arranged marriage. She was respectful of her in-laws, tried her best to be a good wife to her husband, and a role model to her two children. Yet, from the beginning, she felt something was not right. Her husband seeing other women was the acceptable norm; the coming and going out of the house. The family culture demands that his wife and the mother of his children bear everyone else's wrath and not complain. The family culture also demands that remain silent, uphold the family status, and save face. Her husband lacked compassion, and the culture permits his abuse. She was daily subjected to mental and physical abuse that made her feel worthless and full of self-pity. She ultimately summoned the courage

                                    Microaggression: My family experience This summer, our family went to London for a relative wedding. The usual security lines were packed with fellow travelers. We hurriedly take our place in the line reserved for people with TSA PreCheck, making passing through the security process much more manageable. Then, out of the blue, we heard a White man who was behind us said: "it seems you are in the wrong line? This line is for TSA PreCheck.". Just us. since we were the only Black people in the line, he believes we were not in the right place. I did not hear him asking other travelers the same question he threw at us in the TSA precheck line. I shot back crisply. "I know what line this is." I wanted to say more, but for my husband, the peacekeeper, who would not let me this time. The subtle message is that black folks cannot afford to pay for TSA precheck, and it is for the white privileged. This is just one of the many Microaggressio