Social Equity In Our Classroom

“It’s Mine! I Don’t Want To Share It!” How do we teach our children equity?

Among all of us, I am sure one of the biggest problem in our classroom is to teach our young children to share their toys. I have half of my class four-year-old and the other half three-year-old children. The older children tend to build with the classroom materials either the Lego pieces or any manipulative toys in some degree of higher complexity. Just like the Hilltop Elementary School children, I experience everyday of “Power, Ownership and Equity” in my classroom. Sometimes I suggest some sort of rules and regulations to ensure the fairness to children all ages. But sometimes nothing seems to work. Then the last resort: Take the toys away. Ha! Peace at last! Problem solved! But after I read “Why We Banned Lego” by Ann Pelo and Kendra PeloJoaquin, I realized the importance of helping our young children to put the true meaning of power and ownership under the magnifying glasses. In our everyday life, we experience inequality everywhere. Whether it is our gender, our race, our age or our religion, we see inequity prevalent. Should we just silently accepted that this is just the way how it is or should we stand up for the injustice? Sometime we are so afraid of “Rock the boat” and we hesitate to fight what is being just. Our upbringing and our past experiences manifested our definition of equity. But if we are aware of them then we will instill in our young children what is just and how we would like to be treated justly. I read somewhere of this saying: When the power of love overcome the love of power, that is when the world sees peace.

“Pono” Doing the right thing.

I can’t believe all the negative criticism Ann Pelo and Kendra PeloJoiquin got from all the angry parents and even the Fox news. We understand that we are living in an unjustifiable world. But should we encourage our children to continue this social injustice? It may seems to be a small issue of teaching our children to share the Lego toys. But what we are teaching our next generation is the awareness of social injustice and how to become fair to all.

What do you mean you are not doing “This” way?

We are a culture that we think only our American way is the only right way and there is no other way. Other cultures may think that: Why your American way is better than our way? Because other countries do things differently that does not make them less important. As an educator, I always remind myself to have an open mind to accept other cultures different ways and learn from them.

How Do We Define Gender?

How Can We Be Gender Neutral And Not Gender Bias?

In Miles Of Aisles Of Sexism, Sudie Hofmann clearly demonstrated how the toys manufacturing companies produce the products to deepen the segregation of their young females and males consumers. The toys for the boys focus on “patriotism and superiority” p.30. Boys’ toys are war toys, 3-D dino adventure, word games and board games. Even at a very young age, the girls are brainwashed that they have to play with the trendy toys; Barbies and of course Kent, make-up, vanity and mirrors, hair brushes and products, and nails kits as well.

I remember when I was growing up, the toys that among my siblings and my friends play with were: jump ropes, Hop Scots, bikes, bean bags, Chinese Jacks, and Chess. We didn’t have Barbie or Kent. I do not recall my brothers had any of the double-shooter water guns or machine guns. We played a lot Hide-and-Seek and Duck-Duck-Goose.

In my classroom, I set up a lot of gender neutral toys and activities for my boys and girls. I have girls’ dresses and I have boys and girls Aloha shirts. I have cooking aprons for the chefs and either gender is welcome to make the meals for his/her friends. In the Block area, I always invite anyone to join us to make a house for the zoo animals or farm animals. And at the outdoor area, all the equipments are suitable for all the gender to have fun and to explore. All the activities are gender neutral to everyone. But I do have to say that the girls are less fond of throwing, catching or kicking the balls.

As an educator, we need to be aware of the toys gender bias and we need to educate our families. The toys companies create this gigantic gender segregation and it is up to us and our families to make the gender neutral choices for our children and the next generation.

In “Where Are The Game Girls?” Ann Pelo did a survey of what boys like to play and what girls like to play. Again the article concludes boys and girls have a lot of common interests. It seemed the outdoor activities are more gender neutral. Why can the games manufacturing companies do more research on the children’s interests and create a game that is more like game kids? Is it because there are more male consumers than females consumers when purchasing the electronic games? Will the toys companies listen to the consumers’ wants and create more toys that both genders can enjoy?

After I read “Playing With Gender”, I want to know: How many of us when doing our observations of our children in regarding to gender bias that our interpretations are fogged up by our own social and political contexts? I was amazed that how our upbringing and our past experiences had such great influence on our way to define gender identity. I was labeled as a Tom-boy as I never liked to play dolls and in fact I had never own one. I enjoyed all the active so called boys’ games. But after I read this eye-opening article, I tell myself: I was just different and I was just an athletic child.

Eat What We Grow

What is the essential element of early childhood education? How my views have changed now?

When I was studying at H.C.C. on my E.C.E. classes, I learned about child’s development, how to set up your classroom, do observations and plan activities. But after I read the 7 chapters of New Possibilities for E.C.E. my eyes have been opened and I realized that the interrelationships with our children and their families are far more important than teaching our young children. The ladies in chapter 6 shared that through the classes they took, they have learned to become a better parent. They became more self-confident, more aware of their relationships with their children. They had also expressed that through their learning experiences, they felt that they earned more respect and their voices and opinions mattered. Do our children and our families feel the same way as the ladies in chapter 6? Does having a respectful relationship and providing listening ears matter more than getting our children to become kindergarten ready? Are building and strengthening our children and their families’ self esteem being shadowed by our “We don’t want to get into anybody’s business”? Will the silence of their past be kept and never shared? Early childhood education is about teaching our children to love others. But before they learn to love others, they need to learn to love themselves.

How do we teach our children to eat what we grow?

In “A Pedagogy Of Ecology”, Ann Pelo shared that in our culture, we tend to move frequently and we find it difficult to build a stewardship with our home ground, our mother earth. A few years ago I was working in a community where there was a large taro patch one mile down the road. Three families in our classroom who operated the taro farm came with a tiler at the beginning of the school year. With the cooperation of our elementary school, our principal gave us a small patch of land to grow some taro. These families showed our children how to loosen the dirt with the machine and with our hands. We spend the whole morning under the hot sun. We learned, what is a “oha”, the keiki of a taro plant and “Huli” the parent plant of a taro. The children watched the uncles and the aunties plant the baby taro plants. I have never seen my children ever so enthusiastic of any activity. We all walked to the back of our school and watered the plants everyday. We measured the growth of the plants. And best of all, after we waited patiently for almost nine months, Uncle John harvested and boiled the taro for us. We learned how to hold the poi pounder with our right hand and wet with our left hand and fold the poi on the wooden block. We learned to enjoy and appreciate the harvest of our labor. We learned to eat what we grow.

How can we have a “zero-waste lunch program”?

In “Bringing The Earth Home”, Ann Pelo pointed out the importance of raising the consumption and sustainability of our environment. She suggested to have a zero-waste lunch program. I work with Head Start and every day I see so many foods are being thrown away in the large garbage bag. All the unopened milk cartons and the uneaten foods were disposed every day. I often make the comment,”Oh! What a waste!” I like the idea of having a zero-waste lunch program but how do I implement it? Send me some ideas.

How Can We Implement Change?

How Can We Implement Changes Without Imposing Into Other People’s Values?

In Unwrapping The Holidays, I have learned to obtain consensus before I plan to make any changes. I have learned to respect other people’s believes and values. I can never assume that others would agree and follow my point of view and put aside their own values. A few years ago I was helping my children to prepare for our annual May Day celebration. I was a new teacher, in fact it was my second year of teaching. I was very enthusiastic about making the costumes for all my children. We practiced the song and dance every day. The important day arrived. And as we were walking up to the stage, Kimo’s dad pulled me on the side. He said his family do not celebrate any events. And he did not want Kimo to go up the stage. As that moment, I was talking to myself,” What do you mean you don’t celebrate any event?” I was upset and I felt he should have told me earlier as Kimo had an important part to play in the May Day event. But now after I read this chapter I would ask,” What if you were Kimo’s dad and it is against your religion and believe, how would you tell your four year old that he cannot participate with his peers? How difficult the task would be for the father to explain to his child? And how should he explain to his son that he stands on his belief? We teach our children that we are all different and we are all unique. We have to remind ourselves to respect that we all have different believes and values.

How Can We Help Our Children To Cope With Death In The Family When The Family Refused To Accept Any Help?

In Staying Past Wednesday, Kate Lyman had suggested a few effective ways to help the children to cope with their painful feelings. Her courage to ignore what the principal told her what to do, she encouraged the children to share their true feelings on the bulletin board. Our Children’s fears and curiosity are real and they need to be addressed. But what if the families refused to acknowledge the fearful feeling that children have and respond as “It Is Nobody’s Business”. May was a four years old in my classroom a few years ago. She always walked in with a smile. One morning as she walked in the classroom, I noticed the emotionless expression on her face. During breakfast time she shared that her papa hung himself in the garage. The child was the first one who discovered him in the family. She described as her mother came home that she was screaming and crying. She described the police came and there were a lot of people in the house. We talked to her mom and explained that we could offer child the psychiatric help free of charge. We explained to her that May had a lot of fears and emotions that needed to be addressed. Mrs. Yee answered with a firm stiff lip,” No! We will take care of our own business.” We further explained to her that the incident would impact May in her later lives. Even after a few long discussions, Mrs Yee refused to accept any help for May. What can we do to help the children in a non-invasive way to the families? All I could do at that time was paying more attention to May and reassured her that her papa also loves her too.

What is the other important job of an early childhood teacher?

When I was a new teacher straight out from H.C.C. I had all the dreams of setting up my first fun, safe and nurturing learning environment. I got hired as a Head Start teacher and I was placed in a drugs infested community. I felt that all the things that I learned for the past 2 ½ years did not equip me to deal with all my children’s domestic problems. Through all the workshops and additional training that our organization provided me, I have learned to work with our community organizations. Teaching our children is important but we need to do a needs assessment for our children and their families as well.