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.