Working Together with Different Beliefs

This is Mya, and she DIDN'T write our latest entry -- rather, her owner did. Sovanny is Mya's proud owner, and she said, "This is my dog, Mya, watching TV. Isn't she cute?!" Yes, Sovanny, she is cute, and I think everyone will enjoy reading your entry as much as they enjoy seeing the photo of Mya!



In chapters 3 and 4, the three complete strangers who wrote the book talked about the Abrahamic family feud and the controversy of the crucifixion of Jesus. These chapters show the hardship of working together with different beliefs.

The one thing that I did agree with was displaying the truth of Jesus’ crucifixion in Suzanne’s writing. I feel that every religion has its flaws like the girls stated, but the fact is they need to realize that history is not something that someone can rewrite. However, I disagree with the fact that she wrote about the crucifixion without consulting the other girls prior to doing so. I felt that maybe Priscilla was not being overly sensitive, and that it was probably just something that she felt very strongly about. Suzanne probably did not feel that the crucifixion was a big deal because her religion emphasizes it. This was unlike Priscilla who, in this case, felt like the victim; it was just an uneasy topic to her in general, and as a team they should have verbalized what they were going to write about.

Reading these chapters made me realize that our society does focus heavily on the religious views held by the majority, in this case Christians. I do notice that most of the holidays that we celebrate are based on Christianity; for instance, Easter, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, and so forth. Growing up in our school system, I felt that they heavily emphasized holidays in a classroom setting. Honestly, when I was a child I felt forced to celebrate holidays in the classroom. Our teachers sent us letters about what was going to happen on certain holidays and what we needed to bring to class, and sometimes what we needed to wear. For instance: we had to wear green for Saint Patrick’s Day and wear a costume for Halloween. I made this connection when I was reading Priscilla’s part about her son not understanding why they couldn’t have lights and decorated trees for the holidays. I can understand how it feels to be different; children can be cruel, especially to other kids that are different. I remember other children making fun of me when I was a child because I was left-handed and it was not normal. I strongly feel that children do pick on other kids a lot, especially if they are different. And as a child there is nothing more that you want than to fit in.

The reading made me realize that all children are different. Children develop differently and each student has a different culture or a religion that needs to be respected. As a future child educator I feel that it is important to accept children and be sensitive to their culture, religion, family and ethnicity. I feel that we need to accept all religions and teach children how important it is to be different and diverse.

The reading answered this question for me: How is behavior learned? Priscilla said that she watched a documentary on the crucifixion of Jesus, and that her son entered the room and told her to turn it off, that they were not supposed to be watching stuff like that. As I was reading it, I felt that Priscilla was shocked by her son's action towards the documentary. I felt that his behavior was learned through her because prior to this group, she felt uneasy when it came to the crucifixion. She even said that saying Jesus’ name made her feel uncomfortable. I felt that she probably expressed that discomfort and that her son caught on to it.

Open Minds

This tiny "swimmer" is Sarah, the author of our final entry on chapters 1 and 2. Happy reading!


It is hard to describe the feelings I got when I started reading this book; it was unreal. Reading the first two chapters had me sucked in and opened my eyes to how people really feel about their cultural identity. Knowing the potentially sensitive nature of the material, I took a couple of moments to mentally prepare myself before opening the book. Surprisingly, nothing in the first two chapters felt offensive and there certainly wasn’t anything with which I really disagreed.

At the beginning of chapter one, Rayna and Suzanne's daughters are playing in the front yard while their parents talk. I started to really think about when I was a child and how my friends’ backgrounds did not matter; as long as they were nice, I wanted to play with them. Not until adults started putting ideas in my head about different races, did I really care. I feel like that was the same for Rayna who was raised to love all and not just the people of the Muslim community. Learning this at a young age helped her to stay open minded as an adult. “The fact that my grandfather treated Jews, Christians, and Muslims equally was admirable but not miraculous. My parents talk often of time in Palestine when people of the three faiths coexisted peacefully,” (p. 19). This same idea of celebrating all cultures needs to be addressed in our classrooms, especially if you are planning to teach in a very diverse community such as Fresno or the Bay Area where I am from. I remember Dr. Reid told us one of the reasons she moved to Fresno was because it’s very diverse. While I agree that it’s very diverse, I also believe that the Bay Area is even more diverse and is probably even more similar to Priscilla’s environment in New York. “Look what people can do here! They can do anything they want! They can be anyone they want to be. They can worship anywhere they want, whenever they want,” (p. 8). No matter where you live, even if it is some state in the middle of the United States, someday it will be populated with different cultures that you would never think of being there.

When the three women decide to meet at Rayna’s apartment they are all a little skeptical. A person’s home reveals a lot about them and it is their one special place where they can feel safe and are free of judgments from others. It takes a lot of trust to allow someone of a different faith and cultural background to come in to your home to talk about their belief system. Priscilla said, “The space felt both familiar and exotic to me at the same time” (p. 9). I feel that when people open up their homes, it can often bring outsiders to understand that they have many things in common with the other person. When people realize they have things in common they are no longer viewed as such strangers and they feel a sense of openness with one another. I feel like this concept is also true for religion. We often have this picture of what we think of someone’s religion, but it’s not until another person pulls out a scripture of common subject that they really gain respect for one another.

What we know from child development is that when a child comes into a classroom for the very first time they feel as if the classroom is this exotic place with big huge fixtures and strange creatures that kind of look like them. In order for them to feel safe in this exotic place, we as teachers need to help them feel welcome by bringing their cultural beliefs into the classroom. One good example of this is how children whose parents are from the Middle East often handfeed their children until the age of five. This handfed food is often curry-based and very different from the Americanized preschool foods. It would be appropriate in this situation to allow them to bring food from their culture into the classroom to mix in with the school lunch to help them not only transition, but to also feel more comfortable. Also, most of us who grew up in the U.S. were handfed until we were one-year-olds. After that, you better learn to feed yourself; otherwise you are going to be hungry until the next meal is served.

There is so much more that I could address about the first two chapters of this book, but it would be best to wrap it up with what I feel has inspired me and what I hope to get out of the remaining chapters. Most importantly, I hope to gain a better understanding of what it means to be open-minded about all cultures, and I hope by the end of this book I will be able to have all my questions answered about some of the things people do within their culture that I find a little rude or out of place. Understanding the way each family chooses to live will help me and the children in my classroom feel welcomed, but it will also help them improve rapidly in their years of education because they will feel a sense of belonging. Rayna ends the chapter with, “I was an American protected by law and awarded inalienable rights. Then came the attacks of 9/11, and I felt vulnerable and insecure again” (p. 24). I think that, in a way, 9/11 has changed us to have open hearts and open minds to those around us because, after all, we are human beings and we share this land that is under our feet.

More Alike than We are Different

This is Lucy, the author of our latest entry on chapters 1 and 2, enjoying the Tulare County Fair with her sister when they were young. County fairs are certainly an American tradition for many families in the United States, no matter the family's native origins. These chapters inspired Lucy to think about her own family's acculturation in the U.S., and I think you'll enjoy reading her thoughts and perspectives on this important topic.


Reading the beginning of a book is always a way for me to decide if I will enjoy the book or not. So far the first two chapters have kept my interest and left me wondering what will happen in the upcoming chapters. As each author was introduced, each of their different stories felt as if it included information I thought of when I was younger, or am considering presently.

When Ranya told the story of how her family came to escape the war, it reminded me of my parents. In Laos my parents escaped execution for helping the United States during the Vietnam War. They lived a life of running until they settled in safely in Thailand. As a child I never understood why my parents always said I took things for granted. I would feel upset and angry towards my parents for lecturing me over such things. As Ranya tells the hardships of her family history, I remember that when I was a child, I just could not understand the hardships my parents have endured. My feelings, as a child, were put first and my parents would never understand me. Now that my nieces are becoming older, I see that they too take things for granted and it makes me frustrated. I now realize that children go through a stage when things are simply about themselves and there really is not much one can do to change their minds. Though Ranya speaks nothing of how or if her children know of her grandparents’ history, I feel a connection to her when I read this section of the book.

Ranya’s children asked her if they celebrated Hanukah or Christmas, reminding me of this past Christmas. As I work in a kindergarten classroom, there were some children who did not celebrate Christmas. The other children were of course very curious and would ask many questions. I remember feeling uneasy, as I wasn’t sure of what to say that would make a child understand without making the other child feel uncomfortable. I felt the same way Ranya did. I considered whether I even wanted to bring religion into this situation as that would just inspire more questions from the curious children. It was hard to think of what to say, but it made me relate to Ranya’s worries. She did not know what to say, whether it would protect her children or not. Though the children who did not celebrate Christmas were not my children, I wanted to protect them in a way.

I agree with the three women’s decision to continue on their religious paths. During Priscilla’s story of how her religion came to be, I felt happy for her, as she has kept her Jewish and religious traditions alive throughout the years. It makes me regret not learning and knowing the complete meaning behind many of the Hmong traditions that I practice. But the women’s stories of how they learned of their religions gave me a sense of ease, knowing that diverse religions will continue to live on in the United States. It also made me feel happy to know that there are still people in the world that keep their traditions alive even in the United States where many things have become Americanized.

From Cowtown to Competence

This is Stephanie, the author of our second entry on chapter 2, helping her husband light the Unity Candle at their wedding. You'll learn a little more about her faith as you read along, so enjoy!

I was a little nervous starting this blog, because I chose the first entry and I have no other entries to grab an example of what I should write about. The first two chapters of the book, The Faith Club, have been very interesting and gave lots of back story about the three women. I could start by giving a little back story about my religious background. I was baptized Catholic, but shortly after that my mom stopped going to the Catholic Church. Both of my parents had previously been divorced and the church didn’t recognize one of their marriages, I don’t remember which one. When I was in middle school we started going to a Protestant church, which I didn’t care to go to. I was young and I valued sleeping in on a Sunday morning more than going to worship. I just recently got married and my husband is Catholic so we had ourselves a big fat Catholic wedding. People would ask me, “Do you have to become Catholic to be married in the church?” Depending on the church you don’t have to, but you do have to say that you will raise your children in the Catholic Church, so that is what I did. To prepare for getting married our church required us to have marriage prep classes where we would meet with our father, and also participate in a weekend long class where we learned about each other and about the faith. I would come back from those classes with so many questions, because I know very little about Catholic customs or about the bible. I became very interested in learning more.

I think it is important to learn about other faiths and religions because knowledge brings acceptance and decreases the ignorance of others. This book has been very valuable in its ability to educate others on the Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic faiths. Growing up in a tiny cow town never gave me the experience of interacting with people from other faiths. There was one family I can think of, and I believe they were Muslim, but I could be wrong. There were three sisters and they wore the shawls over their hair and wore long dresses, and I thought they were absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, after September 11 we were freshmen in high-school and I think things changed for them. I never saw deliberate discrimination but teenagers are not necessarily known for their kindness, and I am sure things were said among the small clicks of our tiny high school. Looking back I wish our high school would have made us read a book like The Faith Club. It could have sparked conversation and interest, and maybe as a whole or school could have become more culturally competent.

Once I am done with school, which seems like lifetimes from now, I hope to either be an ABA therapist or a marriage and family therapist. I am already starting to think about how I can incorporate being aware of others’ differences and similarities in my therapy techniques. Of course I need to learn much more before I can be effective in teaching others how to be culturally competent. I have only read the first two chapters but it has already inspired me. I know that I will definitely teach my own children how to value others’ differences and to see the similarities that we all have in common.

First Impressions

I wonder if Kylie, the author of our first blog entry, had any idea as a child here that HER Giants would be the World Champions in 2010...













...the same year she got married?!! As you can see, Kylie and her new husband enjoy being surrounded by children, and I think you'll enjoy reading her thoughts about our first chapters. Happy reading!

When someone imagines a situation full of tension and controversy, there are certain topics that come to mind. One of the biggest, controversial topics that people differ on is their view of religion. The book, The Faith Club, written by three women of different faiths, exemplifies a type of situation with which many people would feel uncomfortable.

I first thought that this book would talk about how all of the women were going to go into the discussions with each other with reservations and barriers already up due to their biases for their own religion. It was amazing to me to read the first two chapters and see how open all of the women were toward each other even though they were all very different.

Something that was interesting to me was the fact that all of the women of the faith club did not feel very grounded in their religion. Rayna Idliby was more of a modern day Muslim who believed in equality of women and men. Out of the three women, she seemed the most connected to her faith on a deep level. Suzanne Oliver, the Christian woman, had recently switched from Catholicism to Christianity. These two religions are actually not as similar as many people think they are. The fact that she recently switched religions showed me that she could not have had much depth of knowledge about her new faith. Priscilla Warner, the Jewish author of the book, did not even think of herself as a Jew when thinking of describing herself. It was kind of interesting to me that all of the women did not seem as “die hard” in their faith compared to what I thought they would be. Due to them not really being deep in their faiths, I did not fully agree that they had the full ability necessary to represent their religion.

When September 11th happened, I remember feeling scared for my future and not being sure how to act around people of Middle Eastern ethnicity. I remember my Dad trying to tell me that not all Muslim people were as extreme as the people who made the attacks on America, but it was difficult to fully accept that fact. I was never prejudiced against people of Middle Eastern descent, but I remember feeling like I had to be more cautious due to what happened and that their belief system was not like mine.

After reading this book, it showed me the perspective of what people of Middle Eastern descent went through and still continue to go through. Something that really hit home for me was when Rayna opened up about her family’s story. Her family’s privileged life was basically taken from them due to the wars in Palestine. Her story showed that not all Middle Eastern people were extremists, but that there were some families who were victims of the situation and felt like permanent outsiders.

Rayna’s situation made me think of how all children, at times, have the sense of feeling like an outsider. It is essential for service providers, who are caring for children, to realize that all children need to be equipped with the knowledge that despite the fact that everyone has differences, we all share similarities, too. Being able to show children that at an early age could possibly help lessen the prevalence of prejudice and discrimination.

The Adventure Begins...

Welcome to our blog! It's Spring 2011, and we are students at California State University, Fresno (Go, Dawgs!), enrolled in CFS 134: Multicultural Perspectives on Children and Families. Most of us are Child Development majors, and we're all juniors or seniors. Our professor is Kathie Reid (you can call her Dr., but she prefers Kathie), and so far, we think she's pretty cool. Yes, she's writing this entry....from here on out, though, we (students!) will be writing the entries. We will be sharing our thoughts and reactions to a book we're all reading together -- "The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, and a Jew -- Three Women Search for Understanding."

Because all of us intend to work with children and families, one of the big goals of this course is to help us become more culturally competent. This involves not only being sensitive to an array of cultural differences and similarities, but responding to them in effective ways. Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, and Priscilla Warner wrote this book about their journey to better understand themselves and each other through their friendship. The story of their journey provides wonderful examples of the challenges and rewards in seeking cultural competence, and Kathie says we'll love it. We're going to hold her to that.

You probably noticed the creative name of our blog...we had a "blog naming contest" (for extra credit, and we REALLY like that!). There were a bunch of great entries, and Kathie had such a hard time narrowing them down, that she ended up combining two entries for our title. And the winners? Stephanie and Misti!

One of the many cool things Kathie has us do is work in small groups in class. We've named our groups, and thought we'd introduce ourselves to you with our group pictures...yes, Kathie made us do this.


The Eights are Gr8!
Paj, Brittaney, Mandy, Sarah










Cameleon
Kylie, Eriko, Jacqueline, Laura, Rosaura








7th Heaven
PK, Olga, Gloria, Sara, Jena, Evelyn










The Fab Five
Caleigh, Anastacia, Lucy, Erika, Autumn








The Fab 5 being silly...












Black and Purple
Toua, Vanessa R, Jennifer, Emily, Juan










The Despicable Minions
Jamie, Brittany, Sovanny, Misti, Kit










Diamond Girls
Ritchiel, Raynita, Vanessa C, Stephanie










The Incredibles
Regina, Ashleigh, Nicole, Kabao, Amanda







So that's us! We're looking forward to a great semester, and to reading and sharing our thoughts on this book...we hope you join us!