Oops! I said Rosaura wrote our final entry on chapters 16 and 17, but had forgotten about Brittany's -- sorry! I don't know how I could have forgotten this phone: "[This is] my mom, sister, and me in Venice, Italy visiting Saint Mark's square. In the background is Saint Mark's Cathedral, and not only is this a very famous tourist location, it was very significant for us since we grew up Catholic." Beautiful picture, and I'm sure you'll enjoy Brittany's thoughts on these chapters, as well. Happy reading!
I have to admit, I've enjoyed this book more than I expected to, and it just so happened that my chapters coincided perfectly with the speaker we had in class today. Reza (our Middle Eastern guest speaker) talked with us about how women choose to cover up, and Ranya explained that as well. I find it so comforting that both our speaker today and the women in our book agree on the fact that religion is for everyone, and even though we may practice differently, at times like 9/11, we are all praying to God. I just loved the fact that Suzanne acted on her idea to teach children about different religions; what is even greater is the fact that she got to follow through with it.
As a student in our class about multicultural learning, I feel that my cultural competence has grown dramatically; can you imagine the changes that the world could make if we exposed children to different religions at a young age? How many stereotypes could be prevented and how many children could grow up without being teased? Something as small as this could change a person’s life, and as future professionals, this is something for which I feel we should strive. Hatred and judgment are far more likely to make the news than positive efforts to increase unity, and I feel that maybe that is why these changes have not been made in education. Parents see some terrorist attack on the news and that is why they don't want their children to learn about the Muslim faith. What parents do not realize is how they are hurting their children and reinforcing the idea that judgment is acceptable. We should be teaching our children about acceptance and embracing differences as opposed to the idea that differences should not be talked about.
I think the women who wrote this book have started to pave the way for a better world where adults and children learn to respect each other and value the fact that we all live differently. When Ranya was discussing the parent/teacher conference about her daughter it brought out true emotion in me, I was so happy to see that the teacher was actively involved and concerned with Leia’s drawing. The fact that Leia was allowed to make a presentation to her class about her religion made the story even better. Ranya explained how she could see the light in Leia’s eyes and she knew that her daughter was finally comfortable in her own skin. What an impact that experience made on their lives, and if that teacher had been unobservant, it may have never happened. This is the perfect example of how we can make such a difference in the lives of the children we work with, and how important it is that we pay close attention to what the kids are trying to tell us.
COMMENT: Well, obviously I'm a little biased, but I certainly agree that we'd do better by our children and our society if we required everyone to take a course that helped improve cultural competence! :) Seriously, though, one of the other points I appreciate here is that we should help children realize that talking about differences is ok. That can be so uncomfortable for so many of us, and doing so respectfully and openly is not often practiced and/or taught. We veer away from things that make us uncomfortable, so of course, we avoid that...but if we begin those discussions with young children, it becomes much more normal and comfortable. As we've talked about in class, a huge part of improving our cultural competence is realizing we'll make mistakes, and that doing so is really ok. We just have to have patience with each other.
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