Sunday, August 2, 2020

Classroom "-isms"

Classism, racism, gender stereotyping and sexism, and other"-isms" can affect people.  People respond to these “-isms” how he or she think is the best way possible for his or her situation.  Sometimes it happens so naturally that it seems normal.  In the classroom, helping children deal with “-isms” can improve interaction between the children as well as teacher-student interaction. Children learn to communicate, work together on activities and play together regardless of differences.  An example of a classroom “-ism” is when one of the girls decided to not play with another girl.  The reason was because the first girl wanted the second girl to only do what she said.  The second girl wanted to play with the dramatic play dishes differently from the first girl.  As a result, the first girl tried to take the dishes and the girls were pulling the dish back and forth until the second girl fell to the floor.  When children have experiences like this they may decide to not talk to other children, play alone, and fell afraid to be in the classroom.  Things like this are opportunities to incorporate classroom conflict techniques as well as other strategies that will help children learn to interact regardless of differences.


2 comments:

  1. Hello Geneen,

    The -isms that a child experiences has a strong impact on the child. In order to have a health environment in the classroom, the teacher has to adopt a few strategies that could help the targeted and targeting children. An example would be to use persona dolls to tell stories similar to whatever form of -ism that was displayed in the classroom.

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  2. Geneen,
    Gender stereotyping is so woven into our culture that people aren't aware of it sometimes. I think of my new nephew and how even though his parents are good about letting him choose his toys and interests, many people are always trying to impose gender cliches onto him. They don't mean any harm but it doesn't allow for the personal growth and identity formation in the same way when they are automatically led towards society's ideas of boy and girl interests or toys.

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Reflecting on Learning

  As an early childhood professional, my most passionate hope is to touch the hearts and minds of the children and families whom I work with...