Entry 4

I had two amazing experiences this past week which are different, yet connect with each other and with this course.
The first experience came as an invitation from Sesame Street to be an advisor to their writers, researchers, and producers for their upcoming season. So, I flew up to New York and spent the day with the Sesame Street professionals and three other advisors to help them understand child development, cultural diversity, and to facilitate an understanding of the world of a 3-year old living in poverty as well as children from high socio-economic backgrounds. I learned so much from the (NYU Professor) who spoke of the Latino culture and how parents view education and teachers. She explained that Latino parents do NOT want to be their "child's first teacher," they want to be the parent and the teachers should be the teachers. She also talked about the amount of verbal (English) language on children's television which overwhelms children who are bi-lingual learners. Finally, she emphasized the value of family, including the extended family, within this culture. With the Latino population being the fastest growing population in the U.S., it is imperative that we start to truly look at the learning needs of this culture--not as one group, but within the Latino community (from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, etc.).

My second experience was on Saturday at the Parramore Kidz Zone Baby Institute.  I have talked about my involvement with this program before, including that its primary population is African American. Yesterday we celebrated Black History Month.  Its design was to increase cultural pride in the families we serve.  At this event, in addition to the families who are current participants in the Baby Institute, were members of a Black Sorority who read books to the children and parents, children from a charter school in the Parramore community who were drummers, and models from the community who led programs related to African American History, going back thousands of years (beyond Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, etc.). All of the parents wore African attire and many danced traditional African dances while the drummers played. I most appreciated that their children--from birth-7 years old--watched as their parents participated, therefore reinforcing their identity.

Both of these experiences reinforced to me the importance of recognizing and respecting differences in our diverse world, as well as how crucial it is to instill pride (not shame) in our diverse cultures.