The Sexulaization of Early Childhood EDUC 6358

It scares me how influential the media has taken the topic of sex into society.  Sexual relationships that you had with people use to be between you and that person, sex never left the house.  Now it is something that is broadcast throughout the media, without a bat of an eyelash.  I was having this discussion with an assistant this year, and was talking about cartoon network.  I am sure that many children fall asleep to their televisions on, while watching a cartoon show.  Here is the question though, how many parents actually turn the television off?  Are they aware that after midnight cartoon network turns into AdultSwim?  There are cartoons that are still played on the channel, but they are directed at adults.  Including their language both verbal and non-verbal, and their clothing options.  How many children are waking up in the middle of the night, and are watching this, or falling back asleep listening to what these shows are talking about.

Unfortunately I have too many examples of children I worked with, or have observed through the media that are exposed to a highly sexualized environment.

1)      I worked at a daycare in California, and I loved the parents and the environment.  Every day after the older kids got home from school we would always have a “dance party”.  This helped our older kid’s burn off some much needed energy, and our younger kids had fun hanging out with the big kids.  Needless to say they were rocking out to The Wiggles, or Barney, but it was exciting for them.  One day it got awkward.  One of our 4 year olds grabbed one of the chairs from the sensory area, and started dancing in front of it.  I asked her what she was doing, because frankly I was confused. She said “a guy is supposed to be in the chair” and proceeded to “air grind” the invisible man in the chair.  My jaw dropped!  “Children as young as four learning to gyrate to songs in ways that might have stunned grown-ups a few decades ago” (Levin & Kilbourne).  That was a first for me!

2)      A few years ago my older lived in Las Vegas.  One Thanksgiving my family headed out there to be with him, my younger brother was probably between 8-9 at the time.  We were driving down the strip to see my brother’s site that he was working on, and I remember my mom having to cover my little brothers eyes because there were Victoria Secret ads on the side of the busses.  It wasn’t displaying a nighty, it was several models with their backs turned only wearing a thong.  I do not think this type of advertisement was necessary, Victoria Secret is a common name, and I do not think that giant bums on a bus was going to increase their sales.  All it did was give my mom an anxiety attack because my lil brother couldn’t enjoy the sites, because there was a sexual ad on every corner.  Hence reminding my mom why Las Vegas is labeled as “Sin City”.

3)      Ever seen the show Toddlers and Tiaras? Well unfortunately I watched it one time, due to a friend’s recommendation.  Wow did I get a show! There was a girl on there, and for one of her outfit changes she was dressed as Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, before Richard Gere came along.  The 3 year old did not pick out the outfit, but her mother did, who saw nothing wrong with the outfit

 

4)      Levi’s unbuttoned commercials and billboards were popular when I was living in California.  I remember one of their commercials’ coming on, and thought that I was an X-rated film that got turned on the television.   I could not find the commercial that I remember seeing so long ago, but come to find out, there are a lot of their unbuttoned commercials’.  I am sharing a link to one of their jean commercials’, and I recommend, if you watch it, not around children.

 

“Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture” (Levin & Kilbourne, p. 2).  Sex is everywhere, why, because sex sells.  Children are being hit with sexual messages everywhere they go, and it is hard for parents to regulate how they are exposed to it.  You go without televisions in your house, but they can still witness it driving to school, or by friends. 

I think that this is always going to be a constant battle with parents and children.  As hard as your try to prevent certain situations, they are still exposed to things.  I think having parents be aware of what they talk about, and let their children watch on their own is very important. Children can be left to explore cable channels, and YouTube as often as they want, and it does not stop the messages from coming.  Parents and teachers need to be active in fighting the apparent sexual overload that children are being exposed to. 

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

            There are many –ism’s floating out in society.  They do not always make for the best influences or references of other people.  There are many –ism’s that affect the way that people behavior in society, whether they are being belittled for who they are, or they are doing the belittling.  Many times people cast stereotypes at people off of their own misunderstandings, or lack of guidance.

            Being judged by others is very hard on a person’s emotional and cognitive state.  The way that people perceive others can be very negative.  I have been made fun of in my life before, and it has haunted me for years.  I always wondered what I did to make people ask those questions, or to say those things. No matter how long ago those things were said, I still wonder what would have made them say those things. 

            In having someone judge you, it makes you aware of people around you, and it can make you more critical of the people around you.  I know that when these people were making fun of me, I would avoid them, and do what I could to not interact with them at all.  I can only imagine that the same thing would happen as an adult, I would avoid people that would be making those comments towards me.

            If my students ever felt that way in my care, I would understand the hard time that they would have in coming to school. It would be very important for me to find a way to discuss the issue with the class, so that child would feel more welcomed in the class. 

EDUC 6357- Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation

If childhood centers think that it is appropriate to exclude literature depicting gay or lesbian individuals they are doing themselves a disservice.  There are a growing number of same sex parents in society that are raising children that are being bullied because of their family situation.  This does not have to be strengthened by the lack of exposure that they received at a young age by their childcare facility.  A childcare facility should be open minded and welcoming diversity to other children, so that they are aware of differences around them.

If a parent came to me and told me that they did not want their child to be cared for or around an individual of a different sexual preference I would say "what they do on their own time is not my concern, but the way that they educate children is my concern.  If they are regarded as high individuals in their field, I see that there is no reason for your child not to get the best education.  Can we discuss and further develop a rational protocol about your child's educational journey?"

I think that it is important that parents do not forget that their children's education and exposure to culture is wrapped around the concept of diversity.  Diversity has a broad definition, and it is not limited to one specific thing. 

When children are young, their minds are like sponges, and they have a eagerness to soak up all that knowledge.  In wanting to be a professional educator it is important that we discuss those important aspects of diversity, so that they are aware of the difference out in the world.  In acknowledging those differences, it allows children to be comfortable in exploring their own individuality. 

Observing Communication

     The observation that I witnessed was a mom that was dropping off her child at school, and her son was upset.  She walked him to the back of the room to hang up his backpack, and walked to the front door.  Her son was clearly upset, and the teacher asked the child what was wrong, and the mom responded " he wants his poptart that is in his backpack" and proceeded to leave the room.  The teacher then walked the child to the back of the room to get the poptart out of his backpack, and told the student that he could have "one of them, and we can save the other one for after school." The student was satisfied with that answer, and walked to the table to eat his poptart.

     Through this observation there was some confusion as to why the parent would allow the child to bring a poptart from home, but not allow him to eat it on the way to school.  Instead he was brought into the classroom upset, and she knew the reason why, but did not offer it to him once he was in the room.  It took the initiative of an adult to listen to the child (Stephenson, 2009).

 

     In this observation I felt like the child was trying to communicate with his mother, but the mother was not taking the opportunity to talk to her son about what was going on.  The child wanted someone to pay attention to him, and he was being ignored until the teacher in his class asked him what was wrong.  "Teachers' words and the way they use them create meaning for children as well as for themselves" (Dangel & Durden, 2010, p. 75). 

 

     I think that it would have been better if the parent spent a couple of minutes talking to her son about why he was upset.  Him being upset about his poptart might not have been the only reason that he was upset.  There could have been things at home that had taken place, that was upsetting to him and the poptart was the middle ground for the situation. 

                                                                          References

Dangel, J. R., & Durden, T. R. (2010). The Nature of Teacher Talk during Small Group Activities. Young Children, 74-81.

Stephenson, A. (2009). Conversations with a 2-Year-Old. Young Children, 90-95.

 

 

Creating Affirming Environments

When walking into the center I think that it would be nice to have family photo collages that children have constructed with their parents next to the parent information board.  I would encourage parents to have pictures of family members that are also on their child's emergency contact sheet, so that there is less confusion when new people are introduced into the room.  For example if some one's grandma is coming to town to visit, we would be able to show all the children her picture from the photo, and explain that she is coming to our class to play with us.  So that when the grandmother comes into the room the children will have already seen her face, and it will not be as overwhelming.

Another idea that I thought would be nice would be to have children's art work framed around the room, to give it the feeling of a home.  Every month artwork can be replaced with newer material and the older ones can be sent home.  This allows every child to feel important and unique for creating something that could be put up around the room. (Keeping in mind that frames would have glass removed, and plexi-glass would be replaced so that there is not a safety hazard).

An idea that I loved from the Laureate Education video was that the owner had a shelf by the front of the room that families were allowed to bring in artifacts from their culture to display on the shelf for the month.  I think that this idea is amazing, because it allows families to decide for themselves what they determine as important instead of others suggesting ideas for them to bring.

In this same sense in reading through Chapter 4 I really liked the idea of families bringing in receptive cards, so that they are able to create traditional dishes and share them with all the children.  I have heard rumors that the program I work for in Kansas City is going to be trying this out next year, and I hope it happens!  This is a great way to introduce the books Everyone Eats Bread, Everyone Eats Bread, and etc. to demonstrate that everyone might eat similar foods, just in a different way.

Last but not least I would love to hang a world map on the wall for families to put a heart as to where their heritage is from.  I think this would lead into large group time about exploring the world around us, and introducing more traditional cultures into the room.  When some ones relative comes to visit the room, we can share the knowledge that we have with them, and they can build upon it.

There are so many more ideas that I could share about how to set up different areas, but I think that these ideas are good for foundation work.  These ideas can be built upon in so many different ways, with the children's guidance.

Adjourning

I can think back to when I was working on my Bachelors and I was working with a group of ladies, and we really made a connection.  It was not hard to leave the group, because we made time outside of school to get together to catch up with everyone.  The group was a great way that got us all introduced to each other.  It is interesting now to see all those same people on Facebook, and to see how their lives have changed since school. 

I think that the hardest group that I had to leave was my college group.  It was the ending of a past and the creation of a new beginning.  I truly miss my professors that I had.  I spent so much of my time figuring out who I was as a person, and they were there to watch it happen.  It was sad to leave the comfort of the setting, because it was one of the first places I felt like I had found myself. 

I think that these Master classes have created the same type of environment for me.  I have grown as a person, and I have communicated with a lot of individuals that share my passion for these young children.  I know that when these classes are over, I am going to be returning to some blogs to see if they keep it up, just to keep in contact.  There is so much that I have learned from listening to others stories.

I think of adjourning as the closing of a chapter.  It is not the end of the book, just the end of that section.  There is so much more that the story has to tell, and it just is not over yet.  You feel a sense of accomplishment when the one chapter is complete, but it makes you excited for the other chapters to come!

Conflict Resolution

I am very fortunate right now to not have any situations at work that result in disagreements or conflicts, well expect maybe with some of my student's as to why they have to lay down at quiet time.  That problem is easily solved with reminding them that we have quiet time, so that our bodies have a chance to grow, just like we grew our brain knowledge this morning. 

The one conflict that I had recently happened with my fiance.  We are in the process of purchasing a home, and due to his current work schedule has been unable to attend home viewings and such.  Well a couple of weeks ago my friend from back home and her aunt came to visit.  So they were able to go house hunting with me, and we found the house!! It had everything on our need list, and want list, all within our budget! It was perfect timing!  So when we got home my fiance was preparing to go back into work ( he works the night shift) we told him about the house, showed off some pictures and he was comfortable with putting in an offer.  SCORE!  So on Friday our bid went in and Monday we got the call to schedule our home inspection.  So far the home owners have accepted our bid, but the bank has to as well, because it is a short sell.  So I get extremely excited, and my fiance gets upset that he cannot be there for the inspection due to his work and sleep schedule.  He does not do well functioning as a zombie.  So while we wait for the bank to make up their mind, I have been sending color swatches and tile ideas to my grandma and to my friend that is moving in with us in May.  Well, needless to say my fiance got very upset that he was not included in the process, and it made it harder for him because he had not even been inside the house yet.

So we can to a compromise, I can only share house ideas with my grandma and friend after he has seen them.  We finally got him into the house to see it, and he is excited about what projects he can do around the house.  Today we went to Lowes and looking through flooring samples, back splash tiles and paint.  We got a lot accomplished on deciding what we want for the house, and now we just wait. 

Even though we work different shifts and we see each other for about 15 minutes a day, we have really put in a lot of effort this week.  We work hard during the weekend to create meal plans and get everything accomplished that we need to so that the week can run smoothly.  Meal plans help him, so that he knows what is available to cook for his dinner before he has to go to work, which also saves us money instead of eating out. 

Being in a relationship is not easy, it takes a lot of effort and selflessness.  I am always eager to hear other couples communication tactics and compromise solutions.  I will gladly take all the pearls of wisdom I can get!