Where is my recess?

Where is my recess? After reading about the condition in the parents 4 year old class, I was taken back a bit. Most of the preschool, in the local area, focus on play and social building. There is a preschool in Hilo that I know has the same type of goals the preschool this child went to. I had an employee tell me how other preschool were not preparing children for Kindergarten and how the children would not be "Kindergarten ready." Ah, Why do you have to know everything to start Kindergarten? Wasn't Kindergarten the place for starting and building? I do notice in Hilo children are getting shorter and shorter out doors time? I know a big reason is the rain.  I have been at places who give their children an hour fifteen outside and others give their children twenty minutes. At least their children are getting outside, right? I believe if these children were allowed to play longer outside they would have less behavior issues in the classroom. But really, Where is the recess going?

Why can't boys play with dolls?

As I read through the chapters, I thought back to my trips to "Toys' R' Us, KB toys and Wal-mart." The Hilo Wal-mart's girl section is a pepto bismol pink color and with dolls and tiny puppies. The boys section is full of guns, trucks, manly man toys. Though I realized and noticed the sexism in the aisles, I did not look into the detail as the author did. In preschool, I have seen some of the same segregation of genders as in the Toy Stores.  I currently have a child who enjoys role playing the opposite sex and doing "girly" things. He is a middle child of three boys, his mother is raising them on her own, and he father has a TRO and won't be around anytime soon. He is often found in the dress up area, create head bands for himself and other children, he likes to play the dad and mom during dramatic play. When the mom comes to pick him up and see these behaviors, she scolds him very quickly. You can see his soul crush and his happiness goes. What is so wrong with boys playing with dolls? For my own child, one of her favorite toys is a football. It worries her father. She is 15 months. I am not worried. Sex is set by anatomy and gender is set by society. As a preschool teacher, are we suppose to teach society rules or let the children find their own rules for what they would like to be in society. Our job is guide, right? Should we just focus on general behavior and let society teach the rules? 

What if white was black and black was white?

What does a color mean? What if apples were oranges and oranges were apples? What if white was black and black was white? What if Africans discovered the world and drew Africa in the Northern Hemisphere instead of the Southern Hemisphere. As growing up in the South, I understand the tension of race and how it can effect a classroom. Even as a child, it affected me. I was sent to the principles office in kindergarten for calling a classmate "black" and not wanting to play with her because she was "black." I DID NOT do this.  As a child, I had a complex about black people being called black when they were actually brown.  It turned out she was jealous I was playing with another child that day and made up this lie. At six years old, she knew the power of that sentence and the power behind being different. Since moving to Hawaii, I have not experienced anything like that. I understand because of my skin color, I am on the bottom the ladder of "superiority". I do not mind that.  I loved in the section it talked about why people think race and difference should not be brought up. I loved the explanation of bringing attention to difference and appreciating it. Not just talk about how each child is different but build a respect for each child's difference. I feel the tension will only be resolved through time and generations after generations building respect for other cultures and races.   

Week One blog.

We must learn to be vulnerable enough to allow our world to turn upside down in order to allow the realities of others to edge themselves into our consciousness.




This statement rings very true with me. I grew up in North Carolina where the world can be a little different. Sometimes I think I grew up on a different plant. Once moving to Hawaii, I was able to see a whole new world. I hated it. Life was not as I had known it to be. It was different.  People in Hawaii could openly talked to different races without a sense of tension. People could make jokes about other races without thinking twice about it. People are just people here. They are not only described as black, white, mexican, or asian. They are people with personalities, interesting names, cultures each their own, and minds. Once I realized the whole world did not describe people by the color of the skin, my world was turned up side down.  A person could be so much more than the skin color and the stereotype that goes with it. I did not have an easy transition into this thinking. My first two years here in Hawaii were VERY difficult. I am glad that I was able to see past my own nose and experience a different side to life. I am grateful Hawaii has given me that opportunity. I would change it for anything. 

Starter Blog: Hello. I do not really blog so this is a first for me. I did tumblr for a while but never got into it. Well, Welcome!