This semester has had so many things going on: doctoral class, teaching classes, running the center, making plans for a larger center, getting ready for our biannual early childhood conference, son engaged, son not engaged (Well, that one was good for both.), and so many other things that are just life. We can either keep working for our goals or wallow in self pity. I choose to keep working for my goals.
It’s the summer, useless the slow time around our center, but with the building plans and meetings, I am going to be very busy, so I am taking the next semester off and coming back in October. I’m have not stopped working for my goals, I’m just pausing one for a few months.
Well enough about life in general, our assignment is to explain what course material I enjoyed the most. That would most definitely be the book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. The author allowed us to see both sides of the story, we could understand the struggles of both the Lee family and the doctors (Fadiman, 2012). A told a coworker about the book when I started reading it, she thought it sounded so good, she read it, too. We had a book study group together, it really helps to get to talk to someone else about what you’ve read.
What will I use from this course in my early childhood career? I think the best think I have learned from this course is the importance of non bias education (and, exactly what that is) and the resilience of children. We have read several books on children that have had to overcome some huge obstacles. Their determination to success is overwhelming. The resilience of the Lee family over all of the events in their life that keep pushing them down, they never lost their love and sense of family. Lia’s siblings, even though, they experienced a lot of trauma in their life still became successful adults (Fadiman, 2012). Lia had epilepsy from a very young age, when she was four years old, she experienced a seizure that resulted with her living in a vegetative state. She died at the age of 30, yes, 30!!! Most individuals that go into a vegetative state only live about 3 or 4 years, staying alive that long shows the resilience and dedication the Lee family had for Lia (Fox, 2012). She was very loved.
Ok, so I talked about what I liked about the resilience of the family, but how will I use that in my early childhood career? When the author introduced us to both sides of the story, she allowed us to really understand the whole picture. And, during the course of the reading, you could see each side starting to understand the other to some existent , the Lee family still had a cultural and linguistic barrier. I will use the story to help me remember to think about both sides of the story. To be understanding and try to look at how my families are seeing things. I tell all of the families that come to our center that they are entering into a family, this school is a family, we care for each other, and we work together for the betterment of their children (or, as I say, MY children now). I take my job very seriously, but I want to be the advocate for my families and my children.
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