Ms. Jane Elliott in the 1960's

In class this week we talked about being born with privileges. A privilege is something is an advantage or an entitlement for a specific person or group. We talked about the ongoing issue of racism in today's society. Although racism is not nearly as brutal as it was in earlier generations, it is still a problem that society is working on erasing. 

We began our reflection on privileges by watching Ms. Jane Elliott's classroom experiment from the 1960's. The link can be found below :
  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeK759FF84s

This video had a powerful impact on me because I had never seen young children talk hatefully about someone of another ethnicity. Jane's exercise had an impact on her students because at the end of the two days they understood what their words and hateful actions were doing to the people who were minorities. I think that this video is a good example of nature vs. nurture because the children in the video were raised by their parents to discriminate against people who were minorities. After learning what a privilege it was to be born into a Caucasian family in the 1960's the children realized that it was not appropriate to discriminate someone for being different. Their human nature came through when they completed the exercise because they were ready to treat everyone as an equal. 

I found the exercise in this video so interesting that I went home and showed it to my boyfriend, Luke who was also impressed by it. We discussed the impact that the teacher had on those children and we were also able to identify teachers in our life who had a big impact on our lives.  

We also found videos of Jane Elliott working with adults which were equally as interesting and impactful. It was surprising to see adults' reaction to racism when confronted by Jane.

I really enjoyed this video and it is something that I will always keep in mind while I am working in the field as a Child and Youth Worker. 

Single Story

This week in class my professor showed us a video from the TV show TED talks. The video is called "The Danger of a Single Story". The speaker in the video is a writer from Africa who grew up reading American literature. 

The speaker talks about her experience moving to America and how it was different than her expectations based on the novels that she was reading. She also compares an American's expectation of her country of origin. She told a story of a student who told her that it was a shame that "all men from Africa are abusive".

When I heard this story, my eyes were immediately opened. For someone to assume that a culture does not go past what they have already heard it really shocks me. The author was also shocked by this person's misunderstanding of the country that she was born in. 

It is dangerous when people only see their own culture, which is called the "single story". A "single story" means that you are only informed about your own culture and assume other things about new cultures. An example of this is saying that every person in Africa lives in poverty.

The speaker in the video talked about her own experience with a single story when she was living in Africa. She remembers meeting her cleaning boy's family and assumed that they were poor, and that is how she labelled them. She was surprised to see that the family was very artistic and had different talents. She had forgotten to look past the label and see the family for their strengths. As a Child and Youth Worker, looking past people's labels and focusing on strengths and resilience is part of every day practice.

  I am very excited for this week because I am interviewing someone from another cultural background for an assignment. I am looking forward to learning about their story, and I will keep this video in mind as I ask questions!

As a Child and Youth Worker, I will be working with families from many different cultural backgrounds. This course is introducing me to many different cultures, and although I will not be an expert in every culture, I am taking small steps towards learning about other people's stories!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg

Understanding Cultural Differences as a CYW

 My professor started this week's class by handing out a case study and we were divided into groups to decide what we would do as Child and Youth Workers. The case study was about a child who was showing up to school with unexplained bruises. The case worker in the scenario went to the family's home and began to ask questions about the bruises. The mother pointed to bamboo and a bag with rocks, and said something in her own language which the case worker did not understand. 

My first reaction to this scenario without doing any research was to inform the parents of the children's rights in Canada. After researching the meaning of the bamboo and rocks, our class learned that they were used for a healing ceremony performed in their culture. 

It is a hard position as a case worker, because the child's well being comes first and although the family is not trying to harm their child, it is important to make sure that the child is safe at home. A possible solution that my class came up with to solve this dilemma was to see if there were any services in the community that would preform these healing ceremonies in a less harmful way that would not leave bruises or be painful.

We also watched a scene from Grey's Anatomy where a youth was sick and needed surgery and her parents wanted to take her home despite her urgent need for medical care. Her culture involved respecting elders, and her father wanted to have a healing ritual done before her surgery. The hospital realized why the family wanted to take their daughter home, and the doctor made a proposition to the father. The doctor had someone fly to the hospital to perform the healing ritual and they were able to proceed with surgery when it was finished. 

As a Child and Youth Worker, I learned from the doctor's actions that it is important to understand and respect people's culture when asking to help someone.When the doctor catered to the family's cultural needs, he was able to gain their trust and perform the surgery with the family's permission. In the field it is important to go the extra mile and be open to other cultures so that we can connect with our clients and help them to the best of our ability. 

I am looking forward to our next class to continue expanding my cultural awareness!