Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

I admit, growing up a Caucasian American has granted me many privileges in my life that others do not have. However, I have experienced, and continue to experience -isms in my life. Growing up with a single mother, I was often ridiculed by children because I didn't have a dad. I was also made fun of because I lived with my grandparents. Kids would say that I was too poor to have my own house and made fun of my glasses and clothes. Because of this, I could never be one of the "cool kids." Now that I'm an adult and understand the way that the world works, I strive not to judge others and in turn, hope that I am not judged, as it is very hurtful. Even still, I experience -isms. One that comes to mind quickly is sexism. Being a woman in today's society is certainly much better than it has ever been before, but we are still not treated as equals. I mean, we get 77 cents to every male dollar for crying out loud! I experience sexism when going about my every day life. For example, a couple of weeks ago my cousin drove her car over to my house and said it was running funny. I checked the oil and discovered that it was almost completely out of oil. We drove the car to the closest store to buy oil, which so happened to be Target. I decided to go ahead and put the oil in the car in the Target parking lot, because I was nervous to drive it with it being so low. In the time that it takes to lift the hood and put oil in a car, I had three separate men come up to me and ask me if I needed help. While I appreciate the kindness, do I really look that incapable? Or is it simply because I'm a woman and we shouldn't know how to do things like that?

With all of that being said, it is obvious that I am affected when I experience -isms. It upsets me, outrages me. Sometimes I feel sorry for ignorant people and other times I'm just plain irritated. It is hard to experience these emotions and maintain a calm, typical demeanor. Therefore, I feel that should I experience these -isms on a daily basis and come to work with children, I feel that the children would definitely pick up on my emotions. The children might also feel upset, angry, or irritable. We all know that bad moods are contagious, and the last thing that we want to do is rub our bad mood off onto our children. Looking at this from the outside, I think that it is important that we talk about emotions with our children, as well as ways to manage our emotions. I think that by practicing these things inside of our classrooms, we will be better equip to handle these types of situations. Discussing emotions also teaches the children that we all have good and bad days, and that it is okay to feel however you are feeling, but that we just need to learn to deal with it appropriately.