Section 3

A person’s identity can define who they are, where they come from, and where they’re going. Identity “refers to the stable inner sense of who a person is, which is formed by the successful integration of various experiences of the self into a coherent self-image.” Ethnic identity is when a person’s ethnic background affects their identity.

Children learn about their identity at a young age. Their actions are based on what they are shown in their schools, families, and neighborhoods. Because children are still developing, they can be influenced by everything around them. When a child goes through a rough situation or has a violent home life, and it is because of their ethnicity, they may tend to shun the only thing they’ve ever known. Some may even come to a point of complete negative identification, and may even go as far as to change their name, appearance, living situation, habits, etc.

Because someone’s identity can be determined at such young ages, teachers need to be prepared to care for their students needs, whether it be finding them a counselor or mentor to talk to, or making other students, of different ethnic backgrounds, aware of their peers situations. Many students can just simply be unaware of what is going on around them, and by showing them new scenarios, it will help their basic life skills in the long run.

America has been known as the “melting pot” because we are a mixture of different ethnic backgrounds. This is because we would assimilate into one culture from many different backgrounds. However, People of Color have tended to stay on the outside of the “white” melting pot because they were constantly being shoved away in some form or another. We need to start working on having our students, of all backgrounds, working together for a better environment in the long run. If we start on our students early, we may be able to prevent some crimes, due to race, from occurring.

Cultural Competence 2

The first chapter of this reading focused mainly on racism among whites, and the privilege they have only because they are white. After reading this chapter, I agree that many white people do feel that they are better than others of color, and I also know that many white people are aware of it as well. This chapter did make me realize that there are a few things, that I do personally, that could be seen as racist, but I don’t believe I’m racist. Such as, if I were by myself at night, I know I would try to avoid bad neighborhoods. If I were to see a black man walking around down the street, I would definitely walk the other way or down the other side of the street for my protection. I also realize that I perceive people of a different color in certain ways, and associate them in different ways, but even though this can be seen as slight racism, because I am stereotyping them, it is not the same as full blown racism and hatred toward people of color.
Also, a few things I would use in my own classroom might be activities related to my student’s different skins colors. I might try to work on self portraits at the beginning of the year, and as a class figure out what our skin colors were for every peer. I also want to make sure that my classroom has multi-hued band-aids in order to make sure none of my students feel uncomfortable when needing a band-aid.
The next chapter talked a lot about culture, and being aware of others cultures. Whites often feel that they don’t have a culture because they don’t know much about themselves, their families, or where they come from. It is actually the exact opposite for those of color because their families are very close knit. Whites tend to not care so much about what they “are” or where they came from because our culture is seen everywhere and tends to become invisible. The culture iceberg was also a part of this chapter, and it shows us that if one is placed in an unfamiliar culture, we tend to miss cues such as eye contact, emotions, friendships, and courtesy. The only things one can directly see are food, dress, literature, language, and music.

Cultural Competence

Teachers now a days need to be aware of the different cultures in their classrooms. For me, something that I'm going to use in my class is the five skills: awareness and acceptance of differences, self-awareness, dynamics of differences, knowledge of the student's culture, and adaptations to skills. Not only do teachers need to be teaching their students about their culture, but the whole atmoshpere of the school needs to be open to cross-cultural teaching. Also, if you start working on teaching one skill, the others will follow.