Personal Beliefs Regarding Diversity

What are my personal beliefs and values regarding diversity? Good question. By having different influences in my life, mostly positive, it has shaped my outlook about diversity and my beliefs. These influences and beliefs can help the children in my care to begin to shape their own cultural identities. I have always thought of people as humans. I do not see or care about race, gender, ability, or differences. I guess I was brought up with the think that if you are not hurting anyone or yourself, then it’s fine by me. Yet, I am not sure where I learned that from. Maybe it was a mix of the people or experiences in my life. I am not a believer in labels. The only label I would call myself other than human is Asexual. The only reason
I am an only child with a small family. My parents were laid back and did not seem to judge people too harshly. They also did not force any religion on me, but made it clear that if I wanted to go to any type of church they would take me. My mother never showed any real bias towards any individual. She was open to know people that had a different lifestyle and culture than what I had at home. My father loved to watch documentaries about different cultures and to read about history. Yes, they talked about some groups people in a stereotypical way. Yet, they still showed me how to be open-minded about individuals. They always pressed the old saying; “Never judge a book by its cover”. My grandparents, great-grandparents, and aunt and uncle lived in a different state. I saw them at Christmas time and I would spend most of the summers with them. I grew up in the big city, but they lived in a small rural town. I guess you can say I got the best of both worlds. Still, I am a city girl at heart and love to see and experience the diversity the city gives. Both of my parents worked and I was in an in-home child care center. I remember that the children were not very diverse: white families, middle-class, did not seem very religious. Back in the 80’s, it was still very taboo to be outed as gay, so as far as I knew I did not know any. I had
By being open and understanding of everyone and the differences the children will gain an understanding that we are all different and that is a good thing. Modeling certain behaviors is a good way to teach children to be open and accepting of others. Children learn a great deal by just watching how we are modeling our behaviors. “Observing others is one of the most significant ways in which children learn. Particularly important are the lessons that the practitioner demonstrates about how to treat others” (Children’s Behavior, Unit 1, slide 16). My experiences can help me to support a child’s identity development by teaching them to be understanding of their own and other people’s cultural identities. I may not agree with my Grandparents calling African-American people “colored”, but it was how they were raised and it is part of their identity. It does not make me love them any less or think about them in a different light. I just hope it is a word that they do not use too loudly in