This week in class we started presentations on different types of cultures. The three groups that presented this week did a great job of explaining the culture that they were assigned. I learned new things about the Polish Culture, Amish, and Aborginal that I did know before. One thing that all these cultures seemed to have in common was that they were all very family oriented.
Some things that I found intresting about the Polish culture was that Divorce is not as common as it is here in North America. Most times unhappy marriages stick toegther for the sake of their children I thought In the Polish Culture they look at Mental Health diffrently then we do. They rarely visit a psychiatrist. They rely more on their family and people that they are close with for support. I also learned that the Polish alphabet has 26 consonants along with 9 vowels.
The 2nd presentation was on the Amish Culture. Before hearing the presentation I did have some knowledge of the Amish Culture but there was also much more for me to learn. The Amish people do their funerals a bit diffrent then how we do in Canada.
They have a funeral for someone who has died and they pay there respects. Whenever there is a funeral in the Amish culture it is very common for there to be a large attendance. There is also a large amount of food that is prepared for these funerals. Our understanding of funerals in Canada is that the people that show up are either family members, friends or people that knew that person. It soundsl like the Amish people have a really tight knit community. You don't always find that in North Amercia. The Education in the Amish culture is much diffrent then ours the children are in school up until grade 8, and additional schooling is optional. Most of the learning is done through job traning.
You would not make it very far in North America if you were to finish school that soon it just wouldn't happen due to our laws and regulations. The Amish People live a life that is far more simpler than ours they don't use elcterctiy, phone, cars and many of the other things that we use on a daily basis.
I forgot to mention Rumspringa which happens at the age of 16 for Amish teenagers. This is when the young Amish youth are allowed to leave their familes and community's and experience the "English" way of life. This is where they have freedom to do whatever they want. The video we wacthed in class gave us a good visual of the challenges that youth may face if they choose to spread there wings and experience the mainstream American culture. All these youth that were interviewed in the video were enjoying their new lifestyle. They all wanted to go back home and see their familes that they grew up with. It was hard for them to decide wether or not they wanted to go back to there Amish community or live the lifestyle there were currently living. If they choose to go back they would have to get baptised again and they would not be able to go back to the mainstream culture.
As a Child and Youth Worker I will respect every client that I work with no matter what their vaules, beliefs, cultrual background, gender, sexual orientation may be. I would treat clients that fit these backgrounds the same way I would treat any other client. Working with youth that fit one of these backgrounds would have it's challengs but that's ok because I would use skills from my classes and from placement experiences to help these children. I would use empathy, listening skills, and many other counselling skills. I would also do interventions at the appropriate time to help children and youth. I learned alot from these presentations and I will learn much more in these coming weeks I am looking foward to it.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Monday, 17 October 2011
Quinte Mohawk School
Last Friday I went to the Quinte Mohawk school with classmates of mine and classmates from section A. It was a great all around experience. I arrived at the school a little bit later then most of the students because I went the wrong way. When I arrived at the school Everyone was in the gym. After meeting up in the gym Sarah discussed with all of us how the day would look. From there we broke up into two groups the one group was in the gym doing the dance with the kids, while the other group that I was in got a tour of the school. It didn't take that long to notice all the diffrent paintings, picutres, drawings etc) throughout the school. You could tell that The Arts are a big part of the Aborginal peoples Culture.
After we had the tour we came back to the gym and joined the children in the dance they were doing. I was a little hesitant on picking a partner to dance with. It was strange because I felt unsure of what to do. All the girls found a child or two that they partnered up with but the guys including myself were looking at each other with a confused kind of look. We evntually found someone to partner up with. I was with Chris we both didn't know how to dance to the music because it was a diffrent style and something we were not use to. We started to pick up on the dance when we were sitting down while the women were up. We wacthed some of the Native women and children dance to the music, Alot of the movement seemed to be footwork and a little bit of movement from the upper body.
The final dance that we did was the duck dance, That dance turned out to be something I was not expecting. I tried doing some of the moves I saw some of the studnets and women doing.Iit felt kind of funny because this was all new to me but i enjoyed it.
After that we went outside with the kids. I played soccer with about ten other CYW's against 20+ kids. It was fun even thought they outnumbered us. It was great to see everyone getting engaged with the kids some just did something simple like throwing a football, playing basketball, doing hop scotch, Skipping, but eveyone was doing something active with the kids.
When recess was over we came back into the school and we all split up into diffrent classrooms. I went in a class with John, Sarah, and Anjanette. It was a grade two classroom. We helped the kids with crafts When I found that out I became a little nervours because I am not that talented when it comes to arts and crafts. But I did my best to help the children with there bracelets. Some of the children that I was working with were telling me storied about there pets, familes and things they like to do. It was amazing to see how welceoming they were and also how talented they were with those crafts. I remember Sarah coming into the class and taking picutres but she could only take pictures of us I didn't understand why that was I thought maybe it was because they didn't want the kids to be exposed to any pictures or anything along those lines.
I wanted to stay in that class for the whole day the kids were so sweet. They all thanked us for helping them and a bunch of them came over and gave us hugs. That was a bit of a surprise to all of us but it showed that there were grateful and happy that we came in and spent some time with them.
This was a great experience and I think this should be an on going thing for future students. I was unsure of where to go for my out of my comfort zone project. I now know that I want to go to some kind of reserve or some type of aborginal setting. After expereinceing and learning the things i did that day I was motivated to learn more.
After we had the tour we came back to the gym and joined the children in the dance they were doing. I was a little hesitant on picking a partner to dance with. It was strange because I felt unsure of what to do. All the girls found a child or two that they partnered up with but the guys including myself were looking at each other with a confused kind of look. We evntually found someone to partner up with. I was with Chris we both didn't know how to dance to the music because it was a diffrent style and something we were not use to. We started to pick up on the dance when we were sitting down while the women were up. We wacthed some of the Native women and children dance to the music, Alot of the movement seemed to be footwork and a little bit of movement from the upper body.
The final dance that we did was the duck dance, That dance turned out to be something I was not expecting. I tried doing some of the moves I saw some of the studnets and women doing.Iit felt kind of funny because this was all new to me but i enjoyed it.
After that we went outside with the kids. I played soccer with about ten other CYW's against 20+ kids. It was fun even thought they outnumbered us. It was great to see everyone getting engaged with the kids some just did something simple like throwing a football, playing basketball, doing hop scotch, Skipping, but eveyone was doing something active with the kids.
When recess was over we came back into the school and we all split up into diffrent classrooms. I went in a class with John, Sarah, and Anjanette. It was a grade two classroom. We helped the kids with crafts When I found that out I became a little nervours because I am not that talented when it comes to arts and crafts. But I did my best to help the children with there bracelets. Some of the children that I was working with were telling me storied about there pets, familes and things they like to do. It was amazing to see how welceoming they were and also how talented they were with those crafts. I remember Sarah coming into the class and taking picutres but she could only take pictures of us I didn't understand why that was I thought maybe it was because they didn't want the kids to be exposed to any pictures or anything along those lines.
I wanted to stay in that class for the whole day the kids were so sweet. They all thanked us for helping them and a bunch of them came over and gave us hugs. That was a bit of a surprise to all of us but it showed that there were grateful and happy that we came in and spent some time with them.
This was a great experience and I think this should be an on going thing for future students. I was unsure of where to go for my out of my comfort zone project. I now know that I want to go to some kind of reserve or some type of aborginal setting. After expereinceing and learning the things i did that day I was motivated to learn more.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Blog #2
Today in class we talked about Racisim and Predjudice. I liked the activity that we did in class today. I was surprised by some of the results I had a hard time decding which card to choose with some of the questions that were asked. It was suprising to see such big gaps between many of the topics. Some of the decisions i made were based from a societal view, That was not the right way to choose in my opinion. Every human being should have the privilege and acess to things in our country. No matter what size they are, their beliefs, vaules, gender, colour of skin, sexual orentation, abled or disabled it should not matter! But we live in a world where you are looked down upon if you do not fit the social norms.
I enjoyed the video we wacthed today in class, it was a great excersice that the teacher did with her students. I think exercises like that one and others should be done in schoo'ls all over the world. The best time to do something like this would be while the children are still young because it will be something that will stick with them. I liked how they had the reunion with their teacher and how they were able to reflect on there grade three year. One of the couples that were there talked about their son and how he would come home and tell his parents the things he heard kids saying at school. They talked to him about racsim right away they did'nt wait until a later time they made a point right away to teach there child what they learned when they were young.
Martin Luther King has always been an inspration to me and many other people as well. That was my first time listening to his entrie speech, one of the most movtating and inpsring speeches that I have ever heard.
So this is all I have to say for now I am looking foward to our trip to the Mohawk school it should be a great experience.
I enjoyed the video we wacthed today in class, it was a great excersice that the teacher did with her students. I think exercises like that one and others should be done in schoo'ls all over the world. The best time to do something like this would be while the children are still young because it will be something that will stick with them. I liked how they had the reunion with their teacher and how they were able to reflect on there grade three year. One of the couples that were there talked about their son and how he would come home and tell his parents the things he heard kids saying at school. They talked to him about racsim right away they did'nt wait until a later time they made a point right away to teach there child what they learned when they were young.
Martin Luther King has always been an inspration to me and many other people as well. That was my first time listening to his entrie speech, one of the most movtating and inpsring speeches that I have ever heard.
So this is all I have to say for now I am looking foward to our trip to the Mohawk school it should be a great experience.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Blog #1
I enjoyed the first day of our Culture and Diversity class. We did this activty where we were given a list of words that all had to do with different culutres. There was a few words on the list that I was familar such as Ramadan, Hannakuh, and Meltiing Pot. After doing this mini actviity I realized that I did not know a whole lot about other cultures and their lifestyles. I am very intrested in learing more about other cultures, and more about my own culutre as well.
When we did the am i ready to expolre difference and commonality handout I noticed that I was making some assumptions. These assumptions were based on prior things that heard from other peers. This made me think back to our Adolescent and Pyschology class last year when we talked about stigma. This proved to me that their is much more for me to learn.
My ethnic background is a mix of Trinidadian and Turkish. Sadly I do not know very much about these two different cultures due to the fact that I was adopted at a very young age and not having much background knowledge on my bloodline family. I did do some reasearch on both these country's and learned some intresting things that I did not know about these two countries.
Trindad and Tobago is a twin island. Trindad is the main Island and Tobago is the sister island. Trindad's ethnic group consists of both East and West Indian, African, Mixed, European, and Chinese. Their relgions are Christian, Hindu, and Muslim those are the most common ones. Each Colour on Trindad's Flag has it's own meaning. Red symbolizes fire, the energy of the sun, and the courage and warmth of the people. Black symbolizes earth, strength, unity of purpose, and the wealth of the land. White symbolizes water, the sea by which the land is bound, the cradle of their heritage, and the equality of men and women.
Turkey's Capital city is Istanbul. It is the only city in the world that is built by two continents, (Asia, and Europe) Every fit Turkish male is required to serve some time in the miltary. This can be for a short or long period of time depending on the level of education they have. Turkey's religion is mainly Muslim. Over two-thrids of Turkey's population is under the age of thrity.
I am happy that I choose to create my own blog because this is something that I am not use to doing. It is important to have an understanding of other cultures and their diversity. In all honesty I think life would be boring if we just stuck by our culture and didn't go out and learn about other peoples cultures and their way of living. It is important for both young and old CYW's to be respectful of Culture and Diversity in there workplace and also in their communities. After finshing this class I will be able to connect better with people of different backgrounds and that can lead to stronger relationships that I can make with the clients that i work with.
When we did the am i ready to expolre difference and commonality handout I noticed that I was making some assumptions. These assumptions were based on prior things that heard from other peers. This made me think back to our Adolescent and Pyschology class last year when we talked about stigma. This proved to me that their is much more for me to learn.
My ethnic background is a mix of Trinidadian and Turkish. Sadly I do not know very much about these two different cultures due to the fact that I was adopted at a very young age and not having much background knowledge on my bloodline family. I did do some reasearch on both these country's and learned some intresting things that I did not know about these two countries.
Trindad and Tobago is a twin island. Trindad is the main Island and Tobago is the sister island. Trindad's ethnic group consists of both East and West Indian, African, Mixed, European, and Chinese. Their relgions are Christian, Hindu, and Muslim those are the most common ones. Each Colour on Trindad's Flag has it's own meaning. Red symbolizes fire, the energy of the sun, and the courage and warmth of the people. Black symbolizes earth, strength, unity of purpose, and the wealth of the land. White symbolizes water, the sea by which the land is bound, the cradle of their heritage, and the equality of men and women.
Turkey's Capital city is Istanbul. It is the only city in the world that is built by two continents, (Asia, and Europe) Every fit Turkish male is required to serve some time in the miltary. This can be for a short or long period of time depending on the level of education they have. Turkey's religion is mainly Muslim. Over two-thrids of Turkey's population is under the age of thrity.
I am happy that I choose to create my own blog because this is something that I am not use to doing. It is important to have an understanding of other cultures and their diversity. In all honesty I think life would be boring if we just stuck by our culture and didn't go out and learn about other peoples cultures and their way of living. It is important for both young and old CYW's to be respectful of Culture and Diversity in there workplace and also in their communities. After finshing this class I will be able to connect better with people of different backgrounds and that can lead to stronger relationships that I can make with the clients that i work with.
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