We have had many opportunities throughout this course and the previous course to discuss how our bias can skew our own perceptions and can either hurt or help us in the work that we do with young children and families. I think that as I experience the effects of various "isms" that I carry those same experiences with me as well as the feelings that surround them in the classroom. Before I came to work in a preschool setting, I worked with children who had special needs and I think that I have strong feelings about separating this population or excluding them because they are different when we're all different. In my current program, I am working with a child who has some speech delays and some other needs and when he first came into our program, the other teachers had the desire to immediately try to remove him from our program and I expressed that I had some really strong feelings about this because this to me was an example of ableism and I was not okay with expressing a desire to exclude any child because of the challenges that he presents to all of us in reinforcing us to take the time to examine ourselves and get more creative with the way that we work.
I think that in this case, the (anti)ableism I was experiencing allowed me to act as an advocate for this child and to challenge the other teachers to look for opportunities to develop their skills in supporting him with what he needs. I think that in many ways this experience allows me and encourages me to step up in supporting children who are differently abled in our schools and to acknowledge the feelings of others that yes this is something that is different for you but it can also be an opportunity for us to challenge ourselves better educators not just for children who are "typically" developing children but for all children.
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