A Few Last Words ...

This will be my sixth and final blog of the semester. I would like to take this time to thank each and every one of my one million followers, and tell you all that I have appreciated your support over the semester, and am grateful for the 86 367 989 million comments that I have received. Along with my blogging though, I have had a great deal of learning experiences throughout the semester that may not have been included in these weekly blogs of mine. Our class was introduced to a children’s book by our professor at the beginning of our course and we had the opportunity to hear readings from the book weekly. The book was entitled “If the World Were a Village” by David Smith, and I felt that this was a very powerful addition to our course. The book was written by a teacher as a way of showing young people how issues like education, poverty, mortality and food are in different parts of the world, and the research that went into making this book is very impressive. We also had a variety of guest speakers throughout the semester, and each of them helped to aid in our education. We had a guest speaker from the DSW department (Colleen) who shared information about working with children and youth with developmental issues, as well as Andy Legget (BARTS) on working with children and youth from the First Nations. Along with these presenters, we recently heard from Eric and Kim on working with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and true spirited youth, and I felt that this presentation was very powerful, and included great videos to reinforce their lectures. 

As you all are well aware, I have been completing these weekly blogs as a way of reflecting on my learning. Before this course, I had never blogged before. This experience with blogging was a first for me, but after I had the chance to practice using it and was given specific instructions for setting up a blog from our professor (Sarah Hopper), I feel that I got more and more comfortable using this as a way of reflecting on and sharing my learning. We have had so many opportunities to learn more about other cultures and issues with diversity in this course, and I feel like this Culture and Diversity class was the most informative and interesting course of the semester.

My first blog was completed after the presentation by Andy Leggett, who is the co-founder of Broken Arrow Residential Treatment Services (BARTS). I thoroughly enjoyed Andy’s presentation, and found it very inspirational. Having worked at Bayfield for nearly a year just after starting the Child and Youth Worker program here at Loyalist College, I had a variety of experiences working with children and youth from the First Nations. After hearing how traumatic some of these children had it growing up in isolation up North, I gained a new outlook on how important our work with them is.

My second blog was completed after I had unfortunately missed our class trip to Quinte Mohawk School because my employer needed me to come into work to deal with crisis at the last minute. Having missed this opportunity, I did a little bit of individual research so that I could gain a better understanding of the Mohawk community, as their reservation is in Tyendinaga and yet I knew little about their culture. I felt like this blog really helped me to reinforce the learning that I had already gained by doing my first blog, and made me feel a bit better about missing the presentation. One of the most interesting things I discovered while researching was that the word Tyendinaga comes from the Mohawk leader’s (Joseph Brant’s) traditional Mohawk name, “Thayendanega,” which means “two pieces of fire wood beside each other.” This is a great thing to know as a way of breaking the ice if ever being faced with working with a child or youth from Tyendinaga.

My next and final three blogs of the semester were in response to the cultural presentations that our class presented. In starting this program, I had experienced a few other cultures based solely on short vacations or on a brief over-seas placement. I am a Caucasian Canadian who was born and raised in Canada, which limited my knowledge of how culturally diverse the world really is. In presenting my own cultural presentation and listening to that of others, I had the opportunity to learn about what we needed to know as Child and Youth Worker working with people from other cultures. My group presented on Amish Canadians, and I feel that this was a very valuable learning experience (in more than one way), and also provided me with the opportunity to research a culture that I was very unfamiliar with. In listening to the other presentations from classmates, I also learned a lot about what we need to know when working with children and youth from Mediterranean cultures, South Asian cultures, new Canadians, African Canadians, Biracial Canadians, Hispanic Canadians, Muslim Canadians, and about Canadian Aboriginal Communities.  

    

In reflecting on my overall experience in this course, I feel that I have gained a lot of useful knowledge that can be accredited to my efforts on assignments, participation and attendance. During my first two years in the Child and Youth Worker program, I had a number of issues that affected my attendance. Whether it was taking too many hours at work, my head surgery or lack of motivation, I missed a number of classes and feel that I missed out on a lot of learning as a result. This has not been the case for me this semester, and I strongly advice future students to the program to adhere to my advice and attend class faithfully. I only missed one Culture and Diversity class this semester (which happened to be the field trip mentioned above), and as a result of this near perfect attendance, I feel like I got everything out of this program that I possibly could have. Thank you Sarah for the great semester!