Totally Random, but quite FNED worthy...

Okay, so basically my entire day was centered around our FNED class. These are all very random incidents but I felt the need to blog about them.

First was work: During free play this morning, a mother came in to drop off her son and she was sporting a pin that stated "Stop with the Happy Holidays, already. Wish me a Merry Christmas." Now, I found this interesting not only because she feels comfortable wearing that in public, where anyone with any religious belief can read it, but also because this particular woman had had a big problem with our curriculum last winter as well. She had been extremely angry that we were displaying different symbols from different religions around our center. She complained about the Menorahs that were hung up next to the Christmas trees and presents and she had been appalled about the fact that her son was talking to her about Hanukah at home. Now, are my co-teachers and I wrong for incorporating different Holidays and religions in our center? This mother is an extremely kind woman and I have the utmost respect for her, but I just thought that pin was a bit too much. It's okay to show that you do indeed celebrate Christmas, but there are right ways to do it and I don't think that was one of them.
Then, about a half hour later, my boss walked in the door with two humungous Toys 'R Us bags that were filled with new "diversified" toys - she had Tiana from "The Princess and the Frog", black and Asian baby dolls, and multiple books centered around differences. I had mentioned it to her about a month ago that that was a big thing we lacked at our center was toys that showed diversity, so I was ecstatic when she brought those in.

After work, I took a ride to Wal-Mart. We all know of those employees who stand outside and ring the bell and just wait for someone to actually pay attention and drop some loose change in their bucket, right? Well, I did a double take when I realized that this particular employee was a black woman. Honestly, before taking this class, I would not have thought twice about it because, to me, it would have just seemed like an employee was chosen at random. But now that I have learned so much, it makes me wonder if it really was random, or if it was chosen purposely.
When I came home, low and behold, my siblings were watching Shrek the Third. After all of the times I have watched any of the three Shrek movies, never have I thought about this either. Okay, so it shows a princess who isn't perfect and beautiful, good right? Not really...she's an olger. This came to mind too: what is this movie really telling people? If you're unattractive and different, the only person who's ever going to love you is someone else who is unattractive and different? Either that, or a donkey? a.k.a. a stubborn ass. Even Fiona's own parents are appalled by her and Shrek - notice her parents are quite high class, and very white.

Just a couple things I never would have thought of before taking this class. Everything I have learned this semester from this course has been enlightening and so extremely important, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. :)