February 15, 2023 – Here is a super cute picture of me and my twin brother. It’s funny to look at this photo. I feel that I have some recollection of this image, that is, the other school photos taken and photos were taken of me alone, when it should have been my older sister. My brother and I were in Kindergarten in this photo, making my sister 9-years old or in Grade 4. Anyway, what I do remember is my mom getting very upset about the mistake and I was just following the rules.

I guess I will take a moment and reflect on this week’s readings from EDUC 633. Everyone is reading different resources, within a scope. I have opted to read the Open Online resource on Human Development while others stayed with the textbook originally chosen by the crew a the beginning of the course or choosing to do directed readings. Admittedly, this creates a very diverse approach to the course. Not all of us are reading the same thing at the same time nor am I lecturing to the class about understanding one way of set of knowledge. It’s a self-study.

What I really enjoy about teaching in higher education is designing courses where the student can choose their end game and how much they want to extend their learning (within reason). I am learning how to be more kind and compassionate to myself and others. It also aligns to my self-study inquiry about becoming “more human” in my classes and looking through the lens of human development. This weeks readings was affirming to my hypothesis of course design that not all chapters will relate or make connections to your inquiry question and self study.

This week, I read the “Early Childhood” chapter and what interested me was the idea of language development and cognitive development. I watched or read something last week week about language being acquired in the womb. That the fetus is listening to sounds and become more acquainted with the rhythm of the language that the mom speaks and the newborn would be more responsive to those sounds. I wonder if this is why my brother and I speak and only understand English and my sister (who was born in Hong Kong) understands Cantonese.

The Early Childhood chapter introduced Piaget and Vygotsky and how at this age, children are learning about initiative versus guilt, self-regulating behaviours, and executive functioning. I think about how compliance is formed and the scaffolded steps to internalized behaviours and standards. Looking back at the image above, I was definitely compliant and following the rules (of the adult) and I was definitely distressed by the response back from the parent who was disappointed and angry. My parent’s response had an impact on me to internalize what was good or bad.

I appreciated the comments in the chapter about parenting and in some cultures focus on the importance of the collective versus autonomy and individualism. I found this helpful as well as Vygotsky’s Zones of Proximal Development and the idea that we are developing from what we learn and can attain versus Piaget’s thoughts of developing first before we learn. This age range of 4-7 has dramatic growth in terms of language acquisition and morality, but cognitive development remains early with limitations like egocentrism, false beliefs, and literal meanings.

I am catching up with my blog reflections so here I go to speak to the original entry which was last week’s reading on FAMILIES. It was interesting to me to have a bias about this resource, specifically with Chapter 4, but as it turns out, it is the chapter that I believe has a huge impact on my self-study question with respect to why I may have chose it. The chapter begins with parenting and I wrestle between the terms of “authoritative” and “authoritarian.” I feel like I experienced the latter in my childhood. My parents were immigrants who worked very hard to make a living and provide us with the best “future trajectory” as second-generation Canadians.

This section of the chapter also acknowledges the role of culture and parenting styles. Sometimes I think my parents were caught between two paradigms of the Western culture, assimilation, and individualism compared to the strict Chinese culture and collectivism. Sibling relationships has had an impact on who I am in terms of being the unexpected twin child. My sister was the first child and my twin brother was the first boy. I love my siblings dearly and they take care of me as adults in adulthood, but I spent many years living in their shadow and complying to what I perceived was expected of me as the third child. I was definitely #3.

“Higher Order Contexts of Parenting” was a transformative section of the reading for me. The text returns to Brofenbrenner’s macrosystems and the concept of status hierarchies and race, and how macrosystems influence the microsystem. Whew. That was a mouthful. I shared in my class that I hated going food shopping with my mom as a child because she always bought “X” bread (i.e., day old bread). My parents were visible minorities, pressured to assimilate, and we were living in poverty. I remember my mom’s ongoing stress about money and the worry about the pulp mill shutting down (i.e., where my dad worked). Racism was alive and well and much of my life (and suspect my parents’ lives) were about “fitting in.”

My mom worked two full-time jobs (I believe when I was really young). I hear stories about her working a full shift at the cannery (I remember the fishy smell) and then working at the pulp mill cafeteria for a full shift. She didn’t sleep. As she is working, who is taking care of us? My dad worked at the pulp mill (underemployed as a lab technician… he was a gas engineer in Hong Kong) and had a side hustle of being self-employed. All I remember that he did was dry fish. LOL. But I believe that it was related to chemistry and gas engineering. TBH. I’m not really sure.

The idea of class and race plays an integral role in the lives of immigrant families and second-generation Canadian children. I can see that my parents, primarily my mom was parenting under stress. She always put a strong face on, but dang… she wanted to control the situation. She was also self-employed, catered banquets, and led a life trying to achieve the Canadian dream. She kept all of the stories of her culture and her past to herself. The only connection I have to my culture as a Cantonese person is through food. Other concepts like “implicit bias” and I will mention systemic racism and microagressions had/have a huge impact on me.

Cognitively I know that these ideas are socially constructed and much of my existence was focussed through a deficit lens. I am aligned to the author’s calls to action to reinvent the higher-order contexts, minimize disparity and reduce income inequity, and ensure that all families have access to basic conditions. This three acts are an investment in the future and how babies enter into the world and contribute to society. My parents were never divorced, but wonder what impact my divorce has on my kid. That said, I have never been more happy and free. My final comment is the author’s about understanding reliance in all this advsersity.