Final Blog

Wow, This course is almost over.  I never thought I'd be saying this, but I learned a lot in this class.  I learned the different views that people in my class have about different things, as well as so much about how different cultures view their beliefs.  I mean if you want to get into specifics, before this class, I always thought people of the Muslim faith thought very low of women, but after talking to someone of that faith, I learned that they aren't classing women and men, but infact respecting both sexes. This class taught me a lot about different things about cultures.  I did not know at all the different factors that make up a culture.  It's not just religion, or ancestory, but in fact can be the place you live, the place you grew up, the people your grew up around, the amount of people you grew up around, the animals you were around and the traditions families have celebrated, among many other factors that could lead to a culture.  So many different factors caught me off guard and definitely made me appreicate a little more about how people act and how they react to different situations.

At the beginning of this course, I wasn't sure how this class was going to pan out.  I was actually afraid of having an opinion in the class due to the expected content to cover.  But while in this class, I didn't need an opinion.  As we were going through this class I realized that I was just ignorant to the different cultures.  I didn't need an opinion, because my opinion wasn't relevant to any of the information we were talking about.  We would talk about what we as Child and Youth Workers can do to help people of different cultures, and information we should know to better understand the cultures.  Theres no need for any opinions in that, all it is, is to retain all the information said so that we can better ourselves with our knowledge which will help us build on our skills and experience. It is very important and relevant to go into this class with an open mind.  Even with a closed mind, mine opened pretty fast.


My favourite part of this class was when we did the blogs.  The blogs allowed us to reflect on the learning we did in class, as well as the lack of learning we did as well.  I liked this because it is easier to have a reflection each week rather than having a reflection once in a while depending on the class.  Everyone retains different information at different times and the blog gives so much option to choose the better times one has learned.  It's hard talking about something you didn't connect with, so this give some openness.  If one misses a class because one was sick, then this assingment gives a chance to do a reflection on another day.  I just feel this assignment is worth the extra effort, especially if someone needs to debrief of a class.

I think as a whole, the Culture and Diversity class is a very important part of the Child and Youth Worker Program because as new CYW's we will need some important information about different cultures so that when we come across someone who practices traditions from a different culture we would know and understand how to go about it helping the child enjoy, appreciate and inform others of different traditions.  It is important to understand and appreciate the difference in people but also enjoy the similarities people have in each other.  We have to get to know and understand the different children and youth we work with, this class gives an opening to learn more about many different cultures around the world.  I definitely loved the importance of this class.