"My Connections to Play"

 

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.”

    Joseph Chilton Pearce

I can relate to this quote personally. I remember being this shy kid in front of my family and teachers. When I was outside playing with my friends, I was a totally different person. I would run wild all day just screaming and having fun. I did not have a care in the world. Playing with my friends helped me explore and identify who I truly was.

“A person's maturity consists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child, at play”

Friedrich Nietzsche

When I was growing up my family would always tell my parents that I was too mature for my age. When they would come over my friends and I would be dressed up in my mom clothes and heels. We loved to play dress-up. I always played the role of the mother as we played because I was very bossy and liked to give orders.

 

 

As a child my mother always encouraged me to go outside and play. She never wanted me or my sisters to stay in the house. She would always tell us to go outside and get from under grown folks as her friends were always at our house. After we got tired of playing outside, we would go inside and play dress-up. My mom clothes and shoes were all over the place as we looked for outfits. Playing dress-up with my friends bring back so many memories. We felt so free. It’s funny that I was always chosen to be the mother. My friends called me bossy. Even in my adulthood many of them still think that I like to take lead to and be in control.

The children in today’s society do not engage in the type of play that I engaged in when I was a child. As a child I enjoyed playing dress-up with my sisters and friends. I would be skeptical about letting my children play dress-up in this day and time because they may get the wrong message. They may feel that it is ok to dress a certain way not knowing that it is a time a place for everything. My mom always told me that how you dress and carry yourself represent who you are. That stuck with me in my adulthood and I take pride in my appearance.

I also enjoyed hanging outside with my friends. We would jump rope and play hop-scotch. There is not much outside play with children in today’s society. They are more consumed with staying inside playing video and computer games I hope that the children in today’s society do not lose sight on life because they do not engage in activities that help them explore themselves.

Play allows self discovery. Through play one can learn who they really are. The type of play that I engaged in as a child allowed me to grow as an individual. I am a very out spoken person. I am not afraid to lead. Playing the role of the mother with my friends contributed to my take charge capabilities. As a future mother and educator, I want to lead and steer my children in the right path so that they can be productive citizens of society.

Immunization

Immunization

Immunization is “A process that stimulates the body’s immune system to defend against attack by a particular contagious disease” (Berger, K.S. 2009).

Immunizations can protect children from vulnerable diseases.  Immunization is important to me because as a premature baby I have a very low immune system. Due to low iron and calcium, my mother would always take me to my routine checkups so that I could receive my vaccination shots. I think that it is very important for parents to keep their children vaccinations up to date because it’s a defense mechanism against all types of airborne diseases.

I chose to talk about the vaccinations in Africa. Researchers suggested that “the end of smallpox vaccination in the mid-20th century may have caused a loss of protection that contributed to the rapid contemporary spread of HIV” (BioMed Central, 2010, May 18). The study indicated that “smallpox immunization was gradually withdrawn from the 1950s to the 1970s following the worldwide eradication of the disease, and HIV has been spreading exponentially since approximately the same time period” (BioMed Central, 2010, May 18). I found this article to be very interesting because prior immunization with vaccine virus may provide an individual with some degree of protection to subsequent HIV infection or any other airborne diseases.

The information that I have learned about immunization will impact my future work because I will work with children and their families to ensure that parents keep their children vaccinations current. There will be some children in the classroom with low immune systems that would be vulnerable to any sickness that may spread throughout the classroom from other students. I will make sure that all children utilize hand sanitizer to fight off bacteria and germs. Those who are sick will be sent home until their parents provide a doctor’s release. I will make my classroom a very germ-free environment so that children can comfortably learn.

Resources:

BioMed Central (2010, May 18). Did the end of smallpox vaccination cause the explosive spread of HIV?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 15, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/05/100517204405.htm

Berger, K.S. (2009). The developing person through childhood
(5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.