Alike and Different: Exploring our Humanity with Young Children
Bonnie Neugebauer
This book contains articles that address the educational needs of young children from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds or with special needs. Articles included in the book are the following: (a) "'It Isn't Fair!' Anti-bias Curriculum for Young Children" (Louise Derman-Sparks); (b) "Talking About Differences Children Notice" (Elizabeth Crary); (c) "Where Do We Begin? Bringing the World Into Your Classroom" (Bonnie Neugebauer); (d) "Obstacle Courses Are for Every Body" (Carol Stock Kranowitz); (e) "Helping Whole Children Grow: Nonsexist Childrearing for Infants and Toddlers" (Judith Leipzig); (f) "Lost in a Distant Land: the Foreign Child's Dilemma in Child Care" (Athol B. Packer and others); (g) "Guidelines for Helping Non-English-Speaking Children Adjust and Communicate" (Karen Miller); (h) "Recognizing Giftedness in Early Childhood Settings" (Donna Garnett Chitwood); (i) "Exploring Diversity Through the Arts" (Candace Change); (j) "Honoring Diversity: Problems and Possibilities for Staff and Organization" (Margie Carter); (k) "Are You a Dad and a Teacher? Fathering-A Year-Long Curriculum" (Cory Gann and Sharon Stine); (l) "Tossed Salad Is Terrific: Values of Multicultural Programs for Children and Families" (Janet Brown McCracken); (m) "Building Positive Images: Interracial Children and Their Families" (Francis Ward); (n) "Parenting a Child With Special Needs" (Meg Robinson); (o) "The Impact of Current Changes in Social Structure on Early Childhood Education Programs" (Gail Raymond and Dean K. McIntosh); (p) "Children are Caught-Between Home and School, Culture, and School" (Betsy West); (q) "Diversity and Conflict: The Whole World Will Never Sing in Perfect Harmony" (Jim Greenman); (r) "Meeting the Needs of All Children-An Indian Perspective" (Harold GossMan); (s) "All Children Are Special" (Jan Cole Krick); (t) "What Are We Really Saying to Children? Criteria for the Selection of Books and Materials" (Bonnie Neugebauer); and (u) "Reflecting Diversity-Books to Read with Young Children" (Bonnie Neugebauer). Resources for adults on diversity are provided.
Bonnie Neugebauer. Alike and Different: Exploring our Humanity with Young Children (1994). National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC]: Washington, D.C., DC.
(186 pages).
Language: English
Reading Level: Average
Formats Available: Printed Material
National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC]
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Washington, D.C., DC
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Phone: (800) 424-2460
Fax: (202) 328-1846
Email: naeyc@naeyc.org
URL: http://www.naeyc.org
Languages Available: English, Japanese
Intended User Audience:
This book is written for service delivery personnel, administrators, pre-service students, faculty/trainers, and paraprofessionals at all levels of experience in early childhood education.
The material is intended to provide information and to stimulate thinking of early childhood educators who read English across cultural groups.
Those professionals working in child care centers, in training sessions, in after school programs, or in early primary classrooms can use the book.
Some material is specific to the United States, but much of the material is relevant to other nations.
Product Development:
The book was developed by administrators, parent/family members, faculty/trainers, and service delivery personnel who advise and write for the author’s magazine, Child Care Information Exchange.
European American middle class English-speaking professionals who live and work with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds wrote most of the material. In developing the material advisors informed each writer.
Product Evaluation:
The evaluation is derived from the responses of thousands of educators who have read the book; however, demographics are not available. The magazine advisors and staff also evaluated the book.
Product Dissemination:
Approximately 20,000 books have been disseminated through the U.S., Canada, and Japan.
Review #1
About the reviewer:
The reviewer is originally from Laos. He left his home country for
Thailand in 1975 and spent many years in a refugee camp before
his resettlement in the United States. He earned a GED in 1980 and an
associate degree in electronic technology in 1988. Presently, he is
taking classes to further his formal education. He has been a parent advisor at PACER Center for 6 years, where he
provides advocacy for Southeast Asian families of children with and
without disabilities. He works to heighten families' involvement in
their children's education and to encourage families to actively
represent their children. He also provides consultation for local and
national children's programs so they can better serve Southeast
Asian families. He devotes himself to community and family services.
Additionally, he is the father of 7 children who have provided him
real-life experiences raising children. He also participates in
various community organizational advisory committees that directly
or indirectly serve families and children.
Audience:
The audience of this book is primarily early childhood program professionals. It is written for universal purpose, and its language is average. It is intended for professionals in early childhood programs throughout the United States, and it would be useful for educators in countries where the population is diverse. It is not written for a specific cultural and linguistic group, but several ethnic backgrounds are mentioned. Its secondary audiences are school, teachers and administrators, but it has the potential use for all service providers such as public and private agency personnel in various fields. It is equally important for parents and the general public as well.
Strengths of the Material:
This book offers information that would touch the heart of many people, particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The Forward provides deep thoughts about all chapters and all articles. It identifies cultural values and strengths and provides descriptive guidance and rationale to professionals who are designing and implementing truly multicultural programs that meet all children’s social, emotional, and educational needs. It encourages programs to have a greater respect for parents, grandparents, family members, friends, and teachers as significant adults for the child’s ongoing growth. It is responsive and reflective of recommended practice, and its reference to practical resources is great. All articles are reflective of cultural and linguistic diversity. The quotation and illustration on the front page of each chapter draws interest and is reflective of following articles. Other pictures are really matched with the written information. One illustration that touches me the most is the quote, “Special needs are normal -- everyone has that to varying degree.” Its presentation of information is very effective and logical.
Limitations of the Material:
The book provides professionals a great knowledge about diversity. To be more reflective of culturally and linguistically diverse groups, a general description about the cultural behavior that children act upon should be included because culture does contain an expression of language, behavior, and art. Also, the article “Diversity and Conflict” has a mistake about the influx of Hmong families from Laos and Cambodia. Hmong families only came from Laos, not from Cambodia.
Adaptations:
This book provides a handful of information for designing programs to meet the needs of children from diverse backgrounds. It acknowledges the values of diversity, people’s cultures including family pattern, communication style, gender roles, and the physical attributes of children. It will be more helpful for early childhood program staff and teachers if cultural behavior that children bring to classroom were added to the article “Children are Caught Between Home and School, Culture and School.” Such behavior that children are taught in their early years includes the following: respecting authority and any older person, being responsible for their own actions, having a sense of family and community responsibility, having a good moral character, and being silent unless it is necessary to speak. Teachers often interpret this behavior as failure in class participation, and some children have been mistakenly referred to early childhood special education services.
Generalizability:
This book does provide an excellent rational for being sensitive and creative in diversity. It acknowledges an important value of being similar and different and how effective a program should be to meet the needs of all children. It is reflective of the thoughts many Hmong families have that early childhood and school programs should be designed in ways that respect cultural values, cultural identity, and the common goals that we adults expect for our children to make them productive diverse citizens. They need our support for their journey.
Recommendations:
I strongly recommend the material because it is inviting
Producer's Response:
The reviewer’s comments will be very helpful as we begin work to update and expand the current edition of Alike and Different. The book was developed in 1987 to stimulate thinking and encourage discussion about a spectrum of human differences. Since that time, there has been growing awareness in the field of early education about how programs and teachers and parents can work together to help children understand and enjoy the ways in which they are the same and the ways in which they are different from others. It is our goal that the new edition of Alike and Different will again stimulate thinking and encourage discussion. I thank the reviewers for getting us going.
Review #2
About the reviewer:
The reviewer is currently working as a school psychologist in a
medium-sized school district close to 2 large midwestern cities.
Her school population consists of early childhood through 8th
graders. In the past the reviewer spent 3 years managing a
research study that looked at differences in early language
development in infants and toddlers from monolingual and bilingual
backgrounds. She also completed an internship in public relations
at a nonprofit agency serving children with special needs.
Audience:
The intended audience of this book includes pre-service students, current service delivery personnel, administrators, teachers/faculty/trainers, and paraprofessionals at all levels of experience in early childhood education and would even benefit educational professionals who work with older children. The book is meant to provide information and stimulate the thinking of early childhood educators across cultural groups who read English. Those who work in child care centers, training sessions, Head Start programs, after school programs, and early childhood primary classrooms can use the books. Again, it could also benefit middle and high school classrooms, since the information is so helpful for attaining a better understanding of our diverse cultures. Although there is some material that is specific to the United States, the information in the book is relevant to those in other countries. The book is not written for any specific cultural or linguistic group.
Strengths of the Material:
This book is wonderful because it is honest and straightforward. It emphasizes that children do notice differences in people and that it is up to us as professionals to guide our children in understanding these differences. There are many good suggestions for anti-bias activities, such as the “band-aid” activity where every child puts on a “nude” band-aid, only to discover that it does not match anyone’s skin tone! The book also suggests that teachers deal with questions regarding physical differences among other children by explaining that the child is that way because their parents are that way.
I also enjoyed the ideas of bringing the world into the classroom by using dramatic play with props from different cultures and music and art to help children learn about other ethnic groups. The book contained good problem solving skills for dealing with differences. It also addressed the “foreign child’s dilemma” in child care -- dealing not only with language barriers but also with separation anxiety due to a teacher that looks much different than the child. The book includes excellent guidelines that are very practical for parents and teachers to use when working with children from diverse backgrounds and also with helping non-English speaking children adjust and communicate.
This book also does a good job of discussing personnel policies that strengthen diversity and support interracial children. In addition, it offers great suggestions for parenting a child with special needs. The impact on early childhood education programs of current changes in the social structure of America is covered quite well, and many statistics are emphasized to get the point across (for example, by the year 2000, one third of Americans will be non-white). Finally, at the end of the book, ideas are given for working with kids who may feel caught between home and culture and school; and criteria are discussed for selecting books and materials to use. This is an excellent way for professionals to gather information on how to select what materials to use in the classroom, and this serves as a very helpful guide for service providers.
Limitations of the Material:
While the material covers much information regarding cultural differences, it fails to address a few issues, one of which is how to deal with acculturated individuals who essentially renounce their ethnicity and consider themselves only as Americans. In addition, issues between certain races, such as Hispanic American and African American tension, are never addressed or discussed. Furthermore, how can we keep children aware of their culture but also enable them to view themselves as Americans and learn to help them be successful in American society?
Another limitation is the language present in the section entitled “All Children Are Special.” The opening statement says the following: “At any given time any child can be a child with special needs.” While this is true, it is also misleading due to the presently used terminology. This part of the book does not discuss supports for children with disabilities or what child care professionals and teachers can expect in terms of Individual Education Plans (IEP), interdisciplinary team meetings (now referred to as IEP meetings), and qualifications required in order to meet criteria, etc. In relation to this, another limitation is that the overall language used is somewhat dated. The book has a 1992 publication date and uses terms such as “handicapped children” and “dysfunctional families,” which are not terms that are used currently. Therefore, the reader needs to beware. In addition, the following statement is offensive: “But the reality still is that when we talk about children with special needs, we are often talking about the children that are driving us nuts.” This paints a negative picture of children who are different and does not appear to do any good in respecting children that are alike and different, which is what the title suggests.
Adaptations:
The book is very helpful, so there would not have to be many adaptations. Perhaps it would be helpful to include more information or examples of specific cultural differences and beliefs. Also, more vignettes and stories would really emphasize diverse families. It would also be beneficial to include more information on religious differences and also to discuss barriers to accomplishing the goals this book suggests. It must be realized that not all Americans believe in the ideas of this book, and it would be helpful to include information on how to involve others who are opponents of these ideas to make others realize the importance of understanding other cultures. It helps to quote statistics, but it may help even more to elaborate on what they mean for all Americans and how important it is for all of us to get along and try to understand each other.
Generalizability:
This information could also be used with various organizations such as youth groups, church groups, boys and girls clubs, YMCAs, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Head Start programs. In addition, this information could be used at just about any factory or company in America, since the whole book emphasizes the understanding of diverse cultures. This book includes specific, practical, and realistic ideas for everyone to consider. However, since the CLAS project will have early childhood special education professionals visiting its website, I would like to see a qualifying statement or caveat present in order to inform those visitors that there is no mention of the term disability or its definition. Furthermore there is no discussion of how the needs of all children can be met. While the book states that special needs are normal and everyone has them to a varying degree, the pictures in the book do not demonstrate children with obvious disabilities leading to confusion regarding how to serve all children with various skills. While there is one chapter in Learning from Parents (“Parenting a Child With Special Needs”) and one chapter called “All Children are Special” that discusses various disabilities, there is nothing under “Meeting the Needs of All Children” to indicate how to serve all children, with and without disabilities. Therefore, it is a big oversight to abandon important information regarding disabilities and how to meet the challenges of diverse children.
Recommendations:
The material is highly recommended.
Producer's Response:
The reviewer's comments will be very helpful as we begin work to update and expand the current edition of Alike and Different. The book was developed in 1987 to stimulate thinking and encourage discussion about a spectrum of human differences. Since that time, there has been growing awareness in the field of early education about how programs and teachers and parents can work together to help children understand and enjoy the ways in which they are the same and the ways in which they are different from others. It is our goal that the new edition of Alike and Different will again stimulate thinking and encourage discussion. I thank the reviewers for getting us going.
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