Running head: OBSERVATION 1 1

Observation 1

Yarlyn A. Pacheco

HD 300

Professor Rogers

March 1 , 2017

Observation 1
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Today is February 20, 2017 I am in the Elementary school called Libertador de América

in Tijuana, B.C. This school has two shifts, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I

decided to attend the second shift in which children arrive at 1 p.m. and leave at 5 p.m. It is

approximately 3 o'clock in the afternoon and in recess time. . The teacher gave me access to be in

her classroom. In the classroom there are approximately ten children who decided to stay

because they decided to continue playing bingo during the recess. The classroom has desks that

would be described antique compared to those in San Diego schools. The classroom does not

have any computers or an electric board. It is set in the traditional way, the desks are in rows and

the teacher’s desk is in the front left, and the medium white board in the middle. I feel like these

children would benefit with technology, I don’t know if it’s the same in their home. I can

imagine that they would perform better in their homework. I decided to observe a girl who is

about 11 years old and a former six grader. I decided to observe her because she reminded me of

myself when I was in the six grade. She seemed older than the rest of the class and more

reserved. I didn’t see her playing much in class before recess.

The girl I observed, who I later found out her name is Kelly was not involved in bingo

playing at recess as she had to do a pending task. She seemed like she felt pressured to finish her

work as fast as she could, she even dropped her pencil box probably due to her rushing. Three

girls came into the room and approached to Kelly. I only heard “ aver a que horas terminas!”

which translated means “Until what time are you going to finish?”. This cannot be translated as it

is truly said. In spanish the words have sarcasm and are a negative comment that only serves as

an offence or rush to the other person to put pressure in order for them to feel like they are slow.

They complained because she had not finished the work in time and they made faces to her.

After that, tears were seen in the girl’s eyes. I felt impotent somehow because I could not do
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anything; thankfully, right after I felt that the teacher noticed and she came to see what was

happening to her. The girl informed the teacher that the girls who were now outside “said mean

things” to her and consecutively the teacher wrote down the names and promised to fill out a

report.

Just after this, another girl came in and approached towards Kelly. She apparently is her

friend because she tried to console her. She had a worried look on her face and she said “que

tienes Kelly!?” which means “What’s the matter Kelly?” She sat on the back desk of the girl and

she was talking to her and soothing her. After a very short period, Kelly appeared to begin

talking to the other girl about what had happened. She made gestures with her hands and

mimicked the girls who had offended her moments before. I could see that she padded her on her

back and she said “hay no… no te preocupes la maestra se va a encargar y todo va a estar bien”

in English this is translated to “oh no… don’t worry the teacher will handle it and everything will

be fine”. She went back to working on what she hadn’t finished and the other girl started drawing

or writing on a piece of paper. I felt comforted just to see this friendship and how the other girl

tried to make her happy. I felt that we should always be this way even if we are older.

Later on, apparently the girl had finished her work because she took her notebook to the

teacher. She returned to her desk with her friend smiling and they began to talk. Suddenly the

Kelly brought out some seemingly new markers and struggled a little to open the box. They both

seemed excited and they began to explore the new markers. The two girls moved their desks to

be side by side and took out sheets of paper and color pencils too and they began to draw. They

shared the new markers and they were just talking while they were drawing. Moments later the

recess was over and the teacher continued with his class.
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I left the school with mixed emotions because I remembered when I was in school in

Tijuana. I went to the 5th and 6th grade in an elementary school close to my grandmother’s house.

I felt disappointed with the education system because the schools are just as they were 10 years

ago. Not much technology, the children didn’t get a lunch in their school either. I also learned

that it is sometimes normal that children say means things to other children, but it is a teacher’s

responsibility to take care of it in the moment. I remembered that I experienced moments like

Kelly did in my childhood but they thankfully did not mark my life and I hope this doesn’t mark

hers either.

According to this observation, the girl tries to learn to deal with her emotions and to be

more responsible. The adult, which is the teacher, is trying to learn how to manage situations of

conflict in the classroom. I am in the same position of the teacher because I am also trying to

learn from this situation how to manage that sort of conflict in a classroom because I might be an

elementary teacher someday. I believe that the child is in the fourth stage of Erick Erickson’s

eight psychosocial developmental stages. This stage is called Industry versus Inferiority (Berk,

2013). The ages identified in this stage are from age’s five to twelve. I identify the child in this

stage because being competent to others was crucial for the child. When the girls who came by

and said she didn’t finish her work she felt inferior to them, and believed she needed to step up.

When they left she tried to overcome those feelings and she hurried to finish the work she wasn’t

able to do before. Proficiency was the major stress of the child.

This child reminds me of myself because at this age I always tried to be competent. I tried

to finish everything on time and if I didn’t I felt ashamed of not doing so. I was also very

sensible and I would often feel heartbroken if I did not meet the expected aptitudes of others. I

remember that I always tried to be everyone’s friend, or at least I tried to be friendly to everyone
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and to not have enemies. I loved to share my new toys, or presents to other children too. I saw

how excited this girl was to share her new markers with the other children. There are other

children who would never do that, one example could be my brother who is six and he would not

like to share his new toys to friends until he has used them beforehand. I think I was different

from this child because even though I was sensible I would have spoken up towards the girls

who were being offensive. I was never a conflict seeker, but I always stood up for myself when I

was a child because I believed I was competent and did not deserve to be treated with bullying. I

remember two instances in which I had to speak up for myself, and this girl just stood quiet and

started to cry.

In my other class we have a book titled “Diversity in early care and education”. The

chapter of the book that I believe would be important for the girl’s parent to read is chapter seven

titled “Socialization, Guidance, and Discipline”. One topic in this chapter makes emphasis on the

negative effects of the comparison between children and its consequences. It states that it is

sometimes good to compare children, such as when doing an assessment on the child, but it is

not good to teach children to do this kind of comparison because they can misunderstand and

have a sentiment of stress whenever they believe they are not competent enough. The textbook

explains that “this constant comparison with each other…develops a certain mindset in the

children, and they [believe] that comparison means something is better than something else”;

therefore, they believe either themselves or the child they are comparing themselves into are

better (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008). The parent of this child should read this chapter in order to

understand what they can do for her child to be less stressed about the competency between her

classmates. This chapter states that “guidance and discipline [are] important aspects of

socialization” and parents and teachers are the ones who teach those aspects (Gonzalez-Mena,
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2008). I think this is very significant in the life of children because I remember that my cousin

lived the stress of always being compared to me by her parents. I used to always finish my

homework and do great in school while my cousin, a year older than me, had a hard time in

school. Her mother would always compare her to me and she always tried to be more competent.

I realize now as an adult that it was not very satisfying for her to be compared to me because she

believed that I was better than her. This can affect the life of any child if the parent is not careful

enough to not state things such as this one. At least Mexican families often compare their

children with their primos (cousins) and it is common to hear that, at least in my family. We are

often referred to the term familialism because we emphasize the importance of being together

with our family and therefore parents always compare the successes of close relatives to their

own. In the 4th stage of Erick Erickson being compared and being competent is key for

elementary school aged children.

References

Berk, L. E. (2003). Child Development. (pp. 21) Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2008). Diversity in Early Care and Education (5th ed.). Boston: McGraw-

Hill.