How to turn difference into a source of pride

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Many children feel different in schools and in their home environment. How adults react to the difference will be critical. Children can either be celebrated because of the difference or they can be ridiculed. If you’re a parent or a teacher, utilize that time when your child is picked on as a learning opportunity. Be able to address and intervene when there’s a situation that has created this difference. Allow children to feel that their difference is unique and should be celebrated. I’ve often talked to experts who said that it’s… teaching children that they’re different is actually a damaging situation. Experts often say that every children is alike and every children is the same. And that’s not necessarily the case. We have come to believe that different children should just blend in and should become like everybody else. For some children of color and for children who are very different, it’s impossible to blend in. The difference is to be celebrated. The difference is what makes your children unique. And that difference is what can empower them to contribute to the world and to contribute to their environment. Your children should know that the difference is important and it should not be hidden. Allow your children to express their difference with pride. Whatever the difference is, it is not a matter of shame, it is a matter of pride. It is seen as a gift and it should be utilized as one. Make sure that you yourself don’t see your child’s difference as something negative. Allow your son to celebrate it by you demonstrating that that difference is a source of pride and a source of celebration.

Video Categories: ALL PARENTS, Parenting, Building Self-Esteem, ELEMENTARY, Bullying, TEEN, Bullying and Harassment

Jorge Partida, PsyD Psychologist, shares advice for parents on how they can help their children turn a difference, such as their race or culture, into a source of pride

Transcript

Expert Bio

Jorge Partida, PsyD

Psychologist

Dr. Jorge Partida is a Psychologist, Green Advocate and Indigenous Healer. He was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and immigrated to Chicago at nine years of age. Dr. Jorge has been a consultant on many national and international projects in the areas of education, health, diversity and spirituality. Dr. Jorge has worked with local and national governments to coordinate services for those most impacted by poverty, war and displacement. He has worked in Liberia Africa in the repatriation of boy soldiers and has worked to form “intentional communities” in poverty impacted countries of Latin-America.

Dr. Jorge is the author of The Promise of The Fifth Sun and A Week of Awakening. His writing integrates psychology with native healing traditions to form an easy to use self-help approach. Dr. Jorge has designed and facilitated healing workshops that incorporate ritual and practice.

Dr. Jorge has served as Director of the PsyD program at John F. Kennedy University and as Deputy Director of Behavioral Health with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Today, Dr. Jorge is the Executive Director of the United States Green Building Council-Los Angeles (USGBC-LA). He believes that the discussion of sustainability provides a platform to address today’s most complex issues.

For more than twenty years, Dr. Jorge has presented mental health segments on television and radio. He has worked with many networks, including Univision, Telemundo, HITN-TV in Spanish and CBS, UPN, NBC and PBS in English.

Parenting expert on: At Risk Youth, At Risk Youth, Building Self-Esteem, Teachable Moments

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