I remember being out with one of my little cousins and we were at out shopping that day. We were walking across the parking lot and a tall black man walked by and she point and said, "look how dark that man is!" and it was kind of loud, so I really don't know if anyone else heard her, but I told her not to point at people and say things like that because it wasn't very nice. I told her people are different and that is fine. I believe my response to my cousin my have made her feel like she done something wrong, but yet at the same time curious about the part when I said, "everybody is different and that is fine."
I believe in situations such as these parents and educators should take the time and talk to the children, read books, and show them pictures of how everyone is different in their own unique way. This can be from hair color and texture, eye color and shapes, and skin color. This is a great teachable moment to make children realize that being different isn't a bad thing, but something they should respect and be proud of because God created us all the same.
Hi Britanie,
ReplyDeleteI've actually started doing activities and games that shows how we can match on some things and not on other things, yet we all still have the same basic needs. I think children need to understand that we are not actually the same in all ways, but it's ok. We can find things we do agree on and can enjoy together because being friends means we don't always have to match. I think the children really start to appreciate finding things out about their friends that they don't match on and they like to talk about it together. For example one day someone said they didn't like pizza and there was a discussion about them not liking things that are hot and so on and so forth. It's really become interesting to experience!
Britanie,
ReplyDeleteI think the situation you described happens all the time with very well meaning people. It’s great that you followed up with a simple explanation about how we can be different. And I totally agree with you that moments like this are great “teachable” moments and as anti-bias teachers we should take full advantage of these opportunities.
Britanie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the post. I think it's also important to ask children questions like "does everyone have the same skin color?" so that they can begin to work through their own feelings as well. Hopefully, this will prompt discussions about our differences and will lead to understanding of the fact that different is not bad.