Fostering Positive Identities and Development: Start Seeing Diversity

 

Children often mock other children for the way they dress, look, eat, etc. the list is endless. We had our cultural day in the summer. We asked parents to dress their children in their traditional attire. One of the children came to school all dressed up in traditional Japanese attire- putting on a sumo-like gown. The children in my class are majorly white, so seeing this Japanese kid in a sumo gown created a lot of buzz among the kids. Arnold, who was always quick to say something, screamed, "Hey Kenji, you look funny!" The children started laughing. My assistant, Sofia, stepped in and said to Arnold, "you know today is the day we all dress funny that is why we all look funny." Arnold surprisingly went to Kenji and said, "I am sorry."

The message sent by my assistant exemplifies the process of letting the child know the type of behavior that is acceptable and what type is not acceptable. The reprimand is intended to give the child the foundation to live a better life as they grow older. Just like other life skills, behaviors often need to be "grown into."

I remember one cold Monday morning last December when we gathered the children together for a morning circle meeting as usual. I was reading to them The Princess Knight. It is a tale of a young princess who defies social expectations and becomes a mighty knight. I can hear some mumbling from a particular circle area as I read. Then one of the boys, John, blotted out, "That's not right! Princesses can't be knights! Girls aren't knights!" My first instinct was to tell him to be quiet and tell him, "we don't like this in school, and move on."

          I stopped reading the book at that moment and said, "Hmmm, that makes me feel a little sad. I am a girl, and I like to be a knight sometimes. I also like to be Luke Skywalker when I play Star Wars. What do you all think? Are there rules about what boys and girls can do?" The class came alive, and there was a back and forth conversation about their play and all of the things they like to talk about. I asked them questions based on what they talked about concerning their play, highlighting their thoughts. In the end, the class agreed there is no such thing as what boys can do and what girls cannot do, but what people choose to do.

         It is challenging to encapsulate anti-bias work with young children in a few paragraphs. It emerges through play, through trusting relationships, and through deep talk. It evolves from the belief that children can develop an anti-bias stance through their meaning-making. Our starting place for anti-bias should always be the children and our faith in their ability to do this critical work with us (Walden University, n.d.). When we believe in the children and open up the question rather than shutting it down, we will collaboratively arrive in a place where "People know what they want to play in their bodies. Like in their hearts. That's not for just boys or just girls."

Children do not "know better" because they have not learned the "better" yet. So there, an anti-bias teacher must develop strategies to help the children develop anti-bias behavior (Bentley, D (n.d.).

                                           References

Bentley, D (n.d.)Teaching Young Children to Understand and Accept Differences

https://lesley.edu/article/teaching-young-children-to-understand-and-accept-differences

Walden University, LLC. (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Conclusion [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu