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How Can We Help Our Children To Develop Positive Attitudes Toward An Anti-Bias Learning Environment?
“Hey! Come here! Look I Caught a lady bug!” Jeremy yells to his peer as he finds a red lady bug with black dots on her back. As more children find more lady bugs on the tree, they start to cross-examined them. They identify that some are smaller and some are bigger. Bob said, “Hey! My mom said you have to put them back. Otherwise, they will miss their mommy.” So some of the children put the lady bugs back to the tree. Mary suddenly yells from the other side of the tree, “Hey guys! Come quick! Look at this one! He is bad!” I walk over and am curious to find out the “bad” one. It is a brown lady bug with a some black dots. I asked Mary, “Why this one is bad?” Mary replies, “Cause it is not the same color like the red and black one.” I continued to find out what is consider “bad”. Mary’s answer is: “ It is different. It does not look the same like the others.” She tells her peers not to touch it. It may bite them. I explain to the children that the brown lady bug is just different and it is not “bad”. So after we play in the outdoor area, we all go inside the classroom. I choose to play the song by Uncle Wayne: “Fishy Fish.” We sing together: “Is she crazy? Is she lazy? No! No! Is she a weirdo? No! No! She is different and being different is cool.”
After reading Why An Anti-Bias Curriculum? I realized that we are so accustomed to use the tourist curriculum on our calendar that we do not see the backgrounds and the experiences that they brought from their own countries.
Who Is Better?
Jasmin says, “Juliet, I want to have curly hair like you. My mommy uses the curling iron every morning to have her hair curly before she goes to work. I have straight hair and I want to have curly hair too.” I ask Jasmin, “Why do you want curly hair? You have beautiful black hair.” Jasmin replies “Cause curly hair is better, my mom says she looks more pretty with curly hair.” Are we as adults teaching our children the bias conception? Do we brain wash our children and set the standard of what is considered being desirable? Just as the spotless snow white swan in “The Ugly Ducking”.
Hey Ivy! I'm sorry I didn't recognize you as one of the people in my class. There are a lot of people in Head Start so at least now I can put a face to a name. Anyway! I thought it was interesting that you approached the situation of finding the different bug as relevant to how we approach others who are different. So, how do we treat others who are different? I will admit that when I was a kid I lived in a neighborhood of mostly Hawaiians and Tongans. I remember one of the children in a Tongan family giving me and my sisters the finger everytime he passed by our house. I wondered why he did this and have been averse to approaching someone who is Tongan. I guess this leaves me to wonder: How do our early experiences with people of different races affect our attitudes later on?
ReplyDeleteAre we adults even aware of what we teach our children? Your example is a perfect example of our ingorance to what a child perceives. Children are bombarded with images of perceived beaty all day long must we add to that? I wonder how we coul doffer a more positive role model to follow. Does it start with self awareness and awareness of our own bias's?
ReplyDeleteHi Ivy,
ReplyDeleteThe story you share about the ladybugs is a powerful example of how words are defined by societal ideas. What would it mean to rethink common words we use like brown? In your example, the brown color is considered bad. How might a discussion with children about the assumptions or ideas of brown disrupt conceptions like the ones depicted in your story?
Are there other words commonly used which depict discriminating ideas? For example, what if children discussed the word fat? Could it be rethought so it reflects non-discriminating ideas?
Can teaching and learning be positioned to change how we speak about the world?
Jeanne
Hi!
ReplyDeleteThe story about the lady bug is a good example for children being easily influence around their environment. Children don't have these biases naturally. Children learn this from the upbringing, media, or other influences. We don't realize that children at a young age can pick up many things that we don't even know we're bias about.
Putting anti-bias and multicultural in the curriculum are great but what are some other ways to help children? What kind of activities can we do to interest and help them?