let's get racial?

In my classroom, I would love to have activities like "Me Pockets" as featured in the readings. I think it would be a lot of fun for children to take the display pages home, choose things that they value personally or display what they would like other students to know about themselves, their interests and where they are coming from, rather than my deciding. In this situation, race may come up or not, but regardless, culture and origin is involved, and individuals may be appreciated. Students could then be given the opportunity to share, or to have the book out for the students to look through on their own time to see the similarities and differences they have with other kids. Also, as Zalika mentioned, and as some of us have pointed out, I think this activity would best serve if it were delayed until about a month into school. In this way, children would perhaps feel less vulnerable putting themselves out there, and certain impressions might already be formed, and consequently challenged by this activity.

In my classroom I value RACIAL COMFORT. I really resent in-group, out-group discomfort, on both sides, and therefore I am a huge advocate of racial-education based activities. The Rethinking ECE book articulated something that I had previously believed when studying racism in school -- if we didn't learn about the civil rights issues of the past, would they even be a problem now? As in if we never learned stereotypes, would we know to think them, or over-ride them? I realize now this discredits the importance of race to many people, it ignores differences that ARE APPARENT but shouldn't be cause for cruel judgement, and approaches the views that are still perpetuated by many (if not by you, outside the school) in an environment where you have more control over how they are perceived. I really like the idea of color swatches being used asa means for acknowledging the aesthetic differences between us as a springboard for other activities.


I believe teachers must be much more aware of the "white privilege" that Peggy McIntosh talks about. Like she mentioned in the articles, some of the items she listed i had previously acknowledged and then had forgotten. It's far too easy for me to realize that they don't make dark skin band-aids (this has come to my attention honestly, only in the past year) but not really mind because I'm either so used to seeing them that way, or like watching tv with white characters, I don't notice because they look like me. It's pretty disgusting how oblivious I can be. As a teacher I'd really like to ensure we are reading stories that feature characters of different walks of life, that we have displays featuring children of different races, and that it doesn't feel like a "thing" when we do. I think this kind of racial inclusion should be intrinsic, but not hit over the kid's heads like "HEY LOOK KIDS HERE'S A PICTURE OF A WHITE GIRL AND AN ASIAN KID IN A WHEEL CHAIR AND A BLACK BOY AND THEY'RE ALL FRIENDS." It's gotta be second nature for them, even if it's very deliberate by me.