Having meaningful conversations about race is not comfortable for me, and the more personal and professional work I do in this area, the more I realize how much I still need to learn and grow. However I know for certain that ~ as a mother, teacher and human being ~ the work is not optional. It is my job to help raise awareness and promote dialogue. I have to delve into the discomfort and create the space for the conversations with my colleagues, my friends, my son and, yes, even with my kindergarten students.
On a kid level in my classroom, I will be wearing a Black Lives Matter t-shirt and will use interactive read alouds of great picture books (how I do all of my best SEL teaching!) to plant seeds of thought in my young learners’ brains. Already this week, we have been reading books to start thinking about the ways we see and treat each other... To launch our first PBL project Who Am I ~ How are We the Same and How are We Different? we read the book, “To Be A Kid”. This book celebrates being a kid with photos of children from all over the world playing and learning, spending time with their friends and families. The people and the clothes and the settings in the photos look different, but at the heart of it all of the kids are sharing the same wonderful adventure ~ being a kid! |
We also read, “The Sneetches" one of my favorite books! I love the simple message this book gives us about the danger of using external differences (or labels) as dividing lines. After reading this book, we all agreed that the Sneetches were much smarter once they stopped doing this. And we read the book, "Last Stop On Market Street", which exposed us to an urban setting reflecting people with different skin colors, body types, abilities, ages, and classes in a natural and authentic manner and acknowledged inequality. We talked about how the book made us sad that some people did not have the shelter or food that they needed, but inspired by people like CJ and his Nana who are helping. We enjoyed the story again yesterday when we attended the performance that Book It Theater actors gave at our school, noticing again how Nana helped CJ see the beauty in places he hadn"t thought to look, including himself. |
Ron McNair, who flew aboard the Challenger in February 1984, was the second African American and the first Bahá'í to fly in space. McNair was a member of the Challenger crew again in 1986 when it disintegrated shortly after lift off.
Reading this book to my class exposes them to the racial equity issues Ron faced, and provides them with a gentle introduction to the historical social and legal inequities that black people have faced in our country over time.
On an adult level, I encourage you to join me in engaging in this work yourself. Continue these important conversations with your kids at home, knowing that the only "wrong" way to do it is to not do it at all because you are afraid of doing it wrong. There are so many great resources out there to guide you. I have provided a few for you below to get you started
In partnership,
Katie