Even Babies Discriminate: A NurtureShock Excerpt. | Newsweek Life | Newsweek.com - 1 views
-
Kids as young as 6 months judge others based on skin color. What's a parent to do?
-
Laura Wood on 24 Sep 09I find this particularly important after seeing how some race dynamics play out in my practicum. Specifically I find myself asking "Why are all the White kids sitting together in the classroom?" This article might give one reason.
-
-
Prior research had shown that multicultural curricula in schools have far less impact than we intend them to—largely because the implicit message "We're all friends" is too vague for young children to understand that it refers to skin color.
-
Highlights the importance of being specific with kids. I'm not sure why our modesty makes us, as teachers, code and shy away from just being real with our students. One of the goals that I have set for myself this semester is to get real with students, just tell them the truth (for example saying, "That's disrespectful. Stop.") instead of playing games (for example feeling flustered and walking away or saying something vague like, "behave").
-
-
They wanted their children to grow up colorblind. But Vittrup's first test of the kids revealed they weren't colorblind at all. Asked how many white people are mean, these children commonly answered, "Almost none." Asked how many blacks are mean, many answered, "Some," or "A lot." Even kids who attended diverse schools answered the questions this way.
-
And here's the gold. Kids are not color blind. Adult embarrassment to speak about race does not mean we're not communicating messages to our children about race and prejudice, it just means that we're also communicating that it's something to be embarrassed about and/or hush up. I really recommend reading this article in full. It's fantastic.
-
- ...2 more annotations...
-
An article that summarizes some incredibly important findings on race and racism. Specifically, if you don't talk about racism with kids, you support the status quo. Even very young kids.
