Teachers_Study_Guide
Teachers_Study_Guide
TEACHING
TOLERANCE ®
| iii
Acknowledgments
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the stu-
dents, parents, teachers and administrators at
the following schools: Happy Medium, Seattle,
Wash.; Cabrillo College Children’s Center, Ap-
tos, Calif.; Maria Mitchell Elementary, Denver,
Colo.; Elmwood Elementary, Shawnee, Ohio;
Edgewood Elementary, New Haven, Conn.;
North Miami Elementary, North Miami, Fla.;
State Pre-K Demonstration Center, Chicago,
Ill. Special thanks to Vivian Gussin Paley, who
contributed the foreword, to Rosa Hernández
Sheets for research and commentary, and to
Gabrielle Lyon and Maria Fleming for resource
reviews. Gratitude also to Eddie Ashworth, Rich-
ard Cohen and Erin Kellen for their guidance,
and to Margie McGovern, Alex Earl and David
Summerlin of Margie McGovern Films, San
Francisco, for their invaluable research, patience
and vision.
iv |
Foreword
By Vivian Gussin Paley
The teachers of young children who speak to us so ear- A flicker of a smile crosses Martin’s face. He sees
nestly in the following stories work in different com- that these kindergartners who do not even know him
munities but share a common vision: that children can recognize his sense of loss and are ready to befriend
learn to care about every other person’s feelings, beliefs and comfort him.
and welfare. The children are ready. They come to school wonder-
The notion may seem commonplace, something ing how those so different from themselves can have the
surely found in most classrooms. Yet, given the number same feelings and desires. And we, in turn, must learn
of sad faces, hurt feelings and lonely outsiders in our how to help them put their intuitive knowledge of com-
schools, the empathy factor may be more talked about monality into words and actions. This is what children
than systematically pursued. In the hearts and minds enjoy doing and can do well; it is guaranteed to make
of the teachers described here, it is a full-time commit- our teaching come alive with purpose and meaning.
ment that begins anew with each child and family. The teachers we are about to meet also understand
The dictionary defines empathy as “understanding that even within a seemingly safe classroom, someone
so intimate that the feelings, thoughts and motives of can feel lost and frightened at any moment. They are
one are readily comprehended by another.” It is a word prepared to stop everything and get everyone to pay
often seen on lists of goals but rarely employed as the attention, to listen to what the other person says and
core curriculum. become keenly aware of what to say in response.
Promoting empathy would be a major undertak- In so doing, they give credence to our ultimate goal
ing for any classroom, but the teachers in this book as teachers in a democratic society: helping children
go further. They believe that perceiving the feelings, become kind and caring participants in a world that
thoughts and motives of another person is the first step includes everyone. These wise and compassionate
in building a bridge. What must follow is the discov- teachers who are “starting small” will uncover and
ery, day by day, of how to move — in both directions model for us the amazingly large moral dimensions of
— across that bridge. the classroom. v
Luckily for those who despair of society’s ever being
made into a kinder place, young children are far more
empathetic by nature than we are prone to believe. They
are enormously interested in being in the company of
other children and are persistently curious about those
who seem different. By the time children enter pre-
school, they are experienced people-watchers, and they
know what makes someone laugh or cry.
“Come quick, teacher!” Cynthia calls. “A big boy is
crying!”
We follow her to a bench in the hallway where a dis-
traught and dishevelled child is wiping his eyes, embar-
rassed by our sudden appearance. I recognize him as a
2nd grader who often gets into trouble.
“Martin? What’s wrong?” I ask, but the children rush
to supply the answers.
“He’s lost,” says one.
“He wants his mother,” says another.
“Someone was mean to him.”
“They didn’t pay attention. They losed him.”
| v
Introduction
By Jim Carnes
Community begins in the classroom. For most young White teacher of Black children. At Sharing Time in
children, being a “classmate” — at day care, at a place a Seattle primary class, you will find children comfort-
of worship or at school — constitutes their first active able enough to voice their deepest concerns. And you
participation in an ongoing social structure outside the will visit a Denver school in which practicing simple
family. The vision of community that the classroom pro- hospitality helps kindergartners become citizens of the
vides can color a child’s ideas and expectations about world. In myriad ways, these classrooms demonstrate
equity, cooperation and citizenship for a lifetime. that lofty ideals like tolerance, justice and peace often
We ask a great deal of children when they enter the begin as child’s play.
classroom: to leave the familiar environment of home; During the lengthy process of identifying some 300
to encounter peers and adults who may look, act, speak groundbreaking early childhood educators across the
and think differently from themselves and their family; country, we encountered many we regret to omit from
and to “fit in” successfully with these strangers as learn- these pages. Our aim for variety in geographical dis-
ers and friends. Although such tasks involve unique tribution, school setting, student population, curricu-
developmental dimensions in young children, pub- lum content and teaching style led us to the exemplary
lic life presents all of us with a similar challenge. The group presented here.
capacity to thrive in diversity is a lifelong practice of This book has seven chapters, each centered on an
discovery and adaptation, as new differences unfailing- in-depth classroom narrative. Two kinds of sidebars
ly arise. More and more early childhood teachers have supplement the main stories. “Reflections” are research-
come to recognize that teaching tolerance outright in based essays addressing specific themes or develop-
the curriculum is as fundamental and as far-reaching as mental aspects of teaching tolerance, such as racial
teaching children how to read. awareness, gender equity or friendship. “Applications”
Such an endeavor raises serious questions: How can offer practical ideas for incorporating these concepts
teachers acquire the necessary skills and tools? What into classroom activities. It is important to acknowledge
kind of peer, administrative, parental and community the inherent overlap among many aspects of diversity
support do they need? How are they supposed to add that we have chosen to highlight. Our intention is to
“tolerance” or “multiculturalism” or “character educa- treat these as complementary themes rather than as
tion” to an already overcrowded curriculum? The real independent constructs. In addition to the sidebars, an
challenge, perhaps, is less a matter of expanding the job extensive annotated resource list surveys the best mate-
than of re-imagining it. What follows is a close look at rials available — both comprehensive and specialized —
a number of individual and team teachers whose effec- in the field of early childhood diversity education.
tiveness derives not from extraordinary talents, condi- Tolerance, justice and peace are lofty ideals. Most
tions or resources but from extraordinary visions of adults find them difficult to realize. For capable and
possibility in an imperfect world. confident teachers at any level, the goal of dispelling
This book profiles seven classrooms in which teach- stereotypes and prejudice, fostering respect for differ-
ers are helping young children build inclusive, equi- ences and building community in the classroom can be
table, caring communities across differences that too a daunting one. At first glance, it would seem an espe-
often divide. Their approaches are as varied as their cially tall order for a classroom of young children. But,
faces and names, yet they share three crucial habits: as the teachers in this book affirm, everything is easier
reflecting continually on their own assumptions, goals when you start small. v
and behavior; talking with their peers about how these
factors conflict as well as coincide; and practicing social
skills as diligently as mental or physical ones.
In a Chicago housing project, you will meet a school
director who struggles with what it means to be a
vi |
CHAPTER 1 Seattle, Washington
Everybody’s Story
I
n the bustling hallway outside her classroom, Debra School director Susan Kerr, herself a White adop-
Goldsbury reminds her students to hang their coats tive parent in an interracial family, has devoted her life
on the hooks, to sign in and take their places on the to studying how families are built. “There are teachers
rug for Sharing Time. April’s great-grandparents have who still say, ‘Do a family tree,’ which is impossible for
brought her to school today. Devon is wearing a red many children.” A few years ago, a teacher on Kerr’s
velvet jester’s hat his mom made. Debra notices that staff asked students to copy the information on their
Abigail isn’t her usual smiling self this morning. She birth certificates, including the little footprints. Half of
calls the diminutive 6-year-old aside and rests a hand the children were adopted and did not have access to
on her shoulder. their original certificates.
“I’m sad,” Abigail says without prompting. Her big Kerr would like to make educators more conscious of
brown eyes are lusterless. family diversity, “so that it becomes a natural thought,
“I can tell,” Debra says. She bends closer, her face mir- instead of a ‘special’ thought. I cannot presume that
roring the child’s sorrow. “Do you want to talk about it?” you grew up with your mother and father. If I ask you,
Today, Abigail explains, her birth mom is leaving ‘What was your best childhood memory of your grand-
Seattle. Although Abigail lived in a foster home for two ma, or your dad?’ you may not have any memories at
years and recently moved in with a family that is pre- all. We need to be more open-ended in how we talk
paring to adopt her, she has continued to visit her birth about these things.
mother often. Now, that will change. Just telling some- The admissions policy at Happy Medium is “first
one about this allows her face to brighten a little. come, first served,” with special considerations for main-
A sign on the bulletin board in Debra’s mixed-age taining schoolwide racial and gender balance. The staff’s
primary classroom reads, “Let’s talk. Let’s all talk. What interest in family diversity has made the school popular
we don’t talk about hurts us all.” with adoptive, interracial, and gay and lesbian parents.
It’s an idea that informs every aspect of life at Happy Kerr points out emphatically that there is no admissions
Medium School, located a few blocks west of downtown testing, academic or otherwise. Several students’ fami-
Seattle. (The name derives from the school’s motto: lies receive assistance from the Department of Human
“Children thrive in a happy medium.”) At Sharing Time, Services. Three children in Debra’s class have parents
first thing in the morning, each child gets a turn to bring who work at the school in lieu of paying tuition.
up whatever’s on his or her mind. Sebastian reports, “My Debra finds that encouraging open discussion
mom’s friend, Curt, is going to the mountains with us. I of home life — both its joys and its sorrows — fosters
may be getting a stepdad!” empathy among her students. Devon is a biracial child
“On the way to school this morning,” announces who moved to Seattle with his mother in the fall after
Bonnie, “I found an old shoe.” his father deserted them in California. One morning at
Abigail stands up to show off her new sweatshirt, Sharing Time, Devon said that his mom had had a fight
printed with a family photograph. “Is that your foster with her sister the night before, which meant that he
family?” someone asks, and she nods solemnly. would “never ever” see his favorite cousin again.
Around the circle sit 14 children, as varicolored as Later in the day, Devon “just went off,” says Debra.
pebbles. The visible diversity among students at Happy “He started yelling at another kid, when he’s ordinarily
Medium is central to the school’s philosophy. But just as the world’s caretaker.” Knowing the story behind the
important, says Debra Goldsbury, who is White, is the behavior, she was able to pull him aside and say, “I’m
invisible diversity that our society often fails to under- so sorry you’re having a bad day.” He fell against her
stand, affirm or even acknowledge. Two children in her and sobbed.
room, for example, come from homes with two moms. Abigail, who knew the story, too, came over to him
Several have single parents. Four members of the class and said, “Sometimes I miss my foster family so much
are adopted. my throat hurts. Does your throat hurt?”
In a faint, squeaky voice, Devon said, “Yes.” emotional safety, the sense of well-being that can exist
Spontaneously, the nearby children enveloped him in only where there is respect and trust. “We spend the
a big group hug. whole first month just talking about what makes a per-
A school environment where family diversity is a son feel safe or unsafe. Put-downs, name-calling — these
given allows children to see beyond their differences to are things that violate safety.”
their common concerns. Kim Buchanan, who teaches Recently, Debra’s students collected canned foods
pre-kindergarten across the hall from Debra’s room, to donate to the community food bank, located near
explains: “I have several interracial children in my class. the school. One child commented that “those people at
Kids with single moms. I have one child living with his food banks are lazy and don’t work,” and Debra paused
grandma, where Mom floats in and out. One child’s to correct him. But another class member spoke up first:
father committed suicide, and she’s very much aware “When my mom lost her job, we had to go to a food bank
of it. But no one in the room is worried about whether for a while.” Suddenly, “those people” became real, and
these are ‘traditional’ families or not.” a stereotype faded.
In Debra Goldsbury’s view, “What children are really Loss is a theme that Susan Kerr finds increasingly
concerned about is that there is a family, that there are common in the lives of young children — loss of eco-
people who love them. What frightens them is the idea nomic security, loss of physical and emotional protec-
of being totally alone, of having no one. tion, loss of a parent or of the family structure itself.
This year, Debra has one boy whose mother is a fos- In conjunction with the Children’s Home Society of
ter parent to other children. A succession of temporary Seattle, she received a Kellogg Grant to develop a cur-
siblings has shared his home all his life. This child’s riculum that takes into account these “complex life
experience on the “other side” of the family-building experiences,” as the project terms them.
process has made him a natural ally of Abigail and the Children moving into foster care, Kerr points out,
other adoptees. sometimes take with them only what fits into a suitcase.
“They may never again smell the smell of what’s famil-
Sharing Time iar to them. They may never again hear the sound of
“I think children have amazing respect for each other’s sto- what’s familiar.
ries,” says Debra, who decided to switch careers from com- “They lose that connection, they may never get it
munity activism to teaching 9 years ago, after she began back, and there’s no one to talk with them about it. And
volunteering in her son’s kindergarten classroom. yet we’re asking them to be delightful, energetic, well-
She considers Sharing Time the most important behaved, prepared to learn. So when we talk to educa-
activity of the day. “Over the years, I’ve tried a lot of dif- tors, we try to remind them of this, not to create a sense
ferent ways to begin the day, but I find if I let them share of drama but a sense of awareness that those losses are
first thing in the morning, I can almost always count on meaningful. That they’re not just something you put
cooperation for the rest of the day. If for some reason behind you and go on.”
we don’t have Sharing for several days in a row, it just Earlier this year, a 5-year-old White boy enrolled
comes out on its own. at Happy Medium shortly after being placed in foster
Only four topics are off-limits for Sharing in Debra’s care, awaiting termination of parental rights. He was
room: brand-name toys, movies, video games and TV. assigned to a classroom with two teachers, one Black
Once the Power Rangers and Jurassic Park were ban- and one White.
ished from the circle, she explains, the kids tuned in to According to Kerr, “He came to school out of this
their real thoughts, feelings and activities. chaos and attached — I mean literally attached — to
Kim Buchanan believes that “in most school situa- this young African American teacher.” During an activ-
tions, kids come to school able to talk, and we immedi- ity involving mixing paint to make handprints in the
ately shut them up. In the traditional classroom, the first children’s skin colors, the boy printed one hand using
thing that goes is their voice. We want them to write, we the beige or “White” paint and the other using dark
want them to read, but we don’t want them to talk.” brown. The teacher asked him which was his handprint.
One of the things that Debra and her class talk about “This one,” he said, pointing to the lighter color. “And
often is safety — not just the “fire and traffic” kind, but this one. I’m really like you.”
“When we talk about attachment and trust,” Kerr The sun is a heart in a rainbow sky, and all the clouds
observes, “here was this little White boy losing his fam- are shaped like animals. Pink grass grows beside a
ily and identifying with his Black teacher. He’s not in red Jello river. Your house can be whatever you want:
denial about what color he is, but he’s saying, ‘I belong One person’s is a pyramid, another’s a turreted castle.
with you.’ We did it again three months later and he did Everyone works in a job they like.
both of his handprints ‘White.’ Then he went over to the In the process of sharing ideas and representing
teacher and said, ‘You know, I’m still like you.’ them on paper, the class created its own utopian com-
“These kids are dealing with amazingly complex munity. And Inga wasn’t the only one who found an out-
stuff,” says Kerr. “The issue is whether we as adults are let for her fears.
comfortable enough and aware enough to deal with it.” During one mural work session, Inga said she wished
Happy Medium teachers agree that no magic line that her father could live until she was 12, although she
divides school life from family life. They believe that didn’t think he would even live until she was 8. Judith,
school is, in fact, a part of each student’s extended family. another little girl in the room, had a terminally ill moth-
Whatever is happening at home — whether trivial or ter- er but didn’t want anyone besides the teacher to know.
rifying — is a legitimate topic for classroom discussion. Debra saw Judith with her head down and then noticed
Three years ago, Debra Goldsbury had seven chil- that the child’s dress front was soaked with tears.
dren in her class, six of whom were facing the death or Judith looked up and said, “My mom’s going to die,
terminal illness of a loved one. Inga’s father was dying too.” For the first time, as everyone listened, she began
of AIDS. Her parents had told her as plainly as they to tell her story.
could what the disease was and how it was going to
change their family. She tried to be a brave 6-year-old. Kids Belong Together
Sometimes she even went with her dad when he gave In an era when many private primary schools encour-
talks to groups of people about living with AIDS. But age intense academic competitiveness, Happy Medium
whenever she got scared or sad, she went to a secret emphasizes interactive learning through play. “We tell
place she called Thursberg. prospective parents right up front that if they want their
As her father’s condition worsened, Inga’s parents’ children to accelerate or become computer geniuses,
friends in the Seattle arts community rallied around the and to be reading and writing at four, then don’t bring
family. They tried to give Inga plenty of fun things to them here,” explains Susan Kerr.
do to keep her mind off her worries. Inga’s classmates Instead, she describes her program in terms of val-
knew about the illness, though she hardly ever men- ues: “We want our children to understand the meaning
tioned it at Sharing Time. They also knew she went to of compassion and fairness and resolving problems
“Thursberg” a lot, but she never described it to anyone. without beating on each other. We want them to under-
Inga had always been quiet and solitary at school. She stand how they belong and who belongs and how every-
told her teacher that kids were boring — she’d rather one’s connected.” When discussing diversity issues with
play with adults. students and parents alike, Debra Goldsbury believes in
One day Debra asked the class for ideas for a bulle- “cutting to the chase.” She asks parents who are consid-
tin-board mural they could make. Several suggestions ering sending their children to Happy Medium, “Who
came up before Inga raised her hand. She proposed is your child’s peer group?” Her own conviction is clear:
making a mural of Thursberg. “This is their peer group — this multiculturalism is real.
“I think she just needed to have people share a part This is who they’ll be spending their time with, hiring,
of her life that was beautiful,” says Debra. “It was dif- marrying. No matter where they are.”
ficult for her in some ways because she had very clear Small visual details throughout the building contrib-
ideas of what it was going to be, and she had to let go ute to an environment of pluralism. A hallway bulletin
of some of those. She shared it, so it was very beautiful board features a sequence of photocopied hands spell-
to watch.” ing “Kim’s Class” in sign language. The clock in the
Three years after its creation, the bright collage school office has Japanese numerals. A framed piece
still occupies most of one wall in the school office. In of Hmong needlework hangs over the assistant direc-
Thursberg there are no cars — the people ride dinosaurs. tor’s desk. The “Thursberg” mural dominates one wall,
opposite an embroidered image of colorful winged We can say, ‘They come from a complex life experience.’
children taking flight. Nearby, a calendar proclaims They’re still our kids. They belong here.”
the unofficial Happy Medium motto: “Let’s talk. Let’s Occasionally, the parent-teacher board must grapple
all talk. ...” with questions of how well a child’s special needs are
Teachers infuse diversity into all areas of the curricu- being served by the school or whether the situation is
lum. Virtually any subject, from dancing to dinosaurs, monopolizing the teacher’s time. So far, no behavior
offers opportunities for discussing similarity and dif- issue has caused a child to be removed from or denied
ference. A citywide project to make quilts for children admission to Happy Medium.
with AIDS has given rise in Debra’s room to a multicul- Debra admits, “It’s a fine line we’re walking. Yes, we
tural exploration of quilts, blankets and the whole idea want to be inclusive. I tell parents that one of the life
of comfort. skills children need is how to deal with difficult chil-
“At this age,” Debra points out, “many children have dren. But there are limits to what is fair to everyone.”
a favorite blanket. And all cultures use quilts or blankets Another challenge facing the school is the inclusion
somehow. There are so many natural connections.” of mobility-impaired students. While children with a
One of the teacher’s most important tasks, as Debra variety of disabilities — deafness, blindness, cerebral
sees it, is simply to keep the discussion flowing. Recently, palsy — have attended Happy Medium, the present
Shantha’s mother brought their household altar in and facility does not accommodate wheelchairs. Long-
told the class about Krishna and Kali and the other gods range plans for a new building, Kerr says, will address
and goddesses worshipped by the Nepali Hindu family. this need.
Rodrigo, a Latino child of the Catholic faith, said, “My “I want kids to come who have all kinds of issues,”
mom said you don’t believe in Jesus.” she adds. “Kids belong together. Out in the world,
Shantha’s mother described her tradition’s inclusive they’re going to be side by side, so this is a good place
theology. “We love Jesus,” she said. “Jesus was a won- to practice.”
derful wise person.”
Her statement satisfied Rodrigo, but Tommy, whose A Million and Nine Colors
African American family is devoutly Baptist, was more It’s late March, but Debra Goldsbury is showing her
skeptical. “Do you go to church on Sunday?” he asked. class a group photograph from the beginning of the
“No, we don’t,” said the visitor. “We worship in other school year. “Why don’t we have this picture on the wall
ways, every day. We have this altar in our house.” any more?” she asks her 14 students.
Debra saw Tommy struggling to accept this answer. “Because there were only eight of us,” says Martin.
When she asked him how he felt about what he had just “Now we have more,” Emily adds. Other voices join
heard, he paused, then grinned and said, “That’s Shantha!” in to name Daniel, Abigail, Sebastian, April, Devon and
The flash of Tommy’s smile signaled for Debra Bonnie, all second-semester arrivals.
Goldsbury the kind of small insight a teacher hopes “I would like for this to be the best year ever,” Debra
for. “What an awareness!” she says. “That this isn’t just tells the class. “Have you noticed anything different
some odd person doing this. ‘This is my friend Shantha, lately, besides the fact that we’re bigger? Have you
whose family does this. And she eats a peanut butter noticed any problems?”
sandwich every day just like I do”.’ As Debra has predicted, the class is quick to cite
Over the past eight years, family, racial and religious several: The teacher has to raise her voice more often.
diversity has been woven into the Happy Medium fab- There’s been a lot of hitting and fighting. Kids are pay-
ric. But other differences remain at issue among par- ing less attention to the rules they made as a group at
ents and staff. A current challenge concerns students the beginning of the year.
with behavior problems. Susan Kerr remains skeptical The class Constitution hangs on the front wall.
of programs that segregate “problem” children from The original eight children drafted it by consensus
their peers. back in September, and Goldsbury inscribed it on
“There are new ways of working with certain kids,” she poster board, complete with “antiqued” edges. It has
asserts, “without having to call them Attention Deficit occurred to her recently that that document may be
Disordered or Attachment Disordered or Hyperactive. part of the problem.
Since January, her class has nearly doubled in size. coding could be questioned. “What happens,” Debra
The new students have no ownership in the agree- asks the class, “when Daniel says ‘I’m White,’ and we
ments the previous children created. As she puts it, “We say ‘Nobody’s white’?”
haven’t done anything to include the new group, to cre- “He doesn’t feel good,” says LaKecia.
ate a new identity with this whole class.” “I mean he’s not white like these,” Tommy explains,
At today’s meeting they decide to start over, from pointing to his own athletic socks.
scratch: Take everything off the walls, create new self- Debra takes Daniel’s hand. “One of the things we
portraits, abolish the old Constitution and adopt a new decided back in the fall,” she tells him, “was that instead of
one. The students who had been there from the begin- saying we’re white or black or brown we’d find out exactly
ning would become teachers — reinforcing their own what color we are. We start with these 12 colors the facto-
understanding of community by helping their new ry makes, and then we mix and match. How many colors
classmates take part. of children do you think there are in the world?”
“It’s going to be interesting to see how it will go at “A million and nine,” says Daniel with a shrug. After
mid-year,” she says. “It’s an experiment. I’m sticking my sampling several People Colors on the back of his hand
neck out here. I can anticipate some of the things they and displaying them around the circle, he grins and
might do, but I’m asking young children to do a task announces, “I’m peach!”
that’s even difficult for adults, which is to include some- In Debra’s view, exercises like self-portraiture that
body new.” explore and validate individual traits and perceptions
The walls of the room are bare. One of the activities help to orient young children in their social sphere. A
Debra always opens the year with is painting self-por- clear sense of their own physical and emotional iden-
traits with People Colors — one of several commercial tity permits them to regard their peers as unique equals.
lines of “multicultural” paints and crayons. Today, she After the paint has dried, Debra groups the fresh faces
invites each new child, in turn, to find the paint mixture on a bulletin board to form a new class portrait.
that matches his or her skin tone. The old-timers have
been using these colors for months now. Unity in Community
“I’m gingerbread,” says Rodrigo. Piece by piece, the room is coming together. On the
“I’m melon and terra cotta,” boasts Millie. bare front wall, Debra hangs a poster she has made
“Raise your hand,” Debra says, “if your color is close of some proverbs inscribed on the steps of the nearby
to Millie’s.” community center: “Welcome unity in the community.”
April volunteers. “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved
“April’s a little darker than Millie,” someone through understanding.” “It takes a whole village to
comments. raise a child.” “Let’s talk. Let’s all talk. What we don’t
“Do you think that’s because April just moved here talk about hurts us all.”
from California and has more of a suntan?” Debra Next to it she places a large sheet of paper labeled
inquires. She fingers a streak of melon onto April’s “Community Constitution,” with two blank columns
hand — too pale — then mixes in some terra cotta. for the rights and responsibilities the class will vote
“I can’t even see it,” Sebastian says when April shows to adopt. She repeats a question she first asked seven
the smudge around. months ago: “What rights do we all have as members of
“So what does that mean,” Debra asks, “if you can’t the community in this room?”
see the paint I just put on her skin?” A flock of small hands takes to the air. “The right to
“It’s a match!” cries Martin. learn!” “To play!” “We have the right to have things.”
Debra calls Daniel, one of the new children, to the front. Debra records each suggestion on the left-hand col-
“I’m White,” he says. umn, reminding the class that every right brings a
“Nobody’s white,” says Tommy. responsibility.
Daniel’s face falls. “We all have the right to learn, so we all have the
Right there, as Debra hears it, is the whole new kid/ responsibility to ...”
old kid issue in two short sentences. At Daniel’s previ- “Teach!”
ous school, no one ever suggested that society’s color “That’s good,” Debra says. “We all teach each other,
as well as learn from each other. I’m not the only teacher “Different!”
in this room, and you aren’t the only learners. “That’s the same and different,” Millie observes.
Other examples fill out the page: The right to play Each child in turn puts a new spin on the concept:
brings the responsibility to cooperate and play fairly. They keep our feet clean. Some have stripes. Mine are
The right to have things brings the responsibility to cloth, yours are leather.
share. As Debra notices the newer kids joining the oth- Debra scans the circle of sneakers, sandals, scuffed
ers in this exercise, she sees the distinctions of new and boots, polished slippers. Different and the same, they
old disappearing. At recess time she will take the docu- form the outline of a world. v
ment out to the playground and ceremonially burn its
edges, to give it the earmark of history.
“It feels good to regroup, doesn’t it?” Debra says. “I
think we should celebrate! Communities need to cele-
brate their togetherness.” She opens the floor for ideas.
Devon suggests that the boys make a paper chain
and the girls make whatever they want to decorate the
room.
Millie says she doesn’t like that idea.
“Why not?” Debra asks.
“Because it wouldn’t show we’re all together.”
Someone else proposes a tea party.
“What kind of tea party could we have?” asks Debra.
“A doll tea party!”
“A stuffed animal tea party.”
Rodrigo is staring intently at his new track shoes. “I
have an idea,” he says. His face lights up. ‘A new shoe
tea party!” Then his eyes narrow again as he stretches
the thought: “How about a new shoe/old shoe tea party?
That includes everyone. Even the girls, because they
wear shoes, too!”
The next day, Debra brings a box to school containing
a china teapot, linen napkins, herbal tea and cookies. At
Sharing Time that morning, she picks up Rodrigo’s theme.
“Stick your feet out, everyone, so we can see your
shoes. Let’s talk about how shoes are the same and how
they’re different.”
Devon goes first: “Abigail’s and Rodrigo’s and mine
are Converses.
“Is that the same or different?” asks Debra.
“Same!”
Millie says, “They all protect our feet. That’s the same.
“Some are old and some are new.”
“Different!” chimes the circle.
“We all wear them,” says Shantha.
“Same!”
“Some have laces and some have buckles.”
“Different!”
“My shoes and Rodrigo’s and Tommy’s shoes are high-
tops,” says Martin, “but Daniel’s and Shantha’s aren’t.”
his White mother. Although terms such as “biracial,” Personal Growth.” In M. Spencer G. Brookins, & W.
“multiracial” and “mixed race” are often used by multi- Allen (Eds.), Beginnings: The Social and Affective
racial families, some biracial children continually face Development of Black Children (pp. 215-230).
out-of-home experiences that do not support the devel- Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
opment of dual-race identity.
The prominence of so-called racial attributes in young
children’s perception of diversity helps explain why race
is such a confounding concept in our society. While racial
categories involve a range of biological traits, race itself
is not a biological phenomenon — there is no “race gene.”
Yet the conventional categories of race reflect differences
that even infants can perceive. To minimize for young
people the reality of these physical differences — “In our
room, we don’t see color” — can be as harmful as ignoring
the social and political implications of race.
Most studies of racial awareness in young children
have focused on Asian, Black and White populations.
Further research is needed to help us understand how
all children make distinctions among racially and ethni-
cally diverse people. While such issues are sensitive for
aduits, children speak candidly about their observations
and feelings concerning differences. To understand
how racism, prejudice and discrimination develop, we
must begin by examining race and ethnicity through
children’s eyes (see Prejudice Formation, p. 99).
References
Cross, W. E., & Fhagen-Smith, P (1996). “Nigrescence
and Ego Identity Development: Accounting
for Differential Black Identity Patterns.” In PB.
Pedersoni. G. Draguns,WJ. Lonner & J. ETrimble
(Eds,), Counseling Across Cultures (4th ed., pp. 108-
123).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Affirming Identity
Through their own perceptions and the messages of to speak two languages, beautiful skin color or
others, young children construct an understanding of unique cultural traditions).
race and ethnicity that significantly shapes their self- »» Use materials and lessons that honor the contribu-
image and, by extension, their behavior and relation- tions, values and heritages of diverse peoples.
ships.The following activities are designed to assist in »» Lead discussions and activities that openly value
promoting children’s racial-ethnic identity develop- racial and ethnic diversity in the classroom (e.g.,
ment. Evidence of self-respect and positive interaction compare and contrast skin colors and affirm the
with diverse peers and caregivers can serve as an evalu- beauty of all of them; explain that children usu-
ation tool. ally — but not always have physical traits similar to
those of their family members).
Encourage children to notice and appreciate their own »» If children express confusion about race/color
physical traits and those of others. For example: terms, acknowledge that although “Black” and
»» Provide hand-held mirrors to let children inspect “White” refer to racial categories they are not
their own faces and a large mirror at child level accurate descriptions of skin color Point out that
so they can see themselves full-size with their people come in many shades.
friends. »» Discuss with friends and colleagues from different
»» Throughout the year engage children in self-por- backgrounds how they first became aware of their
trait activities in a variety of media (e.g.,”People racial and/or ethnic identity
Colors,” collage, clay). In some of the activities, »» Provide positive role models by encouraging and
emphasize careful attention to skin color hair tex- recruiting teachers of diverse racial and ethnic
ture and facial features. backgrounds to work in your school.
»» Make “Who Am I?” snapshots of children’s hands
or the backs of their heads. Have a guessing game
for identifying the photos, then display them as an
alternative class portrait.
Family Diversity
Every child is a member of a family. Regardless of where primary source of continuity and social-emotional sup-
or with whom children live, they belong to a group of port (see Childhood Losses, p. 189).
people who share one or more of the following family
ties: kinship, affection, cultural knowledge and resourc- Language Differences
es. While the term “family diversity” is often used to At a very young age, children are required to negotiate
describe racial and ethnic variations, other factors, such difficult transitions between home and school. While
as adoption, foster care, socioeconomic status and life- it is challenging for any child to enter a new environ-
style, also account for differences among families. These ment, this experience can be terrifying for young chil-
factors in themselves do not determine the amount or dren whose home language differs from that of the
the quality of nurturing young children receive. All classroom. Approximately 31.8 million residents of the
kinds of families can provide the love and support nec- United States — more than one in seven — speak a lan-
essary for healthy psychosocial development. guage other than English as their primary language
Myths and stereotypes about the “ideal” family can (U.S. Census Bureau, 1990). Contrary to popular belief,
influence teacher expectations and attitudes regard- most U.S. schoolchildren from non-English-speaking
ing the ability of children to learn and behave. Some families are native-born citizens.
homes may be consciously or subconsciously judged In the classroom, linguistic isolation can make chil-
unsatisfactory or culturally inferior simply on the basis dren feel unsafe, unimportant and friendless. These
of race, lifestyle, family structure or socioeconomic sta- psychological and social factors sometimes outweigh
tus. By acknowledging and celebrating a wide spectrum the cognitive challenges of learning a new language.
of families in the curriculum, early childhood teachers Researcher Cristina lgoa (1995) observed the drawings
can discourage prejudgment and reinforce the vital link of immigrant children and saw baby birds falling out
between home and school. of trees, fish swimming on sidewalks and other scenes
Family relationships and child-rearing practices expressing what she interprets as feelings of fear, lone-
exert a fundamental influence on identity development. liness, fatigue and rootlessness. lgoa believes that the
Families create, or fail to create, children’s earliest sense psychological and cultural trauma immigrant children
of belonging, uniqueness and competence. Generally experience is often obscured by the fact that most of
speaking, parents’ race, ethnicity, language, religion and them eventually learn to speak English.
other cultural attributes determine those of the child. The issue of language differences between home and
However, adoption, foster care, extensive child-care ser- school also affects many children who speak English
vices and diverse family structures may introduce racial but come from cultural backgrounds outside the main-
and cultural differences among family members. stream. Children from Appalachia or other regions with
Research shows that one in four children under distinct speech patterns, for example, or children who
the age of 6 lives in a family that is below the national speak Black English may encounter communication
poverty level (National Center for Children in Poverty, barriers in the classroom.
1996). Children from economically distressed families To be successful with diverse linguistic groups,
endure conditions, such as inadequate shelter, inferior teachers must acknowledge the functions of language
food and unsafe neighborhoods, that affect their emo- beyond direct exchange of information. Every language
tional, social and educational well-being. Often it is embodies both the historical experience of a particular
not the lack of income per se but the presence of stress cultural group and the conscious effort by that group
in the home environment that accounts for the nega- to transmit its collective values (Vygotsky 1962). Native
tive adjustment of children (Graham-Bermann, 1996). speakers of a given language utilize not only its gram-
Disruptions and traumas in children’s lives are associ- mar and vocabulary but also its distinctive verbal cus-
ated with increased social and behavioral problems. For toms and patterns of thought, which help to shape
some of these children, teachers and classmates are a styles of learning.
For example, the turn-taking, eye contact and conver- Narrative Patterns.” Child Language, 22 (2) 423-
sational sequence observed in many U.S. schools may 445.
be foreign to some children in a diverse classroom. A
child from a culture that values spontaneous and exu- National Center for Children in Poverty. (1996). One
berant call-and-response group dialogue, for example, in Four: America’s Youngest Poor (Abridged). New
may have difficulty raising her hand and waiting to be York Columbia School of Public Health.
called on. Conversely a child from a culture in which
personal opinion and emotion are considered inap- U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1990). Report CPHL I
propriate for public display may withdraw from class 33. Vygotsky, L (1962). Thought and Language.
participation (Minami & McCabe, 1995). In addition to Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
these broader cultural factors, teachers should bear in
mind that many young children are in transition from
the casual communication style used at home to the
more formal one of school and society.
Cultural Values
Another element of family life that many young children
bring into the classroom is a framework of cultural knowl-
edge and values grounded in religious tradition. The chal-
lenge for teachers is simultaneously to affirm this aspect of
cultural identity to help children recognize and appreciate
religious diversity and to avoid promoting a particular reli-
gion. Some teachers meet these goals by allowing children
to “share” religious traditions in the larger context of “What
we do in my family.” Sensitivity to these issues will ensure
that every child’s religious beliefs and practices — or lack
thereof — receive equal respect and accommodation.
Teachers can observe children’s behaviors in order
to identify and assess the learning preferences, cogni-
tive strengths and cultural values that originate in the
home.This child-generated knowledge is an essential
component of an equitable curriculum. In turn, such
information opens doors for more meaningful interac-
tion with parents and other caregivers (See also Racial
and Ethnic Awareness, p. 16).
References
Graham-Bermann, S. A., Coupet, S., Egler L, Mattis, J.,
& Banyard, V. (1996). “Interpersonal Relationships
and Adjustment of Children in Homeless and
Economically Distressed Families,” Journal of
Clinical Child Psychology, 25 (3) 25 0-26 I.
A Wider Circle
T
he preschool teachers at Cabrillo College’s Child In another class, for instance, after Eric had brought
Development Center in Aptos, California, still in an authentic Seminole doll to “talk” about pictures of
talk about the morning several years ago when a Seminole houses, one of his students said matter-of-fact-
group of children tore around the playground whooping ly, “Indians aren’t people. They’re monsters.”
and clapping their hands over their mouths, brandishing “Yeah,” another child agreed, “blood-thirsty monsters.”
their make-believe tomahawks. “We’re Indians!” shouted Eric knew then that he had skipped some crucial steps.
the marauders, who were all White. The importance of breaking down complex concepts
From one perspective, it was a classic American and images into child-sized pieces is a central prem-
childhood fantasy. But for the teachers at Cabrillo, it was ise at Cabrillo and other developmentally-based early
a call to action. Cabrillo’s vision of childhood centers childhood centers. Simply “correcting” a stereotype, for
on a comprehensive anti-bias curriculum. Admission to example, may eliminate certain words or behaviors from
the program is tailored to reflect, as closely as possible, the classroom, but it is unlikely to change what a 4-year-
the racial, cultural, religious and economic diversity of old thinks. Accomplishing the latter requires concerted
the community. Each baby doll in the house-play area empathy on the teacher’s part, a willingness to enter into
is a different shade from pink to brown. Little boys are the child’s thought processes.
encouraged to cook and dance, and the person who When the ethnic stereotype seized his students’
visits to explain how telephones work is likely to be a imaginations on the playground, Eric enlisted his col-
woman or a member of an ethnic minority or someone leagues’ help in analyzing the behavior and undertaking
in a wheelchair. to change it. They asked each other: What other stereo-
In short, Cabrillo is a place where diversity and equal- typical images of Native Americans have the children
ity aren’t just talked about but daily demonstrated. And seen? What, if any, exposure have they had to real Native
yet, without warning, a stereotype can swoop in and take Americans? What do they know about Native Americans
the children by storm. A recent reissue of the Disney in our area? How can we introduce preschoolers to Native
classic Peter Pan, teachers discovered, had spawned the American diversity?
“wild Indians.” Over the next several months, teachers incorporated
Teacher Eric Hoffman remembers intercepting the simple but particular references to Native American
group and squelching his own impulse to lecture. “That’s cultures when they talked about general topics like
interesting,” he began diplomatically. Then he proceeded nature, food, houses, tools or art. After they helped the
with questions: “What do you do when you act like Indians?” original “warriors” investigate traditional hunting prac-
“Did you see Native Americans doing that somewhere?” tices of Northern California tribes, generic whooping
“In the video,” came the obvious reply. Eric’s explana- at playtime gave way to careful imitation of local birds.
tion that the characters in the video weren’t real elicited And they discovered real Native American connections
cool 4-year-old logic: “It was a real TV.” in classroom families.
Now in his mid-40s, Eric has been teaching preschool- Julie Olsen Edwards, founding director of the Cabrillo
ers for more than two decades. This year he has 19 in his Center and currently a professor of education at the col-
room. Small-framed, White, with wire-rimmed glasses lege, recalls a moment near the end of the semester: “A
and a salt-and-pepper beard, he exudes a quiet, unassum- couple of kids came in and started doing tomahawk play,
ing force that draws children like a magnet. and one of the 4-year-olds said, ‘That’s going to hurt
“I’ve found that my first task in teaching about anoth- Mary’s feelings. Her grandma’s an Ohlone.”’
er culture,” Eric says, “is to make sure the children realize That statement, Olsen Edwards observes, embodies
we’re talking about people. It’s easy to forget that they a whole chain of cognitive and emotional connections:
may not know this. That’s especially true when talk- First came some concrete information about Native
ing about Native Americans in a school with no Native Americans, which the child then linked to the life of
American families.” her friend. From the friendship arose her recognition of
the stereotype’s real consequences and, from there, the maintain that balance alone. When I share what I’m try-
impulse to respond. ing to do with others and make them a part of the pro-
cess, I find that people are more willing to tolerate my
Beyond Diversity failures — I’m not expected to be perfect. Perfection is a
Engaging children’s emotions and helping them find the trap. If you wait until you meet every possible objection,
courage to take a stand against bias, says Olsen Edwards, get it all right, you will never get started.”
are long-range goals of programs like Cabrillo’s. “That’s In the second step of the anti-bias curriculum, teach-
one of the big differences between what I see as an equity ers begin talking with children about differences, a
program as compared to just a diversity program.” But she subject that Olsen Edwards believes is innately fasci-
cautions that considerable groundwork and cultivation are nating for this age group. Physical differences like skin
required before the seeds of activism can sprout. color, hair texture, gender and body type are obvious
In her classes for prospective teachers, Olsen Edwards places to start. Family differences become apparent as
identifies four essential steps in early childhood equity children learn more about each other’s background and
education: home life. Ranging more widely, by means of books and
1. Helping children develop a sense of pride in and a pictures and stories, a class might investigate the vari-
language to describe their own heritage. ous ways that people around the world eat or sleep or
2. Exploring differences of all kinds. celebrate birthdays.
3. Building on children’s notions of fairness to create a Olsen Edwards says, “It’s what my husband, who’s
sense of justice and the capacity to recognize bias. an anthropologist, calls ‘anthropology for 3-year-olds.’
4. Helping children find ways to confront and elimi- When we don’t give them language to talk about differ-
nate biases they encounter. ence because we’re so scared of it, it becomes something
For 3-year-olds, Olsen Edwards says, the capacity to that children feel as forbidden and dangerous.
describe one’s own heritage means being able to say, “In “I was at a parent meeting at another school where
my family, we have Hanukkah” or “In my family, Mama they were talking about a kid saying very loudly on the
speaks Spanish; Daddy speaks Spanish and English.” bus, ‘That lady’s fat! What a fat lady!’ and the mother get-
Eric Hoffman urges parents into the process. “I want ting really embarrassed and trying to just shush the child
to know more about these cultures. I want each of these up. We talked about what a difference it would have made
families to see its culture reflected in my classroom. if she could have talked about different people having
But most of the handy ‘cultural tips’ I’ve read don’t get different bodies, and not shushed it. What a help it would
me very far past stereotypes.” He recalls a Costa Rican have been for the woman who got called ‘fat,‘ as well as
mother who explained, “Don’t expect my son to know for the child, to make it a real conversation.”
that song just because we speak Spanish. We never sing Eric Hoffman also advocates lifting the taboo on talk-
that in my country.” ing about difference, but he stresses, “Some comments by
Eric says that his motto in parent relationships is Take children can inadvertently hurt another person. I’ve been
people seriously. “Whatever comment or criticism or sug- trying to figure out how to support children’s inquisitive-
gestion a person comes up with, I must assume that it ness while teaching them about social standards. My
carries that person’s individual and cultural perspective main strategy has been to discuss the concept of permis-
and deserves my respect. sion: ‘You’re very interested in that person’s size. We can
“For example, a parent might say, ‘If she swears at talk to her about it if we get her permission first, because
adults, I want you to smack her face.’ Then I’d say, ‘It some people don’t mind being talked about and some do.
sounds like you really want her to learn to respect adults. Do you want me to help you ask her for permission?”’
I agree — that’s important for me, too. I don’t hit children, Eric acknowledges that the idea flies in the face of
so maybe we can figure out something we both can agree custom — most discussion of people’s “differentness”
on.’ And then we talk. I have to take the lead in finding takes place behind their backs. Children, he adds, often
common ground. say “No!” to the suggestion at first but want to try it later
“Multiculturalism is such a tricky balance,” Eric con- on. “Most adults have been surprised and grateful when
tinues. “My own culture, biases and knowledge must be asked. They know that everyone just pretends not to
balanced with the cultures of the families I serve. I can’t notice their differences.”
From Image to Action that if a child can’t say it, they don’t understand it. The
With the wealth of multicultural posters, books, videos, match between what they’ve experienced and the words
dolls and other materials available, most early childhood they are capable of using is not great.
teachers make at least some effort to represent various “The place where there’s the greatest overlap is in
kinds of diversity in their classroom environment. The highly tangible ‘object’ stuff, where kids will agree that
Cabrillo program trains teachers to look deeper than the that’s a block and that’s a ball. And if they’re given an
images of race, culture and gender on their shelves and opportunity to develop a language for feelings, they can
walls. How, Olsen Edwards asks, are the children using match words and feelings pretty well. But when you get
the environment? Who is playing with whom and with into abstract concepts, you’ve got to go in tiny little incre-
which toys? What books are children choosing? ments, and you’ve got to be prepared to do it again and
Gender equity is one of the center’s particular con- again, from a lot of different directions.”
cerns: Are the boys favoring one play area, such as the Center director Nancy Brown explains, “We don’t use
block or truck space, while the girls gravitate to the kitch- the vocabulary of ‘share,’ ‘fairness’ and so on. We don’t
en or dress-up corner? say, ‘You must take turns.’ We want them to construct an
“Put them in proximity to each other,” Olsen Edwards understanding of what it means to share. We’d say, ‘It
advises, “so the play can overlap. When we found that looks like you both want to go first,’ and then help them
boys weren’t using the household stuff indoors, we put figure out why that’s impossible.”
some of it outdors in the sandbox. I’ve done things like When children themselves use a word like “share,”
have ‘girls’ hour’ at the carpentry table, and suddenly the says Eric Hoffman, “then it becomes our job to say, ‘Oh,
girls who’ve never used it show up. I’ve had ‘boys only’ you want to share. Let’s talk more about that. What does
dance time. I don’t do that long-term, but as a way of that mean for you?’ Because there are so many different
starting kids in and getting them to begin to claim some- ways to do it. For some children it might mean ‘I use it
thing as their own.” first and then you get to use it’ or ‘I get to decide what
Olsen Edwards believes that, as children learn to happens, and you can be the little baby.”’ Eric is careful
understand and appreciate diversity rather than fear it, not to reduce sharing to the equal distribution of materi-
they naturally become attuned to bias. Step three of the als. “My focus is never on the toys. It’s ‘Can I help these
Cabrillo curriculum focuses on how a young child’s self- children form a relationship?’”
centered notions of “fair” and “unfair” enlarge into con- While Cabrillo teachers avoid using shorthand terms
cepts of justice. for the intricacies of getting along, they find that often
“Some of our 4- and 5-year-olds can pick up on the the best remedy for antisocial behavior is to call it as they
word ‘stereotype,”’ she says, “but most of the time we talk see it. “We had a situation last year,” Eric explains, “where
about what’s ‘true’ and what’s ‘not true.’ We talk about there were a group of boys who were going into the bath-
how things that aren’t true hurt people’s feelings and room [a shared alcove off the classroom] and poking at
what that’s like.” girls’ bodies, making fun of their bodies. ‘Harass’ was a
Following a conversation with (or about) the large very appropriate word for what was going on. I defined it
lady on the bus, she suggests, a parent might say, “You for them and said, ‘I will not allow you to do it.’
know, some people look at people with big bodies and “I said to the girls, ‘If someone is harassing you like
think ‘Just because you’re big I’m not going to like you.’ that, you can say: “Don’t harass me!”’ It was really effec-
And some people look at somebody who’s little and think tive. (The behavior] stopped within a few days.”
‘Just because you’re little I’m not going to like you.’ Isn’t “Threaten” is another big word that Eric finds useful.
that awful?” “It comes up over and over again: ‘If you don’t give me
Olsen Edwards emphasizes, “A 3-year-old can pick up the ball, you can’t come to my birthday party.’ Everybody
the injustice of that, but it’s got to be made specific and says those things, but to have them labeled a ‘threat’
articulate. It’s hard, because we’re sort of falling over our makes the kids see it as a bigger deal. I can say, ‘I won’t
own tongues. Language is an approximation, and it’s far let you solve this by threatening him.’ ‘Tease’ is too soft
more approximate for children than it is for grownups. I a word.”
think one of the big mistakes of adults is to think that if a Perhaps no word carries more of a stigma at Cabrillo
child can say something, they understand it. Conversely, than ‘’exclude.” Olsen Edwards says there is one basic
rule: ‘’You can’t exclude anybody because of who they three little girls who are dancing with scarves, and a boy
are. Ever. To say, ‘You can’t play here because you’re a comes up and they exclude him because he’s a boy, then
girl, because you’re a boy, because of your skin color’ — I deal with them on it.
that’s who a person is, and you can’t exclude them on “But if the reason he’s being excluded is because
that basis.” they’re trying to figure out how to play as a threesome,
She is quick to add that there are legitimate reasons which is a really hard number, I’m going to support them
for refusing to play with someone. Undesirable behavior in doing that. But it becomes my job to find a way for
is one. “You can say, ‘You can’t play here because you him to be dancing with scarves. It may mean that the
pushed me down’ or ‘You can’t play here because you tore next day I need to sit down and ask myself: ‘How are we
up the dolls’ or ‘You can’t play here because when you going to do some dance stuff around the Center that’s
yell it hurts my ears.’ Kids make the distinction. We say going to include more boys, so he’s not the only one?’ It’s
it often enough with enough examples, and they begin the adult’s responsibility to create the environment that
to get it.” makes that happen.”
When exclusion by category does occur, says Nancy In Olsen Edwards’ view, the multicultural movement
Brown, the teacher’s task is to challenge the child’s nar- has made significant progress in equipping young
row view of who can be included. One useful technique is children to talk about difference and even to recognize
what Brown calls “sportscasting.” When a conflict arises, bias. But the trickier matter of eliminating bias has too
the teacher asks simple questions in order to construct a often been left up to adults. In the same way that we
“play-by-play” narrative and elicit ideas for solutions. teach children to “stand up for themselves,” she says,
In the kitchen area, for instance, a girl might tell a boy Step 4 in the Cabrillo sequence helps them do the same
that boys can’t play with the dishes. On the abstract level for each other.
of the stereotype, Eric Hoffman avoids simply refuting “When we had a child here a few years ago who was
it, as in, “That’s not true. Boys can play with the dishes.” wheelchair-bound most of the time, it became every-
Rather, he looks for the hidden logic: “You haven’t seen body’s responsibility to make sure Breanna could get to
many boys play with the dishes. I wonder why that’s true. where we were going. The kids helped invent little ramps.
At my house, I’m the one who usually sets the table and When they built a bus out of blocks, it became the job to
washes the dishes.” Later he might invite a male chef in figure out how to get Breanna on the bus. She was a part
to create a salad. of our community. We all had a responsibility to find a
But on the concrete level, the play problem is still way to make it work for her.”
there. To “break down” the immediate conflict, Eric asks The little girl who halted the tomahawk play, says
each child what he or she would like to do with the dishes. Olsen Edwards, was acting on the same principle. “The
The girl might say, “I want to have a party for my friend,” early childhood world has done a lot of glorifying of
and the boy might say, “It’s dinner time, and I have to autonomy. I think autonomy without deep community is
wash the dishes.” a disaster.”
“As an adult,” Eric says, “you can see that those two Cabrillo teachers see preschool as the ideal place for
ideas could really mesh, but the children can’t see that. I fostering such interdependence. Because social develop-
can come in and say, ‘Oh, you want to play a party game, ment is already a central focus for this age group, every
and you want to play a dish-washing game. How are we incident of stereotyping or exclusion gives the teacher
going to solve this problem?’ Very often they will come up an opportunity to reinforce classroom relationships —
with a creative solution: ‘Oh, I’ll wash the dishes for your by supporting any child who is slighted or left out, by
party,’ and all of a sudden the two games get connected, encouraging anyone who speaks up about it, and by help-
and the children get connected. Everybody has to say ‘Yes’ ing the offender hear how others feel.
to an idea before we can say the problem is solved.” “Their day is full of little injustices,” says Eric. “I want
Sometimes, Olsen Edwards points out, what may look to help them develop skills and discernments that will
like exclusion by category really has more to do with enable them to address larger injustices later in their
mastering group-play skills than with rejecting differ- lives. I want them to know that injustice is not overcome
ences. “You have to know your children and pay attention by magic or wishes. People make it happen. You can
to them and their age and what’s going on. If you’ve got make it happen.”
Enlarging the Classroom Community For Halloween, the children determined that Betty
While teaching in several California preschools in the would dress up as a bird and Saul as a squirrel. In the spir-
early 1980s, Eric Hoffman attracted the attention of the it of the holiday, Eric decided to add a bit of mischief. He
Cabrillo College education faculty for his commitment told the class that Betty wanted a big mask. But Saul was
to equity issues and his effectiveness with both children afraid of masks and didn’t even want her to wear one.
and parents. He accepted an offer to teach a few adult “Then I asked the same question I often used when
courses and acquired some “remedial” training of his helping with disputes in the classroom: ‘How can we
own in the bargain. In 1986, he was hired to his current solve this problem?’ I had struck gold! The conversation
position as a master teacher in the college’s laboratory that followed was thoughtful and serious.” Prompted by
nursery school. questions from the teacher, the children discussed their
Eric knew that his every move would now be scrutinized own feelings about masks and scary costumes. “The
by student teachers and other observers from behind the group came up with ideas, debated choices and selected
big two-way mirror in his classroom. But his sense of pur- one: Saul would wear a hat and Betty a mask, but when
pose and his hard-won insights gave him the confidence Saul felt scared, Betty would take off her mask to show
he needed. Then he met the “Pink Connection.” that she was still Betty.”
The other teachers had already coined the name for The success of the Halloween problem-solving
a clique of 4-year-old girls who, Eric says, “spent much encouraged Eric to tackle more complicated issues
of their day disrupting the classroom by trading clothes, using the flannel figures. After lengthy discussion, for
arguing about who would wear whose pink and laven- example, the class debunked a gender stereotype by
der outfit, and ostracizing anyone who failed to meet deciding that Saul should be able to wear the pink boots
their fashion standards.” In the first few weeks of school, if he wanted to.
they had successfully intimidated the entire class. Every Eric admits that he “didn’t start this process with equi-
morning, they commandeered Circle Time by turning ty issues in mind. I was just trying to survive as a teacher.
their backs to the teacher and noisily swapping socks. But by using the same problem-solving language and
Eric realized he was going to have to stage his own routines throughout the day to discuss everything from
“countercoup.” In desperation, he borrowed two flan- science questions to social disputes to puppet problems,
nel cut-out figures from a colleague and began playing I later realized that I had created a comfortable frame-
out the girls’ disruptive behavior on the story board. As work for investigating diversity.”
“Betty” and “Saul” scrambled around dressing and re- One October Tuesday, Eric rhythmically strums his
dressing and playing fashion police, everyone started autoharp as the children of Cabrillo preschool begin set-
to pay attention. The commotion on the board became tling into a circle. He sings softly, “Everybody, come sit at
more interesting than the tiresome antics of the girls. the Welcome Ta-a-a-ble.” Around his neck hang multicol-
That night, Eric cut out a whole pink and purple ward- ored pieces of macaroni on a string. An easel prominently
robe, and he spent the rest of the week focusing the circle displays a dog puppet and two flannel cut-out children. A
on clothes. With each variation, the children got more whole assortment of cloth characters are integral mem-
involved: “That’s Betty’s favorite jacket.” “Don’t put socks bers of Eric’s class. Marisol and Juan, for example, are
on their ears!” “Saul can’t wear pink boots!” Mexican American siblings.
Having regained control of the circle — and thwarted This morning, Harvey — a puppet Eric frequently uses
the “Pink Connection” — Eric planned to retire the cut- “to break the rules” — asks Juan to play hide-and-seek.
outs and return to his usual sing-along and storybook rou- At first, Harvey and the children hide from Juan. Then
tine. But Saul and Betty were taking on lives of their own. Harvey proposes hiding Juan’s Snoopy dog and other
Every day, the children had new questions: How old are toys. Everyone, including Juan, is having a good time
they? Are they brother and sister? Do they live with their until Harvey suggests hiding Juan’s glasses.
mom and dad? Do they ride the bus to school? When Eric For several weeks, the class has been exploring the
tossed the questions back for group discussion, he found sense of sight, including the various things people use to
surprising consensus on most details — everyone seemed help them see better. They have inspected the classroom
to want the evolving story to move along. Suddenly, the and each other using binoculars and magnifying glasses
classroom community had two new members. and mirrors.
Fairness
“Fair” and “no fair” are two of the first moral judgments and well-being. A set of consistent rules and specified
that children learn to make. For most young children consequences for their violation provide both a model
the criteria are simple: Fair is whatever suits me; no fair for each child’s own behavior and an assurance of pro-
is whatever does not. The egocentrism behind these tection from the misbehavior of others. Rules that pro-
subjective standards accounts for one of the biggest mote sharing and turn-taking ensure that all children
challenges preschoolers face — the difficulty of learn- have access to resources, spaces and equipment.
ing to take turns and share. Beyond the framework of explicit rules, fairness
Young children use the concept of fairness both to becomes more complicated. Integral to a child’s sense
comply with and to resist adult-imposed rules. One of security and well-being is feeling appreciated as an
study of preschool and kindergarten classrooms found individual. “Equal treatment” can sometimes ignore
that children who were strongly discouraged by teach- the unequal needs and strengths children bring to the
ers from using violent strategies such as hitting, shout- group. On a given day one child may need to sit in the
ing, pushing and snatching instead adapted existing rocking chair because her mom is sick, and someone
classroom rules to assert privilege and power (Jordan, else who uses crutches might need an extra turn at
Cowan & Roberts, 1995). kick-ball. When students understand that the teacher’s
To illustrate: Raj is at the computer and Jessica wants response to these differences is a sign of caring for
to use it. She claims that it is her turn and reminds Raj everyone rather than favoring a few, their notion of what
that he had his turn yesterday. By invoking the rule of is fair enlarges. The young 4- and 5-year-olds’ “equal
“sharing and turn-taking” to define what is “fair,” Jessica shares” solution changes as they understand the nec-
tries to gain immediate use of the computer. Raj does essary balance between group and individual consider-
not relinquish his position. He uses the rule of original ations based on need and merit (Edwards, 1986).
possession, or “I was here first,” to conceptualize “fair- By modeling a flexible and sensitive fairness in all
ness” from his perspective. From an assortment of class relationships, the teacher encourages children to treat
rules, children select the one they perceive as benefit- each other fairly and introduces them to one of the
ting themselves in a given situation. basic responsibilities of citizenship. As the child’s frame
As children’s social perspectives broaden at ages 4 of reference widens, the experience of fairness in the
and 5, a more egalitarian notion of fairness emerges: classroom becomes a vision of justice in community
The teacher is supposed to treat everyone the same. and society. (See also Classroom Rules and Discipline,
This idea affirms the moral dimension of the teacher’s p. 158).
role. It is through their own capacities of honesty cour-
age and fairness that teachers can engage children in References
active communication about rights and responsibilities Edwards, C. P (1986). Promoting Social and Moral
(Sockett, 1994). Respecting the entitlements of others Development in Young Children. New York Teachers
becomes a basic building-block of community. College Press.
A purely objective, quantitative fairness, however, is
incomplete. In the first place, it reduces an essentially Jordan, E., Cowan, A., & Roberts, J. (1995). “Knowing
moral capacity to a matter of bookkeeping — the equal the Rules: Discursive Strategies in Young Children’s
distribution of goods and privileges. Further, it assigns Power Struggles.” Early Childhood Research
the responsibility for fairness to a single “dispenser,” Quarterly 10, 339-358.
the teacher. And, perhaps most importantly it creates
the illusion that being fair is easy.” Sockett, H. (1994). The Moral Base for Teacher
Fairness in the early childhood classroom has many Professionalism. New York Teachers College Press.
dimensions. On the teacher’s part, one goal of fairness
is to give all of the children an equal sense of security
Nurturing Justice
The transition from the toddler’s egocentric world- monthly basis (e.g., create art decorations, perform
view to the preschooler’s understanding of the needs songs or skits, collect food and blankets).
and wishes of others is a formidable — and formative — »» Invite to your classroom community helpers
event in early childhood. The equitable classroom whose job is to provide social services, then follow
provides continual opportunities for children to both up with activities about social-service occupations
practice and benefit from fairness. The “skills of fair- (e.g., skits, art projects, activity centers).
ness” develop through play as well as observation of »» Do something meaningful for the school that
peer and adult interaction. Dialogue with caring adults addresses a social problem, and discuss how the
is another important influence. action promotes fairness (e.g., inspect your build-
The activities presented below assume that a major ing for accessibility to the physically challenged,
goal of early childhood education is to foster chil- pick up litter or create a bulletin board for the main
dren’s ability to balance their own needs and wishes office that addresses a social/moral issue).
with those of other individuals and the group as a
whole. Careful attention to children’s questions and
concerns about fairness will help teachers refine the
selected activities.
Gender Awareness
Even before they can say the words, most toddlers assumptions and generalizations: “Men can’t cook;”
become adept at pointing out girls and boys, women “Mommies don’t drive tractors.”
and men. Gender appears to be one of the first dimen- In the third stage, children act out adult gender roles
sions of identity that young children perceive in self and based on these concepts. For example, during pretend
others. An understanding of the developmental pro- piay girls become mothers, nurses and teachers, while
cesses young children undergo to acquire information boys are the fathers, firefighters and doctors.
and form attitudes about gender can help early child- The information children use in constructing gender
hood teachers foster gender equity in the classroom. knowledge comes from a variety of sources — families,
Children draw their earliest conclusions about gen- peers, media, teachers, children’s books and instruc-
der from obvious traits such as clothing, hairstyle, body tional materials. A significant portion of what they
shape and the pitch of the voice. A little later, they begin learn about gender occurs informally. Parents influ-
to learn about the body parts that make boys and girls ence emerging gender concepts directly and indirectly
different. This fascinating subject leads to serious — and through the toys they purchase, the roles they model in
sometimes startling — questions as cognitive and ver- the home and the ways they respond to gender issues in
bal skills develop. The time-honored game of “doctor” children’s behavior.
and other behaviors also reflect the power of gender Research shows that family characteristics such
curiosity in early childhood. as structure, socioeconomic level, class, culture, race
Between the ages of 4 and 7, children come to real- and religion can significantly shape children’s “gen-
ize that being male and being female are permanent der learning.” For example, Katz (1987) reports that
biological conditions. In turn, they comprehend that young Latinas, as a group, showed a higher degree of
changing one’s clothing, interests or activities does not gender stereotyping in their occupational aspirations
change one’s gender. than did White and Black girls. In the same study
Around this time, children start to expand their ideas girls who came from single-parent families, regard-
about gender to include not just what people are but less of race or ethnicity, showed the least amount of
what they do. This broader sorting is first expressed gender stereotyping.
nonverbally through play. Experts disagree as to the Researchers have confirmed Kohlberg’s (1966) theo-
relative importance of “nature” and “nurture” in influ- ry that gender stereotyping among both boys and girls
encing boys’ and girls’ playing styles and activity pref- ages 5 to 7 often entails a preference for the “male” role
erences. Most parents and teachers, however, find that because it is more exciting and powerful (McCormick,
children are remarkably receptive to such cues, what- 1994). Cultural affirmation of this preference is evident
ever their source. in the differences in status accorded by labels such as
According to psychologist Phyllis Katz (1987), chil- “tomboy” and “sissy,” or “Daddy’s girl” and “Mama’s
dren acquire the social “content” of gender awareness boy” In addition, gender stereotyping can distort chil-
in three sequential stages. First, young children learn dren’s perception of non-stereotypical role models.
the culturally appropriate behavior for boys and girls: When 5- to 7-year-olds were shown pictures of adults
the toy activity and playmate choices expected of each in nontraditional roles, such as a female physician and
gender. In this stage, they establish firm boundaries a male nurse, most reported that they had seen the
around gender roles, often self-segregating by gender reverse (Signorella, 1987).
in their play groups. It doesn’t take them long to assert Such evidence suggests that gender stereotyping
these patterns verbally: “Girls can’t throw;” “Boys don’t in children’s own thinking can have an adverse effect
play with dolls.” on the social and cognitive development of both girls
Next, children learn the expectations associated and boys. Teachers who model gender equity in the
with adult male and female roles. As they attempt to classroom and intervene appropriately to counteract
interpret the adult world, many children make broad gender bias recognize these actions as essential steps
References
Katz, P. A. (1987). “Variations in Family Constellations:
Effects on Gender Schemata” New Directions for
Child Development 38, 39-56.
A
t Elmwood Primary School in Shawnee, Ohio, both. Parents were commissioned to paint the sym-
there’s a big, colorful replica of a locomotive in the bol onto signs that now festoon the entire facility. “R
main hallway. You can’t look far in this sprawling & R” badges and stickers became handy reminders to
modern facility without seeing a railroad crossing sign practice respectful, responsible behavior, such as using
— a bright yellow circle quartered by a black “X,” with an polite language, taking care of materials and consider-
“R” on either side. In the carpeted corridors, in the “open” ing other people’s feelings.
classrooms, on coffee mugs and pencils, and on badges The insignia has special resonance in this suburb of
and stickers that teachers and students wear proudly, the Lima (pronounced LIE-ma), which originated as a rail-
emblem is everywhere. One obvious assumption might road hub. “Most of the children probably see the R & R
be that these people are obsessed with trains. sign at least twice a day out in the community,” Ellis
But the signs tell another story. A couple of years ago, explains, “coming to and from school. It’s a constant
Brenda Ellis, a speech pathologist who spends most of reminder. And,” she adds with a smile, we hope they
each week at Elm-wood, attended a workshop on learn- remember it’s also a railroad sign!”
ing disabilities. There she heard someone speak about For Ellis and her colleagues, the orderly Elmwood
the need to teach respect and responsibility to special atmosphere is proof that, with hard work and clear
education students. goals, even the most ingrained patterns of interaction
“I thought, ‘Hey, that’s not a bad idea for all kids,’” can be transformed.
Ellis recalls. On a recent morning, a typical 2nd-grade conflict
Back at school, she shared her thoughts with col- flared up in an instant. Brendan and Darren had just
leagues and helped to assemble a steering team to stepped back proudly to view the bookshelves they had
explore the possibilities. straightened in teacher Rosemary Mullen’s room, when
The team identified particular social goals that Mark, oblivious to their efforts, pulled a book out. A
teachers wanted to help their children achieve: to dozen neighboring volumes toppled over.
respect themselves and others, to accept and appre- To 7-year-old eyes, the damage must have appeared
ciate diversity, to take responsibility for their actions, deliberate and irreparable. Summoning the outer limits
to tolerate opposing viewpoints, and to contribute to of their vocabulary, Brendan and Darren lashed out at
the school community. A common refrain became the Mark in righteous rage, and he collapsed into hard sobs
team’s unofficial motto: Kids can’t practice what they on the floor.
haven’t been taught. “I started to intervene,” recalls Mullen, “but they were
“We can’t expect that it’s already been done at so shocked that he was crying that I waited to see what
home,” says Amber Potter, who assumed principalship would happen.”
of Elmwood in 1994 after 10 years as a primary teacher. The two boys walked over to their distraught class-
“We can’t expect that all of them know how to be here in mate, sat down next to him and apologized. “I’m sorry,
this little society and how to interact appropriately.” Mark,” one said. “We thought you were messing up our
Teachers realized that, with 600 students under the books.” As the other circled an arm around him, Mark’s
age of 8 - most of whom can’t read — the message would tears subsided.
have to be rendered visually. As the staff brainstormed
for a symbol to drive home the theme, custodian Bob New Connections
Wallace offered a suggestion: “It came to me that we Until 1993, the Shawnee school district had two K-5
have to respect railroad crossings,” recalls Wallace. schools: Elmwood and Maplewood, just a few miles
“Why not use a railroad crossing sign? The two ‘R’s from each other but worlds apart. The landscape along
could stand for Respect and Responsibility.” the flat two-lane roads crisscrossing Allen County
Everyone loved the idea. Most rules of behavior, reveals the contrast, as the modest homes and trailer
teachers realized, embodied one “R” or the other, or parks sprinkled in Elmwood’s neighborhoods give way
to the spacious, manicured subdivisions and designer Altogether, the African American, Asian American,
homes near Maplewood. Latino and Native American children enrolled consti-
“The perception was a rich school/poor school tute 12 percent of the student body; the rest are White.
thing,” says district superintendent Bill Lodermeier, a Brenda Ellis is the only African American staff mem-
familiar face around Elmwood. “Maplewood was viewed ber. Fewer than 10 percent of the children have learn-
as the academic elite. Elmwood was known as just ‘The ing disabilities, physical disabilities or other special
Fort.’” The nickname clearly carried derogatory over- needs. Yet, appreciation for diversity is an explicit
tones; it referred to Fort Shawnee, an older municipality Elmwood theme.
within Shawnee’s boundaries where many of Elmwood’s “Back when I was a student, my world ended in
poorer children lived. Ohio,” says Lodermeier, who is White. “Today a kid’s
The hardest lessons concerning Elmwood’s stigma world is global. That’s hard for a lot of parents to under-
fell on students moving into 6th grade, when the two stand. We have to teach tolerance, because the opposite
school populations would merge at the middle school. is completely out of the question. Intolerance in society
“All the graduating fifth graders of both schools would today is not acceptable; our world — the economy and
play soccer in the summer,” says Lodermeier. “And then society — won’t survive it.”
when they went to sixth grade in the fall, the kids from Educators and others who visit Elmwood — an IBM
Maplewood would stick with their old school groups, software test site — to observe students interacting with
and the Elmwood kids were excluded. It was subtle, but computers are frequently surprised to see how well the
it was real — a sense that ‘We’re friends in the summer, children interact with one another. As visitors quickly
but we can’t be friends now.’” learn, the atmosphere is no accident: At Elmwood, social
Lodermeier proposed a solution: Create a single pri- skills are explained, drilled and reinforced the same way
mary school for grades K through 2 at Elmwood and turn reading and math skills are.
Maplewood into a school for grades 3 and 4. The matter The fundamentals of sharing, making friends, coop-
could have been decided at the school board level, but erating and resolving disagreements, says support
Lodermeier opened it up to the parents for their input. teacher Rosemary Mullen, are just as essential for future
Many parents, particularly those whose children were success in school and life as the academic basics. This
already attending Maplewood, would have preferred to concerted approach to positive behavior reflects an
leave things as they were. Parents on the planning commit- ongoing process — from the district office on down — of
tee, however, were more concerned about the overcrowding rethinking the role of public schools.
that was already taking place at Maplewood. Continuing Bill Lodermeier’s personal goal is to create a school
the status quo would have meant renovating and expand- where children feel part of a community and teachers
ing the school. The new arrangement went into effect at feel free to innovate, take risks and develop creatively. A
the end of the 1992-93 school year, after Lodermeier per- risk-taker by nature, Lodermeier easily sheds his admin-
sonally interviewed all 50 teachers involved before he istrative and political persona to sit on the floor next to
determined staffing for the two schools. a shy child or to gallop unannounced into a classroom
For the teachers, Potter recalls, “it was a hard sum- with glitter on his hands, claiming to have nearly caught
mer spent moving, but the kids never missed a beat. a leprechaun down the hail.
They were fine from day one.” At the beginning of each school year, he shows teach-
Whereas the previous school setup had reinforced ers a video tape that illustrates respect for diversity: In
an existing division in the community, the restructuring a song performed by Harry Chapin on the “Tonight
forged a new bond. “The kids are on common ground Show,” a little boy asks a teacher what color to make
now,” says Lodermeier. some flowers. “Red,” the teacher says, in a tone of voice
“They’re getting the same education. They’re in Girl that suggests there is no other color. When the child
Scouts, Boy Scouts together. They play soccer together gets to the next grade, a teacher asks him why all his
in the summer, and now they stay together as friends in flowers are red. “Because,” he answers firmly, “that’s
the fall. It’s a unifying approach.” what color flowers are.”
Economic differences aside, Elmwood has by most There are no pat answers at Elmwood. “I want teach-
measures a relatively homogeneous school population. ers to take chances,” says Amber Potter. “The failure is
in not trying things. People who want to do the same train — formerly a department-store display prop — with
thing every year frighten me.” pictures representing different cultures.
The next day, teachers led class discussions about
Ground Rules the many forms of diversity. Some brought in apples —
The organic approach — seeking improvement from Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith. “How
within and involving everyone in the process — sets a are they alike and how are they different?” the teach-
high standard for staff commitment and creativity. ers asked. “Is one better than the other?” “Does anyone
“We’re still evolving,” Potter observes, “but I want have favorites?” Other teachers brought teddy bears of
this school to be a true primary center where every all shapes and sizes for the children to compare.
child feels successful. I want it to be an active place Children are capable of discerning physical differ-
to learn. ences like skin color and hair texture from an early
“And when the kids leave Elmwood, I want them to age. However, Brenda Ellis finds that, in the students’
be not only academically ready, but also socially and eyes, her role as caregiver often blurs the fact that she
emotionally ready — confident in themselves and their belongs to a different race than most of them. In her
abilities, and confident in making good decisions so workshops for 1st graders, for example, when she points
they don’t have to rely on their peers. I want them to out that she is a member of a group called Black or
know that it’s OK to be different, and that everybody African American, White students frequently respond,
doesn’t have to agree.” “No, you’re not.”
One recent afternoon, counselor Bonnie Siferd read In one exercise on “same and different,” several
the familiar story of Peter Rabbit to a 2nd grade class. White children sorted themselves with Ellis in a com-
She asked the children what was likable about Peter, parison of skin colors. While identification across racial
and she got many answers — his fuzzy ears, his funny lines is a basic goal of programs like Elmwood’s, Ellis
tricks and the way he always ends up in trouble with stresses the importance of respecting differences rather
his mother or Mr. McGregor. Then Siferd read the story than denying them.
again, this time asking the children to look at Peter’s “I explained to the White children, ‘We’re the same
pranks from Mr. McGregor’s point of view: What is it in many ways, but in this way, we’re different.”’ Later,
like to tend a garden when someone is always sneaking when she asked the students to compare hands, many
in to steal your cabbages? of the White children realized for the first time that their
“We want the kids to see that there’s always more hands, too, were of varying shades.
than one side to a story,” says Siferd, “so before you can Categories don’t set children apart at Elmwood.
begin any kind of mediation, you have to see oppos- Students with multiple handicaps are mainstreamed as
ing viewpoints. At this age, the kids are so egocentric much as individual abilities permit. Lila, a child with
they have no idea that there’s any other point of view. Down syndrome, for example, is in a regular classroom
So here, we point out that while Peter Rabbit is cute and for all but 40 minutes of the day.
fuzzy, he’s also a thief.” Before Lila arrived, her mom came to talk to the 1st
Each month, often in partnership with the Lion and grade class her daughter would be joining. She showed
Lamb Peace Center at nearby Bluffton (Mennonite) family photographs and told the children about Lila’s
College, Siferd works with teachers at Elmwood to birth. After explaining the effects of Down syndrome in
develop classroom presentations on a specffic topic simple terms, she talked about the ways in which Lila
relating to tolerance or conflict resolution. Follow-up and her classmates were alike.
activities encourage children to talk about hypothetical When Lila came to school, the children enfolded her
problems and to raise real issues of their own.” with love and attention. They were so inclusive, Bonnie
For one session, 1st and 2nd graders created a Siferd notes, “that, if anything, they shielded her from
“Differences Train”: Each child cut out a paper railroad the kind of open discussion they might have liked to
car and drew on it a self-portrait. Linked with pins and have had.” Similarly, Helen, who has cerebral palsy,
arrayed around the classroom walls, the train became a always has plenty of help pushing her wheelchair, and
visual reminder of both individuality and cooperation. no one protests when Barry, an autistic child who does
Out in the hallway, the children decorated a giant toy everything in twos, demands a second turn. One child,
called down for teasing a special-needs classmate, pro- While the culprit squirmed, Mullen asked the group
tested, “But I was teasing everybody else, and I didn’t to think about the remark. “How would it make you feel
want her to feel left out.” to be told that?” she asked them. “How would it make
Each of the 30-plus students with special needs has the girl who was named feel? Why should someone
an individualized education plan that emphasizes inclu- like one person only? Do you know how many friends
sion. When a child needs special assistance, the facilita- I have?”
tor works with him or her in the regular classroom. Siferd The questions led to a discussion of “how sometimes
does most of her counseling in the classroom setting, we say things that hurt people’s feelings — sometimes
and Mullen does academic intervention there, as well. we mean to do it, and sometimes we don’t,” Mullen says.
“We have so many kids and teachers coming and “But we need to know that the ground rules at school
going to so many different places,” says Amber Potter, are that we do our very best to get along with every-
“that getting special help is not the stigma it once was.” body, that we can think whatever we want to think, but
This year, some fissures opened in the tolerance we may not say whatever we think.
theme — not around racial or developmental differ- “There was a lot of defensiveness at first, a lot of ‘But
ences, but around friendship and cliques. As with she’s’ and ‘But I’s,’ but we kept bringing it back to the
most children this age, it was not uncommon to hear issue: How would you feel?”
a student say to another, “I’ll like you only if you don’t She asked the girls to start noting any hurtful things
like her” or “If you’re going to let her play, I don’t want that happened to them so the issues could be identi-
to play with you.” The problem, teachers noticed, was fied and discussed at group time. After that, the group
worse among girls. met twice a week for a month, sometimes in the circle
A focal point of one clique’s activity was the cafete- and sometimes out on the playground. A pair of former
ria. Every day, this select group decided who would eat adversaries recently wrote to Mullen, “We’re getting
with whom the next day, and if they would buy lunch or along much better now.”
bring their own. Not to receive this inside knowledge The “girls only” meetings were a bit out of the ordi-
was considered equivalent to banishment; if a child nary, Mullen acknowledges. But they helped focus the
came to school thinking that her friends were going girls’ attention on the feelings they all had in com-
to bring packed lunches and discovered that they had mon. “We got calls from parents who were amazed at
instead decided to buy, she was left out. The staff first the change.”
learned about the exclusionary behavior when a mother
called to say her daughter had a stomachache because Peers for Peace
she dreaded going to school. Every day at lunchtime, Elmwood hallways are dotted
“I might expect this kind of behavior among fifth with purple T-shirts, the badge of honor for 2nd grad-
and sixth graders,” Rosemary Mullen observes. “I was ers who, by completing their work and behaving well,
shocked to find it in second graders.” have earned the privilege of being “peacemakers.”
Mullen and Siferd decided to try to shed some light Recommended by their classroom teachers and trained
on the cliques and build a sense of community among by counselor Bonnie Siferd, the peacemakers help their
the girls. During one play period, Mullen and the class- peers and younger schoolmates — and sometimes
room teacher sent the boys out to recess and put the their elders — put the Elmwood ideals of Respect and
girls in a circle in the activity room. Siferd did the same Responsibility into practice.
with another class. Bill Lodermeier recalls hearing an assertive 2nd grade
The teachers asked the girls to write down a list of voice behind him one morning saying, “You’re walking
things that were bothering them and read them aloud very well today. How do you spell ‘Lodermeier’?” When
to the group. One by one the tiny, hurt voices chimed in. he turned, he saw a purple-shirted peacemaker filling
“Mandy said you wouldn’t be my friend if I played with out a good behavior ticket. “’Mr. Bill’ will do,” the super-
somebody else at recess.” “You want to be my friend one intendent said.
day and then the next day you don’t.” And Mullen told Positive reinforcement is the peacemakers’ tool of
the group that she had overheard one of them saying, “I choice. Students who follow hallway and lunchroom
don’t like you because you like so-and-so.” rules about walking safely, talking quietly and keeping
tables and floors clean receive citations that accumu- get to know them better. Each day two new children are
late into bigger rewards. picked to receive the attention.
In concert with the peacemaker patrols, Elmwood’s “You’re nice,” someone says to Martine on one occa-
staff lavishes praise and attention on students who sion. “You’re funny,” says another. Then two in quick
are “caught being good.” Examples of helpfulness and succession: “I like you because you always listen to
kindness are reported in loudspeaker announcements. me” and “You help me when I need it.” A classmate
Snapshots of commendable individuals and groups asks Raymond, “Do you have any pets?” and the long
appear on hall bulletin boards. list that follows includes two lizards. When Mullen’s
“You don’t learn self-esteem,” says Rosemary Mullen. turn comes, she says, “I like you, Raymond, because I
“You only get it through success. And if they do what we remember when you came to us new last year, and it
teach today, they’re successful.” was a pretty brave thing to get to know a lot of children
Brenda Ellis believes that the program has turned and be nice.”
peer pressure into an asset. “Before,” she remembers, Being nice, teachers attest, is the glue that holds
“Bonnie Siferd and I had hall duty, and it was a chore. Elmwood together. But when niceness wears thin and
Then the peacemakers came, and I asked Bonnie, ‘Why conflict happens, a clear set of guidelines helps restore
are we here?’ The children were so effective.” the community bond. Over and over, the children hear
In the classroom, rewards and reprimands take the the steps for resolving conflicts repeated, along with
form of easily understood symbols for performance. A encouragement to practice them: What is the problem?
bulletin board in each kindergarten room displays a What are the possible solutions? Are they good choices
paper “pocket” for every child. When someone breaks or bad choices? What’s the best one to try? Then let’s
a rule, the teacher places a yellow, or warning, Popsicle go do it!
stick in his or her pocket. A second infraction the same “It’s a broken record,” Siferd laughs, “but it’s a pro-
day warrants replacing the yellow stick with a red one active philosophy. We believe that if you give kids the
and taking five minutes off the child’s recess. skills, they’ll be able to cope with new situations that
In one 1st grade room, the rules themselves are col- they meet. We tell them, ‘You do have power because you
or-coded, with sticks to match: The red rule is “Be kind”; make choices.’ They learn that ‘I and only I am respon-
the white rule is “Follow directions”; and the blue rule sible for my thoughts, my feelings and my actions.’”
is “Look, listen, think and participate.” Teachers say the Principal Amber Potter observes, “It’s not always
visual system helps children identify their own behav- apparent to children what the problem is. Two different
ioral strengths and weaknesses. An empty pocket at the children perceive the problem to be two different things.
end of the day merits a ticket, redeemable on Fridays Sometimes just because it’s a problem for somebody
for trinkets or snacks. Cooperative 2nd graders earn else doesn’t mean it’s a problem for me. So to get them
“behavior bucks” that they can “spend” for rewards such to agree on what the problem is takes a lot of work.”
as bubblegum, stickers or small toys. When an argument, a shoving match or a name-
Rosemary Mullen emphasizes that blind obedience is calling session breaks out in the hallway or the lunch-
not the goal. “Last week, a child came up to me and said, room, the nearest purple-shirted 2nd grader rushes to
‘If this is a free world, why do we have rules?’ I thought the scene. If the combatants don’t agree to the help, an
it was a very good question. I asked him to tell me a rule adult is summoned immediately. But if they agree to
that he didn’t understand, and he said, ‘Running. I don’t arbitration by the peacemaker, they must listen to each
know why we can’t run.’ I said, ‘You can run — outside,’ other, brainstorm for options, agree on a tentative solu-
and he said, ‘But not in school.’ So we acted out what tion and try it out.
would happen in certain situations if you ran instead of A few procedural rules — no name-calling, no inter-
walked. And then it made sense.” rupting, and always telling the truth — help the process
Students come to Mullen’s room for structured run smoothly. Although not every student earns the
play — a time to vent a little energy and practice skills right to be a peacemaker during the year, all 2nd grad-
for getting along. Each session begins with a “praise- ers get the training. The program has been so popular
phrase circle,” in which students take turns telling oth- that last year’s “graduates” asked to continue it at their
ers what they like about them or asking questions to new school.
Near the principal’s office is a Peace Wall, each paper included. We’re encouraging the minimum social skills
“brick” of which represents a conflict that has been that would allow a child to fit in anywhere as a contrib-
resolved. The wall grows as children add drawings to uting member of the group.”
illustrate their mastery of the peace process. Over and over, Elmwood students learn that their own
“Little children,” says Amber Potter, “often can’t see personal choices have an impact on their school society.
on their own that there is another choice besides the One year the 2nd graders produced a video illustrating
one they made. Our problem-solving shows them that, proper behavior in the playroom, the hallway, the lunch-
if a choice they make puts them into an uncomfortable room, the playground and the bus. Now the same video
position or an undesirable situation, there are other is shown to the lower grades every September.
choices. Democracy is about learning to make wise Although learning appropriate behavior can be
choices within your freedom.” harder for some children than learning math or read-
Elmwood teachers recognize the larger societal ing, every student shows some progress. One day at the
implications of the R & R program, but their immediate end of the school year, Lila, who has Down syndrome,
hope is small-scale —that the children will remember to decided to test the limits in the playroom: She knocked
be nice from one moment to the next. “We’re worried one student’s blocks down, took Lincoln Logs away
about whether what we teach them in the classroom will from another, and removed the clothespin that held a
transfer to the hallway, the playground, the cafeteria and classmate’s drawing, letting it fall to the floor.
the bus,” says Bonnie Siferd. Mullen made her sit in a chair for a few minutes
Rosemary Mullen adds, “We practice being nice in before asking her if she could play right and not repeat
all these different settings and hope that eventually it any of those behaviors. Success, Mullen explains, is
will come together.” sometimes weighed in small increments:
“At the beginning of the year she would have power-
The “Uh-Oh” Feeling played me — big. She would not have gone over to the
Sometimes the most effective behavior modification chair, she would have tugged at my hand, she would
is accomplished by the students themselves. One boy have yelled and screamed. But she took her medicine
repeatedly interrupted the class by yelling back at the and went back to play. In the last year, she’s learned to
teacher, refusing to do things and disrupting others. play with other people, to help build something instead
One day, when he was absent, the teacher asked the of going off on her own.”
class if they had any suggestions for solving the prob- In contrast to the child who understands general-
lem. “He’s always saying everybody hates him,” they ized rules such as “Kind words, kind hands” or “Three
noted. “Maybe we could smile, say ‘good morning’ and strikes, you’re out,” Lila receives more specific instruc-
include him in the group.” tions and reprimands tailored to her cognitive devel-
Now and then, a more direct approach is necessary, opment. While her classmates sometimes find Lila’s
Bonnie Siferd says. “There are some kids who just don’t behavior frustrating, seeing teachers apply appropri-
get it, and it takes a confrontation by peers who say, ate expectations — and consequences — helps them to
‘We’re really tired of the way you’re acting, and if you respect developmental differences. The same process
really want to be with us, you have to clean up your act.’ gives Lila a way to fit in.
It’s very closely monitored, and it’s not done in a cruel “There is a consequence for bad behavior for every-
way, but we say, ‘Tell him why you don’t want him to one, including the differently abled child,” says Mullen.
play with you.’ Many times, one instance like that equals “It wouldn’t be fair to let her get away with it, because
the teacher intervening over and over.” then we would be teaching her that being different
Every student needs to practice appropriate behavior allows her to be a bully.”
in order to be accepted, Siferd says. “If you’re knocking Mullen measures larger triumphs by the reduction
down the other kids’ blocks or you’re totally belligerent of her own active role. “By February or March, I have
or rude, you are making choices that could lead to being to do much less intervening,” she says. “They just work
excluded. If you’re willing to share, that’s a good choice. things out on their own. If there are too many people to
But if you’re stingy or bossy or not able to take turns in play a certain game, they’ll say, ‘Well, when I get tired,
terms of materials and attention, then you may not be I’ll let you know and you can take my place.’ And then
Friendship Connections
To have a friend and to be a friend are more than wishful people who are nice to each other; they exchange resources
expectations in early childhood — they are basic needs. and services; and they maintain a relationship over time.
Considerable evidence suggests that friendship sup- Children at this stage begin to share secrets, toys and prom-
ports young children’s cognitive as well as emotional ises with their friends. They may also choose to terminate
development. Children who relate to others in socially friendships if they perceive that a partner refuses to help or
acceptable ways are usually well-liked and included in ignores their feelings or needs. These feelings and experi-
play and work activities. Factors that hinder or disrupt ences provide the groundwork for the mutual respect and
the emerging bonds of friendship can have lasting neg- responsibility that characterize mature friendships.
ative effects on children’s lives. At all developmental levels, children exhibit varying
For most young children, school is the primary place degrees of success at making and keeping friends. The
to develop a sense of social belonging, to form ideas skills required for positive social interaction come natu-
about friendship, and to practice the skills necessary for rally to some children and prove more challenging for
making and keeping friends. A teacher’s affection and others. When a class member has difficulty establishing
respect toward all children provides not only a nurturing friendships, it is important for the teacher to understand
environment but also an important model of friendship. the situation at hand as well as other possible sources
Children’s need for peer connection develops sequen- for the problem. There is a distinction between children
tially Infants as young as six months crawl toward and who lack friends because they lack social skills and
“check” other babies for information or signals that those who are targets of bias, prejudice and discrimina-
might involve them in a social interchange. Toddlers tion by their peers.
often display a preference for certain partners in “paral- In the case of the former, guided activities can help
lel play.” Intermittently they may interact with each other the individual child master sharing, control aggressive
and even create imitation games: One child picks up a tendencies or meet other challenges. When a child
block, and a few seconds later a peer copies her; or one is excluded because of a difference in language, race,
says “Da” and another mimics the sound. appearance, gender, ability level or other factors, it is
The word “friend” enters many children’s vocabulary the teacher’s responsibility to intervene with both reas-
in the early months of speech, reinforced by frequent surance to the victim and corrective instruction to the
adult references. Pets, playmates and toy creatures may all peers involved (Derman-Sparks, 1995). Children who
receive the label. A 2-year-old may point to someone who consistently isolate themselves or who display exces-
shares his table or plays with him at school and exclaim, sive aggression may require referral to a specialist.
“That’s my friend!” The designation reflects the pleasure Healthy peer relationships empower children to
and comfort of emerging social routines (Edwards, 1986). develop social competence, embrace egalitarian atti-
For 3- and 4-year-olds, friendship takes on a more inten- tudes and handle conflict effectively. Early childhood
tional aspect. Preschoolers and kindergartners confer and programs that incorporate friendship as a major cur-
withdraw the status of “friend” at will according to a num- ricular component prepare children for a respectful,
ber of criteria, including general compatibility, variable responsible role in their expanding world,
moods and the nature of the present activity At this stage,
comments such as “Will you be my friend?” “You’re not my References
friend!” or even “I hate you!” are not literal expressions of Derman-Sparks, L. (1995). “Children and Diversity.” Early
emotion but rather perceptions of the momentary pros- Childhood Today I0 (3) 42-45.
pects for play. Although children may experience disap-
pointment and even anger at a rebuff during playtime, such Edwards, C. P. (1986). Promoting Social and Moral
feelings generally reverse at the next positive encounter. Development in Young Children. New York Teachers
Around ages 6 through 8, children’s friendships acquire College Press.
a more sophisticated and lasting content. Friends are
Sameness
The lesson that “we are all alike, and we are all different” to White parents and teachers as advantageous to their
is a fundamental premise of many early childhood pro- children’s academic, social and economic future.
grams. Often, teachers reason that children can learn to The corresponding movement of racial-ethnic
appreciate the outward differences among classmates minority children into previously all-White schools, by
from diverse groups by discovering their hidden simi- contrast, is unlikely to focus on “selling points” tailored
larities. Sometimes, however, the process must occur to the incoming families’ needs or preferences. Racial-
in reverse. In classrooms where all or most children ethnic minority children are expected to adapt to and
share a significant outward trait such as race, the path benefit from the existing White school culture. No spe-
to appreciating diversity begins with the discovery of cial programs or resources await them or their teachers
hidden differences. (Hollins, 1996).
For many young children, cultural pluralism exists In spite of federal law and local initiatives promoting
somewhere far away from home, neighborhood or class- school integration, student populations in many dis-
room. They may encounter racial, ethnic and economic tricts continue to reflect residential segregation by race,
diversity in the larger community and in the media, but ethnicity and class. Making children comfortable in a
the people they know directly are, by these measures, pluralistic world remains a formidable task, especially
“the same.” While the difficulty of adequately address- in settings that lack obvious diversity. Young children
ing racial, ethnic, cultural or class differences in the need to interact in relationships that are spontaneous
school setting is widely acknowledged, perceived same- and meaningful in order to acquire a working knowl-
ness in these dimensions presents its own special chal- edge of racial, ethnic and cultural distinctions.
lenges for teachers. Research shows that sporadic and incidental contact
The problem is evident in the selective use of two provides only rudimentary tools for discerning surface
terms to describe schools or classrooms that lack differences (Helms, 1990). Thus, while multicultural
obvious diversity — homogeneous and segregated. resources are useful in monoracial classrooms, they are
The phrase “homogeneous school” suggests a range not sufficient It cannot be assumed that anti-bias post-
of images, from privilege, comfort and familiarity on ers and books, ethnic foods, minority guests and cultur-
the one hand to blandness, rigidity and parochial- al celebrations in and of themselves promote in young
ism on the other. Frequently, however, the descrip- children a deep understanding of cultural diversity.
tion carries a pointed implication — all-White and
middle class. By contrast, “segregated” conjures a Diversity in Monocultural Classrooms
more static vision, one associated with negative fac- No curriculum can remedy the effects of racial isolation.
tors such as poverty, discrimination and marginality. However, teachers can help children explore dimen-
American Indian reservation schools, Asian schools sions of pluralism and discover that all people originate
located in international districts, Black inner-city from diverse and complex backgrounds. In classrooms
schools and Latino barrio schools are commonly of racially similar children, diversity comes in myriad
described as “segregated.” forms — beliefs, learning styles, personalities, family
incomes, family structures, intellectual-creative-social-
Integration Inequities physical abilities, and on and on. Differences in all these
The actions of school policy-makers often reflect this attributes offer opportunities for enriching children’s
lingering historical dichotomy. For example, many sense of individuality and equity.
school districts across the United States use exemplary While teachers can begin by using basic lessons —
magnet programs featuring enhanced resources and grouping those wearing or not wearing red, those who
special teacher preparation to attract White families to walk to school and those who come by bus — to build
formerly “segregated” schools. These programs, often a conceptual understanding of sameness and differ-
created in response to federal mandates, are presented ence, they can expand this knowledge by introducing
activities that acknowledge diversity in more meaning- Hollins, E. R. (1996). Culture in School Learning Reveal-
ful configurations. Often the best curricular lessons are ing the Deep Meaning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
those that use the resources at hand. Erlbaum.
The diverse ethnic heritages of White children, for
example, offer rich possibilities that often remain unex-
plored. However research indicates that White children
must learn more than their ancestors’ countries of ori-
gin if they are to develop an ethnic identity (Alba, 1990).
For example, children who identify as “Irish” or as being
“from Germany” can deepen these self-concepts by
exploring the values and cultural contributions of these
ethnic heritages.
Although some racial-ethnic minority children also
attend “homogeneous” schools (e.g., all-Black, all-Ha-
waiian or reservation schools), these children are often
taught by White teachers, are usually exposed to posi-
tive images of White people in books and the media,
and generally have at least some personal interaction
with Whites — for example, in businesses or community
services. Accordingly the task for teachers in homoge-
neous minority schools is not to “introduce” diversity
but to promote equity and positive identity develop-
ment. Exploration of hidden differences can serve both
of these goals.
Children in any classroom have no difficulty discov-
ering cultural diversity among themselves. They often
refer openly to home celebrations, religious observanc-
es and family lifestyles. Teachers can encourage such
sharing and incorporate the resulting discoveries into
daily social-academic school life.
In the preschool and early primary years, children
learn to internalize positive attitudes about differences
and transfer them to new situations. As they learn to
respect self and value others, they can, in time, expand
the idea of “others” to include a wider range of racial,
ethnic, cultural and economic dimensions.
References
Alba, R. D. (1990). Ethnic Identity: The Transformation of
White America. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Discovering Diversity
Diversity in all forms plays a role in shaping the social »» Group children heterogeneously in organized play
environment of classrooms.Teachers in all-White class- and work activities (e.g., by gender, popularity, reli-
rooms are often concerned that their children might gious orientation, ability and economic status) to
develop beliefs, attitudes and values that reflect a nar- provide the broadest cross-section of sociocultural
row range of differences. Likewise, teachers with class- interactions.
rooms full of racial-minority students must be aware of
the pervasive, negative messages in schools and soci- Instill in children the knowledge that differences in
ety that may encourage these children to feel inferior to physical traits, cultural backgrounds, abilities and per-
Whites. Teachers in any setting can prepare students ceived needs and preferences are valued in the class-
for a pluralistic society by helping them discern and room. For example:
value the multiple dimensions of diversity. »» Involve all children in decision-making about
To evaluate the following suggested activities, reflect classroom activities and rules so they can see each
on changes in your own and your students’ perceptions other and their actions as critical components of
of “same” and “different.” Appreciation for diversity at their world.
hand can be used to cultivate a commitment to equity »» Reinforce the concept that differences contribute
and justice in the wider society. to the richness of the classroom community (e.g.,
differing opinions help us think about the same
Examine how you and your students treat others who idea in new ways; creative problem-solving gives
are perceived as different/threatening or those who us more options to choose from; the ways different
make you uncomfortable. For example: children find to illustrate the same story give us
»» How do you and your class make “new” students more pictures to enjoy).
feel welcome?
»» How do you address the problem when classmates
exclude particular children?
»» Do you handle diversity issues such as gender
equity differently from other diversity issues,
such as children’s cruelty to a student who is dif-
ferently abled physically or intellectually or the
exclusion of homosexual parents from parent-
teacher committees?
»» What actions do you and your students take when
you see racially motivated injustices against
particular children present in the classroom or
statements made about people from other racial-
ethnic groups?
A Sense of Wonder
A
t the start of each day, Linda Alston sits in a it’s a consciousness-raising activity on an elementary
child’s chair, her eyes at child’s-eye level, as her scale. It’s making us conscious that ‘This is a person,
25 kindergartners line up to shake her hand. and I want to treat this person the same way I would
“It’s a bonding ritual,” Linda says. “They love it. They wish someone to treat me.’”
look forward to it. God forbid I should be late getting here On the way to the map table, Teddy bumps Paulo,
and my assistant has had to get them started. They will and Paulo gives Teddy a shove. The little disturbance
each still come up to me to shake their hand, so that says ripples. “Class,” Linda calls calmly from across the
to me how important it is for them.” room, “what kind of children are you?”
Frequently, the morning handshake even draws older “Peaceful, loving children!” answers nearly everyone,
students back to Linda’s room. Sixth graders, she says, including the two edgy boys. For kindergartners, recit-
will sneak out of their classroom and join in on their ing a collective response to a simple question is often
knees so they can be short again. “I don’t even see them an effective way to regroup.
until the end of the line comes up, and here they are “Thank you,” says Linda. “Now show me what that
behind my little kids.” means.”
The formal daily greeting is not just for the children’s Teddy and Paulo eye each other warily, then shake hands.
benefit, admits Linda, an African American mother of Harmony, these youngsters are learning, takes practice.
three. “It’s very important to me, too, just looking into Toni Robinson, whose 4-year-old daughter, Arnani,
their eyes. That’s the time in the day that I can count is in Linda’s room for the second year, views common
on to connect with each one simply person-to-person — courtesy as a foundation for later attitudes and respon-
not teacher-to-student or even adult-to-child.” sibilities. “If you see that at this young age,” she says,
Little formalities are a big part of life in Room 7 at “imagine how as adults they will look at the world and
Denver’s Mitchell Elementary, a public Montessori deal with the world and make choices in the world in a
school on the city’s northeast side. After 4-year-old different way.”
Susanna graciously invites her classmate Carla to join Mitchell Elementary is located just north of Denver’s
her for a snack, Linda prompts Carla to respond in kind: Five Points intersection, formerly the heart of the city’s
“Thank you, Susanna. I accept.” (Just as important, African American community. At one time, thriving
Linda later points out, is being able to say, “No, thank Black-owned businesses lined the surrounding blocks.
you. I decline.”) Today, the neighborhood is predominantly Mexican
When a guest speaker visits, a designated “host” American, and on the commercial streets a few stores
presents a bouquet of cut flowers “on behalf of Room 7.” and restaurants survive among mostly abandoned
At some time during the year, each child sends some- buildings.
one special a written invitation to come for tea. A small, In 1983, when a federal court ordered Denver to
lace-covered table in one corner holds a shiny silver tea- bring its school system into compliance with existing
pot, china cups and crisp linen napkins. desegregation requirements, Mitchell was picked as the
“Grace and courtesy” stand alongside language, pilot school and won a federal grant to fund its conver-
mathematics and other more scholarly disciplines in sion to a Montessori program. Principal Martha Urioste
the Montessori curriculum. Linda points out that the arranged free Montessori training for her faculty, but no
acquisition of simple social graces is a developmental- one accepted the offer. As a result, she began to recruit
ly appropriate goal for kindergartners. Teaching chil- teachers locally, regionally and nationally.
dren to be polite, she believes, teaches them respect for “Once word got out,” Urioste recalls, “people began
themselves and others. calling from across the country.” Paula and Paul Biwer,
“If we start out by learning to say ‘thank you’ to some- both Montessori teachers from Milwaukee, were hired
one who gives us something, to say ‘excuse me’ if we to coordinate the conversion. They persuaded their for-
bump someone or to say ‘please’ if we want something, mer colleague Linda Alston to move west.
The new program was phased in one level at a time spirit-catcher hangs near the window. Kente cloth forms
over seven years, beginning with kindergarten. As a bulletin board backdrop. A reading nook beside the
the planners had hoped, the Montessori magnet drew aquarium features a mini easy chair, a table lamp and
an unprecedented diversity of families to Mitchell books about all kinds of children. High over the whole
School. Linda Alston’s class this year includes African space stretches a banner proclaiming ‘’We Are One.”
American, Asian American, Latino, Native American The most striking element of the decor, however, is
and White children; one boy was born in Uganda and the rainbow of real flowers that brighten not just Room
another in Thailand. Some live in two-income house- 7 but all of Mitchell School. Linda had long considered
holds, while others have single parents who are unem- fresh flowers for special occasions one of her neces-
ployed. The only drawback to the magnet program, in sary out-of-pocket expenses for the school year. When
Linda’s view, is the nature of its “magnetism.” Because she came to Mitchell eight years ago and began to
Mitchell Montessori was designed to attract White patronize a neighborhood floral wholesaler, he offered
families to an inner-city school, it serves only a small her a discount on flowers that had been in the ware-
percentage of children from the predominantly non- house for more than two days. These “distressed flow-
White immediate neighborhood. The rest are bused to ers,” he explained, were perfectly good blossoms with
a school some distance away. a full week’s life left in them, but his retailers wouldn’t
To many teachers and parents, “public Montessori” accept them.
sounds like a contradiction in terms. The educational One day on her way out, Linda noticed a Dumpster
philosophy introduced by Italian physician Maria brimming with beautiful daisies, carnations and asters
Montessori in 1907 is practiced today mainly in private just like the ones she had paid for. “What’s wrong with
academies around the world. In recent years, however, this picture?” she asked herself. With some friendly
the program has drawn the attention of U.S. public persuasion, the owner agreed to let her have the throw-
school systems seeking creative means of desegre- aways for free, and a classroom parent volunteered to
gation. Administrators find that Montessori magnet make a weekly pickup at the warehouse.
schools, now numbering more than 100 nationwide, can Linda finds that working with flowers offers her
help maintain a racially as well as economically diverse students benefits at many levels — beautifying their
population within the public schools. environment, improving their manipulative skills and
Linda Alston acknowledges that the Montessori developing their aesthetic capacities.
method, with its requisite training and classroom mate- “Flowers are so soothing for children,” she says. “The
rials, is prohibitively expensive for many public school most wound-up child can work with flower arranging
systems to adopt. But she encourages parents and — see the brilliant colors, smell the fragrances, feel the
teachers to adapt ideas freely from Montessori or any water — to create something beautiful. It’s very affirm-
program that works. ing and peaceful for them.”
“There are wonderful things from Montessori that The vagaries of flower arranging can sometimes
you will find being practiced in many traditional class- lead to unexpected discoveries about beauty itself and
rooms across the country,” she says. the magic of the artistic process. Recently, as 4-year-old
Edwin was beginning an arrangement, a zinnia acci-
A Well-Loved Place dentally slipped down into the glass vase half full of
Linda’s concept of grace and courtesy extends beyond water. Linda recalls that “suddenly here was this won-
verbal politeness to a respect for each child’s physi- derful abstract image of a beautiful flower, magnified
cal space and the whole classroom environment. The inside the vase, which I’m sure Edwin never intended
children use small rugs to define their individual work to happen. He cut the stem too short, and the zinnia fell
areas, and by mutual agreement any project-in-progress in. But he looked at it and thought — just as any art-
left unattended on a rug will remain undisturbed. ist would — ‘Hey, I like that!’ So it sat there, and it was
Linda spends the last three weeks of summer vaca- so beautiful I invited his mother in to see this one-of-a-
tion “rigging” her room with world art she has col- kind creation.”
lected, potted plants and child-sized home furnishings. In Linda’s view, every child is an artist, just as each
The result is a kind of multicultural coziness: A Navajo is a storyteller and a musician, a dancer and a teacher.
She respects their contributions no differently than Brown had finished his presentation, Alston returned
she does the more official capacities of adults. On the to the point. At the Ellipse, a large oval on the carpet
Room 7 Logistics Team, every child gets to try out half where the class has group time, she reminded everyone
a dozen “professions” that rotate by the day. Amani the of Amani’s remark.
historian announces, “Today is Thursday, May 17th,” “If you were going to visit another school, or another
as she changes the number on the calendar. Jack the country, how would you feel if somebody said, ‘Ooh,
meteorologist observes, “It’s raining outside and the that girl talks funny!’ or ‘Ooh, that boy sounds funny!’
sun isn’t shining.” How would that make you feel?”
“Is it going to rain all day?” the teacher asks. Jack nods. “Sad,” said Patrice.
Juliet, today’s zoologist, feeds the resident lizards, “Upset,” offered Sami, whose English carries the
guinea pig and fish, while Corey the Botanist waters the accent of his native Uganda.
plants. In addition to helping the classroom function “I know I would feel that way,” Linda agreed. “That’s
as a community, Linda believes, rotating professions why we do all these things we do in our classroom. So
teaches children the ABC’s of career choice and equal that when you hear something different from the way
opportunity. The simple tasks required for each role are you talk or you see a different way that someone dress-
early lessons in how the world works, who does what, es or a different food that someone eats or a different
and why each job is important. way they sing or tell a story, then we can learn about it
At this age, Linda says, “they’re so full of inquiry instead of saying it’s funny. Is it really funny, like when
and enthusiasm and infinite possibility. They live their you laugh at something?”
whole lives out of the context of ‘Why?’” Respecting “No!” the class chimed.
each child’s natural sense of wonder helps Alston “If it’s not funny, maybe we can find another word to
remain open to the unexpected. describe something we’re not used to hearing or seeing
As she sees it, innocent curiosity gives young chil- or tasting. Who can give me an example?”
dren a decided advantage over adults in bridging dif- “Different,” someone said.
ferences. “There’s no inhibition,” Linda says, “about “Nice.”
‘Should I say this?’ or ‘Should I ask that?’ They want to “New!” said Teddy.
know why somebody else is a different color, or why her Linda praised these suggestions and led the class
hair is curly and somebody else’s hair is straight, and in an exercise of complimenting one another and then
why he looks this way or they dress that way. So they reporting how they felt in response. The consequenc-
just ask. es of words — positive and negative — are a recurrent
“That’s how they get along, because they’re not theme in Room 7.
afraid to ask anything they want to know. They learn “I always like to bring it back to an affective kind
more about each other that way.” The “grace and cour- of experience,” Linda says. “To say, ‘Boys and girls, we
tesy” curriculum, Linda notes, sensitizes children to the shouldn’t say something sounds funny, because that’s
importance of expressing their curiosity respectfully. not nice’ is just not enough. That’s just the should. But
An important task for the teacher at this level is to when I ask ‘How would you feel if...?’ — then we have
help children avoid the snares of stereotyping and of that moment where they can really reflect and notice in
assigning relative values to external traits. Jerry Brown, their bodies how they are actually feeling.”
a friend of Linda’s who is a university professor and a The inner experience of empathy, Linda believes, is
member of the Kutenai/Salish tribe, visited Room 7 last the lifeblood of multiculturalism. “It’s not enough just
spring to talk about his Native American heritage and to say, ‘Here are some facts about Native Americans or
teach the class a song in Lakota, the language of his about African Americans.’ We have to create something
father. When he demonstrated a few verses and asked that comes from the heart, to find our commonalities.”
for questions, Amani said, “Your voice sounds funny.” When Linda returned recently from a trip to China,
Brown replied that maybe that was because she didn’t her students added several Chinese words and phrases
know the Lakota language. Once she learned what the to their international vocabulary. (They could already
words meant, he suggested, they might not sound so greet one another and count to 10 in Spanish, Swahili
strange. The answer satisfied Amani, but later, after and Thai.) Fluency, of course, is not the goal. Rather,
Linda hopes to instill in them a sense that the vast array and black hole, in contrast with the positive associa-
of world languages serve a single purpose. tions of white knight, white collar and snow white.
“As soon as a person starts to experience something To address the problem, Linda has developed a unit
and own it for herself” she says, “then she feels ‘It’s mine on black-and-white art. She brings in examples of black-
now, so certainly I’m not going to think that there’s any- and-white decorative work including drawings and
thing bad or inferior about it.’ If they know words from paintings from many cultures, and the children create
other languages, then when they hear that language spo- their own black-and-white designs from posterboard,
ken it’s an ‘Aha!’ moment for them: ‘Oh, I know ni hao. construction paper, tempera and markers to adorn the
I can say “hello” in Chinese.’ I think it even transcends room. In the process, they learn that these contrasting
that to include languages they’ve not heard before. They colors are equally expressive and especially vibrant
can say, ‘I don’t understand it and it sounds very differ- when used side by side.
ent to me, but I can trust that it is, in fact, a language and For one activity, Linda reads aloud Robert Frost’s
a way that other people effectively communicate.’” poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” and
then has the children illustrate the scene on blue paper
Expanding the Rainbow using only black and white paint.
Children’s perceptions of and responses to difference, “You can bet your last dime,” she says, “that when
Linda realizes, often extend beyond the reach of easy I show them the black paint someone will say it’s
lessons. She listens and watches for signs of confusion ‘yucky.’ That’s my opening to ask them ‘Why?’ Many of
or fear. One such instance centered on the colors of the them — especially the ‘Black’ children — have learned
small work-rugs in the classroom. The gray ones are to feel negatively toward that color, but they can’t offer
sturdily woven of good-quality yarn, but Linda’s budget a good, logical reason. As we probe further, the chil-
forced her to include several less durable ones, which dren begin to question those associations. And as they
are white. One fall a new student — a 3-year-old African work on the art, with their own hands they’re creating
American boy — asked, “Do the Black children use the evidence to the contrary — a picture that is black and
dark rugs and the White children use the white rugs?” white and beautiful.”
Linda heard in this question a plain truth about the Outward differences such as skin color and lan-
world. “Sad to say, at that early age he was getting the guage and tradition are just a portion of the diversity
message that somehow Black people get certain things that Linda explores and celebrates with her class. One
or can use certain things and White people get to use of the most widely varied of all human traits is personal
certain things. I told him, ‘You can choose whatever opinion, and she believes it’s never too early to acquaint
color rug you want to use.’ He was fine with that, but children with the arts of negotiation and compromise.
this is why it’s necessary for me not to keep my head When Amani turned 4 this year, she and her parents
up in the clouds and pretend, ‘Oh, I don’t see color and selected four photographs — one for each year of her
nobody sees color, and we’re just all in the world togeth- life — to be displayed as “Amani’s Time Line,” in keep-
er.’ That’s why I consciously teach tolerance.” ing with the class custom. The first snapshot showed a
The language we use to talk about race, she says, is tiny baby, still wet from birth, lying across her mom’s
part of the problem. “Black” and “White” are only con- chest. Everyone thought the picture was great except
ventional racial labels, not accurate descriptions of skin for one girl, who found it disturbing that the mom’s bare
color. These polarized terms bring a whole set of con- hip was exposed. She asked the teacher to take the pic-
notations to racial identity. Negative popular images ture down.
of the color black, Linda and other educators believe, Linda’s response was to assemble the class on the
can have a harmful effect on the self-images of African Ellipse to discuss the dilemma. Some people look at the
American children — and on the perception of African picture and see a mother and child, she explained; some
Americans by children of other races. Yet many teachers people see “no clothes.” Then she asked what the group
never use black in their classroom decoration except for could do to respect these two views.
Halloween witches’ robes and bad-luck cats. Whether As Amani’s mom, Toni Robinson, remembers, it
they grasp particular meanings or not, children hear the didn’t take long to strike a balance: Someone suggest-
negative messages of terms like black eye, blackmail ed covering the bare hip with a square of construction
paper, so that anyone who wanted to see the whole pic- she could be a doctor even though people told her she
ture could just lift the flap! couldn’t because she was a girl.”
“That’s the kind of thing that goes on here,” says Most of the children recognize the two men in the next
Robinson. “‘We are one.’ If a concern comes up with photo — Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. When
one of the children, they feel that they have a right to Linda identifies the African American woman in the
express themselves. The solution doesn’t have to be third picture as Mary McLeod Bethune, Patrice announc-
‘either/or.’ We can find the medium.” es, “She started a school with 50 cents and a dollar!”
Given the capricious nature of young minds, Linda The fourth picture, Linda explains, shows one of her
warns, incorporating deliberation and consensus into the most special “sheroes,” but someone the class has prob-
early childhood classroom is a risky proposition. But risk, ably never heard of. “This is my Aunt Gerry,” she says.
she believes, is an essential ingredient of good teaching. “Did you know a hero or a shero could be someone in
“Nobody talks about the intuitive part of this,” she your own family?”
says. “It’s even difficult for me now, because how do you Michelle raises her hand again to offer her own idea
explain it? It’s like being in love.” of heroic behavior. “My daddy protects me from ghosts
She is quick to declare that neither following one’s because he locks the doors.”
instincts nor “following the child,” as Maria Montessori Since her own childhood, Linda has felt the influence
advised, can supply all the answers. “I use many eclectic of local heroes. But it took her a long time to realize that
resources. I’m constantly looking for books. But the per- not all children have such beacons in their lives. Several
son who wrote that book is not in the moment with the years ago she heard someone quote a young boy’s reply
child and me. I trust my own expertise there, because I to the question “Who would be disappointed if you
have the context. joined a gang?”
“What works for me is to really be in tune and to be “Nobody,” said the boy.
a keen observer of the children, and to trust that first “Now I don’t believe that,” Linda says. “But what I
thought that comes to me and makes no sense at the reflected on later was that it’s not important whether
moment — I may have no idea why I’m thinking it. But I believe it — if that’s his perception, that’s his reality.”
I’ve learned to trust that consistently now. When I do, The disconnection from family and community that the
magic happens.” boy’s statement implies crystallized some of Linda’s
own perceptions of social problems. She began to look
First You Need a Village seriously at the kinds of role models our society pro-
At her spot on the Ellipse one morning, Linda arrang- vides its youngest members.
es several framed photographs, a vase of flowers and “How many people can be Michael Jordan?” she
a boom-box. She asks the children to listen carefully asks. “Probably just Michael Jordan. Children are con-
to the tape she’s selected —Bette Midler’s perfor- stantly being bombarded with ‘You’re good, you’ve
mance of “The Wind Beneath My Wings.” The refrain made it, when you have a lot of money and material
swells to fill the room: “Did you ever know that you’re things.’ That’s the message that the gangs present very
my hero?” clearly. They look at people like me, for example, who
“Boys and girls,” Linda asks as the song ends, “what are teaching school — they can make in one week the
is a hero?” money that I make in a whole year.” Kids 5 and 6 years
Michelle waves eagerly. “Somebody that saves peo- old, she says, can stand on the corner as lookouts for a
ple!” “Spiderman!” shouts Paulo. drug house and make hundreds of dollars a day.
Sami says, “The president.” Linda reasons that if children are being exposed to
“When we say ‘hero,”’ Linda proposes, “what does the such extreme examples at this young age, it’s the respon-
‘he’ part bring to mind?” sibility of parents and teachers to provide explicit alter-
“It’s like boys,” says Daphne. natives. “It’s funny to me when people say, ‘Should we
The teacher picks up one of the photographs and teach values or shouldn’t we?’ And they get into long
shows it around. “That’s why I like to say ‘heroes and debates about it. I always think, ‘How can you not teach
sheroes.’ Maria Montessori, one of my ‘sheroes,’ was values?’ Even if we tried, how could we avoid sharing
a brave woman who believed in herself and believed our values with children?”
The “grace and courtesy” theme, she points out, is a Wearing the bright saffron robe of his vocation, he asks
direct expression of values. Similarly, the multicultural the children, “Why were we born?” Then he answers
activities she incorporates serve not merely to convey himself: “We were born to practice goodness and grati-
information but to foster respect for differences and tude to those around us.” After his brief talk, he dips
similarities alike. a flower in water and touches each child twice on the
Another value at the core of Linda’s teaching is a head to bless them.
love of work. “In Linda’s class,” observes her colleague Mr. Joe, dressed in his Sunday suit, doesn’t make a
Paul Biwer, “even the youngest children are learning presentation. He just sits in a small chair and lets kids
that work is a social expression of support for the group. climb on him. The children of Room 7 met Mr. Joe on
Work is something that will correct most misbehaviors, one of their walks in the park. He’s a retired African
most selfish attitudes, most attention-seeking. The nat- American man who fishes in the pond every day.
ural desire for all people is to feel good about what they “When men are fishing,” Linda says, “we expect
do. We’ve distorted the value of work in our society to them to say, ‘Be quiet! Get those little kids out of here
suggest that if you’re successful it means that you’ve — they’re going to scare all the fish away!’ But the first
found a way to get leisure without work, that work is for time we met Mr. Joe, he was so approachable, so gentle
somebody else to do for you.” and so kind. We all felt that we had known him for years.
Balancing self-reliance with group participation is an He’s always that way. Mr. Joe meets every criterion of a
ongoing challenge that, Linda believes, begins in early hero for them. And for me.”
childhood. Classroom activities like the rotating “profes- From a “buffet” of food in the kitchen corner, the chil-
sions” and visits from local heroes are two approaches dren serve their elders’ plates first, then join them for
to the same goal — for children “to start to see them- pimiento cheese sandwiches, fruit and punch. A vase
selves as responsible citizens, even at three, four, five on each table holds a bright bouquet. “Asante sana!” the
and six years old.” She wants them to begin asking not children sing in Swahili. “Thank you very much!”
“What can I get?” but “What is my contribution?” For Linda Alston, the celebration of role models close
On a Friday near the end of the year, the citizens of to home makes an ideal end-of-school party — it encom-
Room 7 have invited some of their favorite class visitors passes all the themes she’s emphasized throughout the
and local elders to a “Heroes and Sheroes Luncheon.” year. But it’s also a “life lesson” anyone can teach.
Several parents and grandparents are present for the “This is one way of bringing back the ‘African village’
occasion. Patrice’s great-grandmother Mrs. Heyer, age concept. I know it’s trite now — ‘It takes a whole village
90, has brought her 85-year-old carved wooden doll. to raise a child.’ But first you need a village.”
Jerry Brown of the Kutenai/Salish tribe is back, wear- Around the carefully set tables of Room 7, four gen-
ing his traditional dance outfit. erations and a dozen cultures share a meal.
“It’s not a costume,” he tells the children as he Linda takes a moment to reflect on the scene: “The
explains the various components. “It’s real clothes.” more children begin to feel connected to their commu-
Teddy touches Brown’s braided yarn belt. “That blue nity, to people around them that they can start to see as
stuff,” he says, “is made of blankie.” heroes and sheroes — people who are doing what other-
In turn, the honored guests give brief presentations, wise might be considered mundane or common things
while children and their families watch from a row of — they will feel safer, they will feel more loved and it will
small chairs. Brother Nantambu, a popular local story- be universalized. So that they’ll eventually start to think,
teller, uses a talking drum to bring alive an African tale. ‘I met Mr. Joe and look how much he loves me. Maybe
Dr. Rucker, the neighborhood librarian, describes her 10 more people out there really love me, and I just don’t
visits to five of Denver’s international sister cities and know them.’” v
displays souvenirs, including a miniature Taj Mahal. In
closing, she quotes Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous
epigram on diversity: “The world is so full of a number
of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”
Min’s mom translates for Brother Pramaha, a Thai
monk from the Buddhist temple Min’s family attends.
Prejudice Formation
A myth exists that young children, born prejudice-free, similar to or different from themselves. They tend to
only learn discriminatory practices from negative, exter- exaggerate differences in order to clarify similarities
nal sources. In fact, children naturally and consistently within racial-ethnic minority groups. Although they
display prejudicial attitudes and act in discriminatory may echo adult racial terminology, their behavior
ways. However, prejudice in young children should not often manifests a lack of understanding. For example, a
be viewed as a miniature version of adult attitudes or as White child can declare, “I hate Black people,” yet refer
an assertions of larger societal messages about race. to Black friends as “brown” and have a Black peer as a
Perceiving the world through an egocentric lens, best friend.
young children can respond negatively to individuals In research settings, when asked to pick the “bad”
who possess unfamiliar traits. Further, they may exhib- person from a cluster of racially and ethnically diverse
it prejudice by using negative words — such as “bad,” photos, most White children ages 3 to 5 select the pic-
“mean,” “ugly” or “dirty” — to reject individual playmates tures of Black children. They also identify pictures of
and to express generalized judgments: “Don’t play with Black children as the least preferred playmates. Around
stinky Claire” or “White people are mean.” Stereotyping, ages 5 to 7, two-thirds of the White children report that
on the other hand, often lacks harmful intent but may Asian, Black or Native children are both “bad” and
reflect limited knowledge or experience: disliked. Some psychologists argue that isolated stud-
ies of this nature are faulty because they do not take
“Indian people wear feathers.” into account the children’s interpretation of the word
Young children are also capable of repeating nega- “bad”; nor do they prove that this description is transfer-
tive racial comments in context without recognizing able from the photo to other individuals and situations
their full significance. For example, 3-year-old Tommy, (Branch, in press).
who is White, tells Ujima that she isn’t invited to his Studies also indicate that White children’s develop-
birthday party because “Black people can’t come in my mentally based prejudicial attitudes begin to decline
house.”Although such remarks resemble adult racist at ages 7 to 8 (Aboud, 1988). At this age, most White
conduct, the two are not equivalent. All racially biased children understand that they and others are perma-
comments are nonetheless hurtful for young peers to nent members of racial or ethnic groups, as well as
endure and disturbing for adults to hear. Teachers must individuals with unique personality traits. During this
recognize and address the harmful effects of this behav- stage, White children are more receptive to informa-
ior on both the perpetrator and the targeted child as tion aimed at reducing prejudice toward racially differ-
well as understand the implications of racial supremacy ent classmates. However, in real-life play settings, most
manifested in these remarks. White children at ages 7 to 8 do exhibit preferences
Scholars who examine prejudice formation in young for other White children as friends over racial-ethnic
children caution that prejudicial behavior must be minority children.
understood in relation to cognitive, emotional and social The pattern of attitude formation in racial-ethnic
development, along with children’s particular experi- minority children seems to be different. Most 3- to
ences as members of a dominant or oppressed group 6-year-old Black children do not appear to have in-group
(see Racial and Ethnic Awareness, p. 16). Psychologists preferences, nor do they reject playmates who are differ-
describe how White children and children from racial- ent from themselves. However, around age 7 they begin
ethnic minority groups form prejudicial attitudes differ- to form attachments to their own group and become
ently (Aboud, 1988; Ponterotto & Pederson, 1993). pro-Black. They develop neutral attitudes rather than
While some White children express negative racial rejecting attitudes toward Whites but acquire negative
attitudes as young as age 3, it is more common for this attitudes toward American Indians, Asians and Latinos.
behavior to begin in 4-year-olds. At this age, White Children in the latter groups appear to exhibit the same
children begin to notice the ways in which people are early sequence of attitudes and behaviors as Black
References
Aboud, F. (1988). Children and Prejudice. New York
Basil Blackwell.
Facing Prejudice
Through the normal developmental process of learn- Assume accountability for personal and school prac-
ing to discern and accommodate differences, young tices that promote discrimination. For example:
children often exhibit behaviors that suggest preju- »» Examine and reflect on your own patterns of
dice or even racism. However, because young children response toward children and adults of different
have not internalized the ideology of prejudice, nor do races, ethnic groups, social classes, religions, etc.
they understand the sociopolitical implications of race, »» Discuss with staff members any biased actions or
teachers can help prevent these early responses from comments directed at young children or adults by
developing into lasting attitudes. staff.
Activities that affirm, value and celebrate racial and »» Evaluate school policies and procedures for preju-
ethnic differences in the classroom context are the best dicial elements (e.g., disciplinary practices, staffing
ways to teach young children to accept self and others. diversity, student classroom assignments, catego-
Alert observation and sensitivity to equity issues will ries or lack of categories for multiracial students
indicate when and how to intervene appropriately. on school documents).
»» Seek in-service diversity training for staff and
Prepare an environment that respects all racial and parents.
ethnic groups. For example:
»» Develop lessons and use materials and resources
(e.g., books, posters, music, art) that reflect both
cultural diversity and human commonality.
»» Watch for stereotypical images in classroom deco-
rations, lessons, books, and music.
»» Support children’s curiosity about racial and eth-
nic differences to help them understand diversity
and see differences as natural and special.
»» Provide opportunities for cross-racial and cross-
gender interactions.
»» Affirm children’s home cultures through class-
room resources and “sharing” of family traditions.
Avoid singling out children of color as examples or
cultural carriers for the benefit of majority children
(e.g., “Mary, you’re Chinese; can you show us how
to use chopsticks?”).
Heroes
On a daily basis, young children encounter make-be- of character and use their own ingenuity rather than
lieve and real-life role models. Cartoon superheroes, superpowers to accomplish their goals.
along with bigger-than-life sports figures and entertain- Young children also display unbridled hero wor-
ment stars, seize children’s imaginations with daring ship for real-life media icons such as Michael Jordan
exploits, remarkable skills and glamorous images that and Mr. Rogers. Whereas such figures embody positive
defy the limitations of ordinary life. By idolizing such traits, they are removed from children’s actual lives and
figures, children vicariously transcend their own per- potentially play a limited role as mentors and role mod-
ceived lack of control over the world around them. Yet els. Likewise, historical icons such as Harriet Tubman,
these heroes often foster exaggerated concepts of excel- Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and César
lence and may compromise young children’s capac- Chávez are often presented to children as awe-inspiring
ity to recognize admirable traits in others. Fixation on adult characters in a context that is disconnected from
“superheroes” can make children less aware of the real the children’s own life experiences.
champions in their lives. Captivated by the phenomenal qualities of super-
The actions of cartoon superheroes can lead young heroes and historical icons, young children may fail to
children to think that the essence of being “super” lies recognize the true heroes in their lives: a grandmother
in the ability and license to act in ways that others can- who walks a 5-year-old to kindergarten every morning,
not control. Through role-play children emulate these an uncle who coaches a peewee basketball team or a
extraordinary behaviors: Super-woman chases and cap- firefighter who saves a family’s home. Attributes such
tures dangerous criminals; Monsterman flies around hit- as bravery, helpfulness, honesty, kindness, patience
ting everyone who crosses his path. Superhero play is and pride are all “heroic” qualities children can learn
often violent, repetitive and simplistic. It generally lacks to identify in individuals they admire and love. The
the critical thinking, problem-solving and creative ele- task for teachers is not simply to present alternatives to
ments that characterize other pretend-play interactions. media superheroes. Rather, it is to help children devel-
Some early childhood educators advocate forbid- op the capacity to admire true heroism in others and to
ding super-hero play; others believe that it is possible to recognize this potential within themselves.
redirect aggressive play while maintaining sensitivity
to the child’s interests. For example, children can play References
superhero games on a tabletop with miniature figures Ayers, W. (1989). The Good Preschool Teacher. New
and still incorporate exciting themes such as “good ver- York Teachers College Press.
sus evil” or “danger and rescue” (Beaty, 1995).
In one case study a preschool teacher was able to Beaty, J, (1995). Converting Conflict in Preschool. Ft.
diffuse the violent aspects of superhero play and yet Worth,TX: Harcourt Brace.
support the child’s need to feel empowered (Ayers,
1989). She humanized the superheroes. For example, Kuykendall, J. (1995). “Is Gun Play OK Here???” Young
she would suggest: “Let’s write a book about Darth Children, 50 (5) 56-59.
Vader’s mom” or”Do you think the Phantom’s kids
think he’s bad?”
Heroes that are commercially packaged and
“imposed” on children represent a different type of role
model from those that originate in folk traditions and
literature. The latter are shaped by a communal aesthet-
ic over time and endowed with lasting cultural values.
Additionally, legendary heroes, such as Br’er Rabbit, La
Llorana and Robin Hood, typically exhibit complexity
K
indergarten teacher Mary Stewart has three voic- “If I could wish something for every child in the world,”
es. When she’s telling a story or giving instruc- Mary says, “it would be to feel good enough about them-
tions or just making conversation, her usual exu- selves and their environment to have the confidence just
berant speaking voice draws the children in. She saves to talk to the person in front of them.”
her “big” voice for serious matters — like calling the class Signing offers a welcome oasis of quiet, but Mary
away from scattered tasks to help solve a problem. And isn’t out to banish noise. Most of the time, Room 3 at
for certain times, such as a moment of special gratitude New Haven’s Edge-wood Elementary is rocking — with
or when the usual commotion has spun out of control, teamwork and talk and sometimes song. “They can
she speaks with her hands, silently. sing or sign,” Mary says. “Or sing and sign.” Two songs
Mary has taught her students — all hearing children that the kindergartners have learned “bilingually” this
— a basic American Sign Language vocabulary. She finds year are “This Pretty Planet” and “The Dream of Martin
that communicating in sign calms them and focuses Luther King.”
their attention. A roomful of boisterous kids, she says, The decor of Room 3 is the visual equivalent of hub-
will settle down to “listen” with their eyes as soon as her bub. There are low tables everywhere — learning centers
fingers start moving. holding cups of markers and crayons, baskets of blocks
Each year, she begins by teaching her new class the and clay. The medical center features stethoscopes, a
signs for simple words like “hello,” “thank you” and blood-pressure cuff and a collection of stuffed animal
“goodbye.” For children who tend to wait until the last patients. After classmate Nigel broke his arm on the
possible minute, the sign for “bathroom” provides a way playground, the children busily wrapped Ace bandages
to leave quietly to meet their urgent needs. She gradu- around teddy bear limbs.
ally adds complexity, signing the words “time, eat,” for The science end of the room has a saltwater obser-
example, then later inserting the preposition “to.” “Time, vation tank with sea slippers, periwinkles and mussels.
go” becomes “time to go,” then “time to go to lunch (or Bean plants sprout from paper cups. At the beginning
play or home).” of the year, Douglass excitedly discovered a worm on
What started as a simple classroom management the concrete. Stewart explained that rain had flooded
technique keeps branching out. “Last year, a parent was the worm-holes, and the children decided to make a
deaf,” Mary says, “so when she’d come in, they wanted wormery — a shelter for homeless worms. The aquarium
to sign to her. It became a little more formalized. This full of dirt is regularly stocked with earthworms found on
year, the group went wild with it.” They’ve used take- the playground.
home signing charts to teach their families. Janet’s Every inch of wall space is covered with art projects,
mother told Mary that her daughter signs to herself as writing samples, colorful letters. The small chairs are
she falls asleep. worn and chipped. Bookshelves and an old upright piano
In Mary’s view, the key ingredient of her curricu- crowd a front corner. Not even the space on the piano lid
lum is curiosity — stimulating children to reach out is wasted — brightly colored Lego and Duplo projects sit
to other people even through the barriers of disability there on display.
and language differences and unfamiliar backgrounds. The only thing that’s missing is a teacher’s desk. Mary
Diversity on paper, she explains, can be studied and stores her personal belongings on a cupboard shelf and
appreciated, but it doesn’t demand the personal com- her guitar under a table. She never sits down except on a
mitment of actually talking and listening to someone child’s chair in the meeting circle.
who is different. Through a broad range of activities All day, every day, Mary Stewart — a petite White wom-
such as interviewing, consensus-building and problem- an in her mid-30s, with long brown hair — is the eye in a
solving, she spends nine months each year helping hurricane of 25 five-year-olds. She has no teacher’s aide,
children make real-life connections with each other and though parents and other adults frequently help out as
with members of their community. volunteers. Twenty of her children live beyond the nearby
park in a low-income, predominantly African American The interviewing activity originated with a parent
neighborhood. The remainder, Latino and White, live volunteer who worked as a reporter for the local newspa-
in Westville, the socioeconomically diverse area imme- per. He explained to the children that they could conduct
diately surrounding the school. An array of New Haven interviews just like he did. The idea blossomed. The stu-
private schools attract most neighborhood families that dents began by interviewing each other, then children
can afford them. Others try to get into public magnet pro- in other rooms. Soon, anyone was a fair subject, as Mary
grams. Those who are left go to Edgewood. or a volunteer escorted pairs of cub reporters around the
Principal Gerald Baldino puts a positive spin on these school and neighborhood to interview teachers, family
statistics: “To coin a phrase, we consider ourselves ‘urban members, a store clerk, the school nurse.
advantaged.’ We have something to offer that the private “It’s a process,” says Mary. “They discuss questions
schools don’t. It’s a microcosm of the real world. We really beforehand, what they want to know about this person.
celebrate diversity.” And then they report back to us.” The name of each
Mary has lived in Westville for several years — just a interviewee in turn is added to a special bulletin board.
block and a half from the school — but until last year she “By the end of the year, we’ll have a full board of the
taught in the nearby affluent suburb of Woodbridge. A school community.”
group of Edgewood parents who had seen her in action After months of sharpening their curiosity, as well
recruited her to their school. as their speaking and listening skills, the children now
Persuading her to leave the luxury of a suburban facil- invite someone new each week to visit for a group inter-
ity with its nationally acclaimed library, scores of com- view. Mary acknowledges that focusing 25 little minds
puters, leafy nature trail and swimming pool was the easy and bodies on such an activity can be a challenge, but the
part. According to parent Lorraine Rose-Lerman, “The shared discoveries make it worthwhile.
quality of the work Mary was doing with the children was She recalls a recent interview with Larry Daniels, the
not anything you need a million dollars to do. It could school custodian. “When his name came up, some kids
happen anywhere.” said, ‘He just cleans.’ I said, ‘Oh, he just cleans? Well, we
The real challenge was negotiating the move with have a lot of parents who do cleaning. I clean when I go
the New Haven teachers’ union and a complex school home.’ That started a whole week-long discussion.”
bureaucracy. But the effort paid off. At Mary’s prompting, the class began to observe and
“I’ve waited my whole life here in Connecticut to talk about what the custodian did for them every day and
be working in my neighborhood,” says Mary. “Because about how they treated him. Mary herself was startled
when I see these kids at the park or at the store, there’s to realize that everyone — including herself — routinely
a connection.” ignored him when he came in to empty the trash, except
She has built a bond of trust and affection in Westville when they had something to add to his bag. She asked
and is widely known. When parents tell Mary they’ve the children to consider how the bathroom got so nice
walked by her house, she says, “Why didn’t you stop by? and clean overnight.
Next time stop by and say hello.” All the families have In the process, Mary found her own awareness
her home phone number. heightened. She started greeting Daniels cheerfully
At the beginning of the school year, Mary asks parents when he entered the room. She took closer notice of
and guardians what their schedules and interests are. the school environment and helped the kids tune in:
Then she works out ways for everyone to take an active “Did you see the floors? He got up that big spot of paint
role in the life of Room 3. Some want to be classroom that you put down there the other day.” She took them
volunteers. They choose a center to work in — blocks, art, around the school to count the number of rooms he had
science — and help students by making signs, showing to take care of.
how letters are formed, cutting out complicated shapes By the time Daniels came for his formal interview,
for art projects. Some prefer to come at night and do Mary says, “he was a celebrity. He was this individual
chores like binding and laminating children’s books. that kept our room going. I waited to have the interview
Others are willing to host a field trip to their worksite until they had some kind of connection to him in a real
or to be interviewed in class. The benefit to each child way. And the very first question Nikki asked was, ‘How
extends far beyond the parent’s particular service. can you clean the whole school? It’s huge!’ A lot of the
students said, ‘My parents do this at home, too,’ or ‘My praise, calling attention to what someone does well or
parents go to a job where they have to do that.’ By the something one child did for another. “By mid-year,” she
end, no one ever uttered those words, ‘It’s just cleaning.”’ adds, “a kid might say, ‘I don’t feel so good. Would you
guys give me some put-ups?’”
“Do You Care About Your Friend?” As with signing, Mary finds, kindergartners enjoy
On the first day of school this year, four children came mastering a repertoire of “customs” that help the class
off the bus hitting. In the first week, Mary was punched run smoothly. “This year we’re doing something new that
in the face twice by children who showed no remorse. came directly from the children. Isha once said to the oth-
This was the toughest group she had had in 10 years er children in the meeting circle, ‘You really don’t care
of teaching. about me because you’re not listening to me.’ The whole
“When all the kids came in,” she recalls, “they real- ‘Do you care about your friend?’ technique developed out
ly looked at each other like they were different. Their of that discussion.”
eyes would get big, and you could tell they were ner- Now, when the children start to wriggle and whisper
vous with each other.” For many, it was their first close as a classmate shares a project or a story, Mary stops the
encounter with children of a different racial, cultural or presentation and says, “It doesn’t sound like you care
economic background. about your friend. Show her you care by ‘sitting safe’ and
From the outset, Mary is clear about her expecta- looking at her. Do you care about your friend?” Most
tions: that Room 3 will be more than a classroom; it will often, this reminder prompts the children to refocus their
be a caring family. A basic building block of mutual attention and listen with respect.
respect and teamwork that she introduces right away
is the daily class meeting. Early in the year, meetings “Can I Touch Your Sneakers?”
work like ice-breakers, helping the children and the Sometimes a serious situation requires more detailed
teacher learn about one another’s backgrounds and attention. Mary believes that problem-solving must take
communication styles. Later, classroom conflicts get precedence over class work. One morning during meet-
sorted out at impromptu “problem-solving” meetings ing, she saw Georgia hit her neighbor, Lionel. Both chil-
in which everyone’s voice counts. dren were about to cry. This was all the information Mary
Together, Mary and her students develop a set of class had to go on when she opened the floor for a problem-
rules that may be amended throughout the year. After solving session.
group discussion, some of the children inscribe their “Once the meeting’s called,” she says, “each child
own suggestions on the chart. Others dictate their ideas has an opportunity to discuss what happened to them.
to Mary or a classmate. And a few illustrate their decrees If someone was hurt or hit, they are the first one that’s
with drawings or magazine cut-outs. Each household allowed to speak. Lionel was so upset, he almost couldn’t
gets a copy so that everyone knows the fundamentals: tell what happened.”
“Be polite,” “No hitting,” “Take turns with the see-saw,” But as Mary sees it, it’s her job to give each party the
and the like. time it takes to be heard. Lionel’s eyes brimmed over. He
The rules are just a baseline, Mary says. More impor- said he just liked Georgia’s new sneakers.
tant in reducing conflict are the experiences and rein- “They looked great,” Mary remembers. “They were
forcements that make children want to get along. One clean. They looked smooth. He wanted to touch them.”
preventive technique emerged when she noticed how Georgia rebutted that he was grabbing her feet. She
many playground spats began with put-downs. As an was scared and didn’t like having him touch her.
alternative, she introduced the “put-up,” an idea she “Her first reaction was ‘whack!’” says Mary. “Lionel
remembered reading about years ago. Once a week, she cried because he felt horrible. He didn’t want her to
chooses someone for the class to bombard with compli- think that he was grabbing her. His feelings were hurt.”
ments during meeting time. A spontaneous put-up ses- Much of the conflict that Mary sees among her kin-
sion might be called to boost someone who’s feeling bad. dergartners is rooted in simple misunderstanding. Airing
“In the beginning of the year,” Mary says, “they often their grievances allowed Georgia and Lionel to see the
compliment how kids look. Then they get beyond that.” sense behind rules like “Ask permission to touch some-
She takes every opportunity to demonstrate meaningful one” and “Think before you act.”
Over a week of meetings, the class discussed what In the end, the class decides that Marco should lose
had happened. Days later, Mary heard students say, his turn at computer. Since the whole class shares one
“Don’t grab people. You might make them nervous.” terminal, loss of the day’s privileges means Marco will
Now she hears, “Can I look at your sneakers?” “Can I have to wait a week for his next turn.
touch them?” “They’re tough on each other,” Mary observes. “But
Mary believes that “children naturally want to solve this is their room. They can say, ‘We don’t want to put up
their problems, but some don’t know how.” She has con- with this.’”
sulted books on conflict resolution and peaceable class- Marco apologizes to Douglass and promises earnest-
rooms and adapted and refined what works. Her methods ly not to do it again. The boys shake hands. Mary signs
continue to evolve. “Thank you,” and the children rush to get their coats for
The teacher’s time-honored task of answering mis- the playground.
conduct with blame and punishment, Mary says, fails to Now and then, Mary does get discouraged. When she
foster real responsibility for behavior. Under that kind of introduced problem-solving, concerned parents called to
discipline, “they’ll be fine as long as I’m standing in front ask if their child was a “problem” or was being singled
of them, because I’m the discipline. I’m in charge. But the out. “For a while I was hearing from parents every night,”
moment they leave my sight, they’ll do it again because she recalls.
they’ll never develop any inner control. I think teaching After a few months, as they witnessed their children’s
consequences — that a child’s actions have an effect on enthusiasm for the process, they became Mary’s allies,
others — is what’s important.” and now some even use the problem-solving techniques
This morning, Mary uses her “big” voice: “Room 3, at home. By mid-year, three classroom moms had report-
come quickly! Sit down. We have a problem, and we need ed that when they and their partners argued, their chil-
everyone’s help.” dren spoke up: “Don’t scream and yell. I can help solve
The youngsters leave their work centers and scurry your problem.”
over to the carpet. They sit in a circle, listening carefully Mary is most heartened when she sees concrete and
and seriously as the story unfolds. lasting changes in behavior. A tough little boy named
“What happened, Douglass?” Mary asks. Mustafa is a good example. “In the beginning of the year,
“Marco twisted my arm,” explains the tearful boy rub- he wanted to hit all the time. He was unfamiliar with
bing his elbow. expressing feelings any other way. She sees the prog-
The teacher asks the alleged offender to explain his side ress he has made and rejoices in his ability to control his
or defend himself, but he doesn’t have much to offer. She aggressive impulses. Recently Mustafa went to the prin-
turns to the group for suggestions. Several hands go up. cipal’s office to confess that he took Joey’s fruit bar out of
“We only have time for ideas from two people,” Mary his lunch bag and ate it.
explains, “Dougie, it’s up to you to choose who you want “The secretary almost fell over,” Mary says. “She asked
to help you.” me, ‘Why did he say that?’
He points to Hannah. She offers a three-point propos- “I said, ‘Because he knows he was wrong.’
al: “Marco should be nice to Douglass the rest of the day. “’Well,’ she said, flabbergasted, ‘I’m used to them
Marco should think about what he did to Douglass, and swearing they didn’t do anything.’”
he should sing him a song.” Emmett is another child who gives Mary hope. Early
Mary asks Douglass if he wants Marco to sing to him. in the year, as the 5th graders earnestly conducted a
Douglass says, “No.” schoolwide “town meeting,” Emmett reached up and
Next Douglass chooses Martin, who takes a firmer punched Mary in the nose, for no discernible reason. She
stance. “Maybe Marco should sit on the wall during felt it would be disruptive to do anything at the moment.
recess or lose computer all day.” The others nod know- Immediately after the assembly ended, the children had
ingly — computer is Marco’s favorite activity. to be hustled onto the bus to go home, but she warned
To bring the discussion to a close, Mary reminds Emmett that she would be calling his family the next
everyone of the rule they made at the beginning of the morning to discuss what had happened.
year: “When we play, we don’t grab anyone. It’s a rule you When she called one side of his family, she got
made yourselves.” nowhere. Next she tried the other parent. No support. She
moved down the list of phone numbers the children had and would like to work with children in music. She was
filed and got Emmett’s concerned grandmother. delighted to get the help.
The grandmother agreed to talk to him, and Mary What Pedro didn’t tell her before they met was that he
did see an improvement in the boy’s behavior. He began is blind and hearing impaired. He walks with a cane and
gradually to trust that the teacher wouldn’t put him down wears a large hearing aid.
or hit him. One day at work time he told Mary he got mad “The first thing that went through my mind,” Mary
a lot because he couldn’t make his fingers do some of the recalls, “was, ‘Have you worked with kids?’”
things the other children’s fingers did. He had. When she advised him that her students
Mary encouraged him to pick partners in class who might take advantage of his disability, he persuaded her
could help him write his name and his letters. Emmett, to let them try.
who is Black, chose Mary admits that the results have surprised her. “In
Rosemary, a White child. She enjoyed helping and the beginning, they were out to play tricks on him some-
looked to him for help in turn — with overcoming her times —just like they do with me. But [they learned that]
profound shyness. just because Pedro can’t see doesn’t mean he doesn’t
At first, the partnership disturbed Rosemary’s mother. know what they’re doing. If someone isn’t sitting, he’ll
She expressed concern about Emmett’s reputation for know. If someone’s tapping the ground instead of hold-
rough behavior. But one positive connection can offer ing their instrument, he’ll know.”
“problem” children a foundation to build on. To every- The day the whole group interviewed Pedro — after
one’s delight, Emmett has, in Mary’s words, “turned into he had been with them for several weeks — they mainly
a sweetie.” He and Rosemary are now fast friends. wanted to talk about what a great musician he is. “He
Unexpected friendships have become a hallmark of just happens to have special needs,” says Mary. “I didn’t
Room 3. Mary attributes the development in part to a go out and seek Pedro. He just came to us to work with
problem-solving meeting several months ago. “Someone music. That’s how he fits in.”
was upset and said [to another student], ‘I really want to Room 3 kids are accustomed to seeing people with
play with you, but you’re always with these other two peo- disabilities — the upper grades have special educa-
ple.’ We’re a neighborhood school,” says Mary, “so if your tion classes, and the neighborhood has several group
two best friends live on your block, it’s natural to want to homes. Furthermore, Mary points out, the “mean streets”
be with them.” have disabled a number of the children’s relatives and
During the problem-solving session, someone acquaintances.
brought up one of the songs they had learned in sign: When a child does have questions about Pedro’s
“Make New Friends and Keep the Old.” blindness or his hearing aid, both Mary and Pedro give
“How about every time Mary sings ‘Make New straight answers. Small-group exercises like weekly
Friends,’” the child proposed, “we have to mix each “blind art” projects help children explore their senses
other up?” and practice empathy for their friend. Three blindfolded
“It became a game,” says Mary. “They love it now. students working together on a clay sculpture learn first-
Someone might yell in the line, ‘Make new friends in this hand lessons in perception and cooperation.
line!’ and they all run around with different people. All of Mary’s concern for the needs of the disabled grows
a sudden, their similarities and their differences become out of practical necessity rather than abstract philos-
interesting. The single most important thing in teaching ophy. She asks, “How do I use Pedro’s skills to teach
tolerance, I feel, is getting them to speak to each other the children? How do I get someone in a wheelchair
and listen to each other — to really want to know what into the classroom?” And she is ever mindful of an
someone else is saying.” important principle of kindergarten, “How do we
make this fun?”
Boards, Hammers, Nails This matter-of-fact approach to disabilities will be
Pedro, a high school senior, comes to Room 3 one day a getting its biggest test soon. Mary has invited her friend
week. He contacted Edgewood School at the beginning of Rebecca Behrends, a psychologist, to Room 3 for an inter-
the year to volunteer as part of his work/study program. view. Rebecca uses a wheelchair. Edgewood occupies an
He told Mary Stewart that he played several instruments old building designed long before the requirements of
the Americans With Disabilities Act were a built-in part nod their heads. Some children report that they have rel-
of a school architect’s vision. atives who use canes or wheelchairs. Several are being
A couple of weeks before Rebecca’s scheduled visit, raised by older grandparents. Mary hears: “My grand-
Mary introduces the problem by bringing a wheelchair mother had a stroke” and “My aunt uses a walker.”
to class, along with a toy one and a miniature ramp. It “This project is not about being handicapped,” says
doesn’t take the children long to figure out that the school Mary. “It’s about wholeness. I want the children to look
entrances all have steps. at life more whole. The handicapped are people in our
“We could build a ramp!” someone suggests. Mary, community. Let’s look at all of us. We’re all different. We
anticipating just such a brainstorm, has already begun all have strengths. Let’s help each other.”
collecting lumber. After a complete inspection of door- To assist with the week-long ramp construction proj-
ways, the children determine that the side entrance will ect, Mary has recruited parent volunteers and another
be the easiest to adapt. teacher. She puts together small groups of children who
Years of working with kindergartners tell her that this she knows will work well together. Mixing and match-
project will require more than just physical preparation. ing strengths and weaknesses, she believes, is the key to
There are mental and emotional dimensions as well. cooperative learning.
Some of the children are excited, Mary says, but “some Mary divides the activity into several workstations. For
are worried. Some are scared.” When she asks them what the ramp itself, she spreads out a sturdy plywood sheet
the wheelchair makes them think of, one boy says, “My and long triangles of wood in the middle of the meet-
grandfather was in a wheelchair, and he died.” ing area. She drags out the tool crate, filled with safety
Mary sits in the chair and moves it around as she goggles, hammers and a large box of nails and warns the
explains the difference between a disease and a disabil- children not to use tools without goggles. Students take
ity. Gradually, a few children ask for a turn. When they turns hammering, gripping tightly with little hands. The
begin asking what it’s like to get around the building in noise is loud, and several children cover their ears even
a wheelchair, Mary expands on the idea. A phone call to though they are clearly enjoying their jobs.
Yale-New Haven Hospital gets things rolling: They agree Mary, who served as a motor-pool mechanic in the U.S.
to loan her four of their smallest chairs. Army to earn money for college, believes that children
A few days later, Mary arranges orange traffic cones to are so accustomed to high-tech equipment and elabo-
create an obstacle course on the school parking lot. The rately constructed toys that they have little concept of
borrowed wheelchairs are lined against the curb. In turn, how people actually make things. Using real tools gives
each child takes a driver’s seat and attempts to dodge the them a new appreciation for labor.
cones. Cries of “Help!” ring loudly as frustrated children “If you don’t learn how to cut a piece of wood to mold
get their wheels stuck in a small hole. a boat,” she says, “then you don’t understand what it
The physical and mental task of maneuvering a took someone else to create that piece of work. You take
wheelchair is a tough challenge. Few of the students can it for granted. Someone said you could pre-drill those
follow Mary’s instruction to pretend that their legs are holes so it’s easier. I said, ‘I don’t want it to be easier. I
wet noodles. When Daniel hits the pothole, he stands up want them to know how hard it is to put that one little
and walks away. nail in that ramp!’”
When Principal Gerald Baldino comes out to observe Because many Edgewood parents work with their
the activity, he brings along an adolescent student. “This hands — on assembly lines, as nurses’ aides or house-
is Carlos. He used to depend on a wheelchair. He’s an cleaners — Mary sees her building projects as ways to
expert and offered to help.” Carlos gives the children reinforce family respect. “Everyone leaves this room with
pointers on judging distances and turning. With his an appreciation of anything done physically. In our cul-
guidance, they all make it through the maze, chairs intact ture, we tend to have an intolerance toward anyone who
and bodies exhausted. doesn’t work with high-tech tools, such as computers. An
At their next meeting, Mary asks how the children felt attitude develops that if you don’t work with technical
trying to steer the chairs. equipment you are lower class.”
“It was fun!” says Emmett. At another workstation, sheets of yellow and red con-
“I was scared,” says Hannah, and several other children struction paper are piled up with a neat stack of pre-cut
black wheel circles. By cutting two yellow square shapes are relieved to learn that her son, Justin, came through
and pasting them together on red paper with generous the accident unscathed in his baby safety seat and that
globs of glue, adding four black wheels and a yellow handle, he now attends 2nd grade at Mary Stewart’s old school.
the children can create Matisse-like wheelchair collages. Rebecca and Mary became friends when Mary taught
A table with a large removable top reveals a cache Justin in kindergarten.
of wooden blocks, wooden wheels, long dowels, short Rebecca demonstrates the kind of wheelie she has to
pegs, metal eyelets. Working independently, the chil- “pop” in order to overcome sidewalks without curb-cuts.
dren assemble these components into miniature wheel- Once, she tells them, she flipped over backwards onto the
chairs. Then they lavishly decorate their creations with sidewalk, her limp legs flung over her head. Strangers
bright markers and crayons. Each resulting toy vehicle is rescued her.
unique. Every child is thrilled to have one to take home. Mary knows why the children are quiet and thought-
Self respect is another byproduct Mary recognizes ful after Rebecca’s story. They have experienced much
in hands-on construction. “Kids grow up thinking they in their young lives. Some have seen shootings and
can’t do these things. When I teach basic woodworking beatings. They understand being helpless. They’re also
techniques, which they can do at home, all of a sudden confused. How could she allow herself to be rescued by
they are engineers, designers. They are creating things strangers? They have heard over and over that strangers
that really work and move. Sometimes they say, ‘You’re can hurt them. Rebecca quietly explains that she had no
a mom. Moms can’t do that.’ I say, ‘I’m a mom, and you choice but to trust them.
know what? Right now my husband is home cooking, and Before she leaves, Rebecca distributes a stack of bright
I’m here using my tools!’” yellow cards. On one side, bold black letters read “Parking
On Friday, the measuring and cutting and hammering Violation.” The other side explains that the recipient is
are over. Mary lets the children personalize the finished parked either in a space reserved for the handicapped
ramp with crayons and markers before the adults slide or across a wheelchair ramp. A cartoon at the bottom
it into place. Everyone goes out to greet Rebecca as she shows a police officer telling a driver, “No, ‘Handicapped
arrives in her specially equipped van. She dazzles them Parking’ isn’t for people who have trouble parking!”
by demonstrating the carpeted lift that lowers her onto Mary tells the children to keep the tickets handy. If
the sidewalk. Hannah gets to use the remote control to they spot a car without the proper sticker parked in a blue
raise the lift and close the door. Gail later reports to her space, they can leave a ticket to remind the driver about
grandmother, “Rebecca has a cool van.” accessibility. She has lofty goals for Room 3. “I want my
The children line her path as Rebecca rolls toward students to feel secure about themselves and to speak
the side door. The fresh wood of the incline is spangled out about injustice. I’m looking for proactive kindergart-
with names and doodles and flowers. “I’ve never had a ners here!”
decorated ramp before,” Rebecca tells her young hosts. A few days after Rebecca’s visit, Tyrell, one of Mary’s
“It’s beautiful!” most challenging youngsters, was standing alone at the
Mary sticks a shiny blue “handicapped accessible” fence that borders the school. Two disabled men walked
symbol on the wall beside the ramp. It’s the only acces- slowly along the sidewalk communicating in sign lan-
sible entrance to the whole school. guage. In order to sign, one of the men paused to lift his
As she reaches the top of the incline, Rebecca throws arms from his crutches. Two 4th graders began to taunt
up both arms in a gesture of triumph. The Room 3 car- the pair.
penters cheer with pride. Six-year-old Tyrell shouted at them to stop: “Why are
They sit in their meeting circle peppering Rebecca you making fun of them? Do you know them? They’re
with questions. As a psychologist and mother, she is just like you. They’re talking to each other.” v
comfortable with their curiosity: How does she shop?
How does she get into bed? How did she lose the use
of her legs?
Calmly, Rebecca tells the frightening story of
the car accident that disabled her five years ago. She
reminds them to always wear a seat belt. The children
References
Edwards, C. P. (1986). Promoting Social and Moral
Development in Young Children. New York Teachers
College Press.
do. Thus, for example, the farming, hunting and handi- Tharp, R. G. (1994). “Intergroup Differences Among
craft skills of White children from traditional, rural Native Americans in Socialization and Child
homes originate from early work-play experiences. Cognition.” In Greenfield & Cocking (see above).
Most children from Asian cultures, like their African
Amercan, Indian and Latino peers, are also socialized in Vygotsky, L. S (1978). Mind in Society: The Development
a collective manner that stresses group needs over those of Higher Mental Processes. In M. Cole,V. John-
of the individual, and readiness to cooperate rather than Steiner S. Scribner & E. Souberman (Eds. & Trans.).
to compete with in-group members. Generally, emo- Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
tional maturity and compliance to norms are expected
earlier in Asian children, while social initiative and ver-
bal assertiveness are expected earlier in White children.
Studies have also found that Asian mothers often pre-
pare the play environment to support school readiness
and early learning activities (Kim & Choi, 1994).
Real-World Connections
Schools can safeguard every child’s right to meaning-
ful play by providing appropriate environments, mate-
rials, time and supervision, and by designing culturally
responsive play-work activities within the curriculum.
Through the use of real or child-scale implements, tools
and work materials for play, teachers can enhance chil-
dren’s sense of competence and connection to the larger
world. Classrooms that include resources from diverse
fields of adult work offer the opportunity to counteract
economic or work-oriented prejudices present in the
community and in the media.
Regardless of cultural context, early childhood play
offers outlets for practicing relationships, exploring
emotions and mastering skills in safe, child-controlled
environments. Children’s good feelings about them-
selves and others develop through active engagement
in play and work. Teachers who are able to design
play-work experiences that value home cultures
ensure every member of the classroom community
access to the delights and benefits of play (See also
Gender Awareness, p. 50; Heroes, p. 105; and Little
Utopias, p. 164.)
References
Greenfield, P. M., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (1994). Cross-
Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
W
hen Lourdes Ballesteros-Barron was an Rules” is now used in more than 20,000 schools in the
8-year-old student at a private school in Mi- U.S. and Canada.
ami, she had a teacher who would walk up In Lourdes’ kindergarten classroom at North Miami
and down the rows of desks carrying a heavy math text- Elementary School, peacemaking is the central theme.
book in one arm. Every time a student gave the wrong All day long, Lourdes models the simple, specific rules
answer, the teacher would slam the book down on the of behavior that she wants her children to practice at
child’s head. Lourdes became so terrified of school school and at home. Story time is followed by brain-
that she spent almost every night of her 3rd grade year storming sessions in which students create solutions
throwing up. for the story characters’ conflicts. During dramatic
Thirteen years later, when Lourdes became a 1st play periods, Lourdes helps children practice skills of
grade teacher at a public school in North Miami, she respectful communication by re-creating typical class-
was determined to make school fun. But her more expe- room clashes, such as line-breaking or crayon-grabbing.
rienced colleagues warned her to be stern, and she soon Whenever a real conflict arises, the students involved
found out why: The 30 children she faced every day were move to the “Peace Table,” where they work at putting
already seasoned in the habits of hitting, pushing and the classroom philosophy into action.
calling names. As the other teachers explained it, vio- The room itself is arranged and decorated to rein-
lence was a fact of life in the children’s neighborhoods. force the message of peace. On one wall, a paper quilt
Meeting chaos head-on, Lourdes found herself rou- of self-portraits displays each child’s vision of what he
tinely pointing out wrongdoers, writing their names or she can do “as a peacemaker.”
on the board, handing out “frowny” faces and even Jacquese writes: “I will help my classmates learn.”
keeping her most troublesome 6-year-olds in deten- Cassandra, who has drawn herself with a broad smile
tion. Every night, she went home hoarse from raising that resembles an upside-down rainbow, declares: “I can
her voice. share my toys.”
She had wanted to be a teacher who would make Others add: “I will shake hands.” “I can help my
children smile, but her children weren’t smiling, and brothers when they fight.” “I will hug my mommy.”
neither was she. In a sickening flash of insight, Lourdes On the opposite wall, a paper cloud hangs over a
understood the frustration that might have led her 3rd blue and green construction-paper globe circled by
grade teacher to turn the textbooks themselves into children vividly clothed and complexioned. Huge let-
weapons. The children’s resistance and her own reac- ters in the cloud spell: “We are all a family under one
tion had become a vicious circle. Lourdes decided she sky!” Another poster announces: “Together, everyone
would have to find another way to teach or find another achieves more,” and nearby the children have drawn
career. If she was going to realize her vision of a happy images of what they can do as a team: play, work, build
classroom, she had to dispel the established notion that things, put together puzzles.
violence was her students’ natural impulse. Behind Lourdes’ desk are posted the I Care Rules.
Seven years later, Lourdes is a teacher who rarely There are five, and all the students know them by heart:
raises her voice in class, who avoids criticizing stu- 1. We listen to each other.
dents’ mistakes and who believes in the power of small 2. Hands are for helping, not hurting.
children to solve big problems. Both she and her chil- 3. We use “I Care” language.
dren are happy to come to school every day. She credits 4. We care about each other’s feelings.
her own transformation and the transformation of her 5. We are responsible for what we say and do.
classroom to the training and materials she received Student desks are configured to encourage group
from the Peace Education Foundation, a Miami orga- work, in sets of four facing each other. Each desktop
nization whose Peaceworks curriculum of storytell- features a distinctly decorated placemat displaying the
ing, role-playing, conflict resolution skills and “I Care occupant’s name in large print. Giovan’s design is a
symmetrical arrangement of multicolored hearts, stars, constant attention and absolute commitment, but the
triangles and squares. Coutchard’s placemat shows rewards are great.
stick people being transported by spaceship through a During the Peace Education Foundation’s three-day
galaxy of abstract shapes. training sessions, teachers like Lourdes learn that their
One area of the classroom is set aside for a special primary challenge is not to change the children but to
purpose. The Peace Table is these kindergartners’ change themselves. Diane Carlebach, a PEF early child-
summit site, a private, neutral setting for negotiating hood specialist, explains, “The program can only work
differences. To help with the difficult task of voicing if teachers are committed to looking at themselves. For
uncomfortable feelings and listening respectfully, the instance, if we want children to learn how to treat each
problem-solvers have a menagerie of hand puppets to other with respect, we have to treat them with respect.”
choose from. Two small chairs keep the proceedings For Lourdes, treating children with respect required
simple, one-to-one. The table is covered in bright cloth breaking old habits. No longer could she rely on a loud
and backed by a bulletin board that displays photo- voice and the threat of detention to control the class.
graphs of children from earlier Peace Table sessions. Though these tactics never really worked, they were
The photos let the children know that peacemaking is a such familiar responses that changing them was not
time-honored activity here. going to be easy.
One of the first skills Lourdes had to learn was how
A New Way of Teaching to stay calm and friendly in the face of disruptive behav-
The 30 kindergartners in Lourdes’ classroom come iors. She paid close attention to her habitual responses
from mostly low-income Haitian and African American to trouble and practiced doing the opposite of what
families. Many of these children start school having she felt like doing. She forced herself to smile when
already learned that the world is an uncertain and often she wanted to glare, to speak softly when she wanted to
hostile place. A central part of Lourdes’ job, as she sees shout, to move slowly when she wanted to rush.
it, is helping children recognize, cultivate and trust their “If they started going crazy, I just took a deep breath
positive instincts. and tried to stay calm. The first change I noticed was
In her first year of teaching, Lourdes saw that the in myself, in my own attitude. I became more peaceful
most benign events could be provocation for violence. within myself and more positive with the kids.”
“If a pencil fell from one child’s desk and another child Like many teachers, Lourdes was not immediately
picked it up, they assumed that the child was stealing. convinced that unruly children could be taught self-
One day, a child hit another with a rock and the boy was control without conventional discipline techniques. The
bleeding, and the child who hit him just laughed. idea of doing away with punishments and reprimands
“They automatically resorted to violence, and I would sounded good, but would it really work?
raise my voice. They were negative and I was negative. In place of singling out “troublemakers,” she began
It was like a war: Who was going to be tougher — them tallying good behavior. Tables of four students rather
or me? These were five- and six-year-olds! I wasn’t doing than individual children could earn points for listen-
a terrible job of teaching; they were learning. But I was ing, standing quietly in line, following instructions,
upset with myself that I was focusing so much on the being polite.
negative. And their behavior wasn’t getting any better.” “Instead of ‘sad’ lists, they get all these points for
As she searched for a way to recover her vision of doing the right thing. I give them stickers, but it’s
school as fun, Lourdes realized that her children spent always for the positive. I never take anything away. And
more time in school than they did at home. “I wanted it works. They get so excited; they love the recognition.
to be like a second mother to them. I don’t want the I started doing a ‘thumbs up’ sign, and it made them
children to feel any fear. I want them to feel comfort- feel so good, they started doing thumbs up. And they
able here.” know that we never do thumbs down. If someone does
In the Peace Education Foundation (PEF) program, something wrong, we talk to them and help them to do
Lourdes found some simple tools and guidelines that it right.”
helped her create peace in her classroom. She discov- When Lourdes tells other teachers about the chang-
ered that peace is a never-ending process that demands es in her classroom, she urges them not to take her
word for it but to try it themselves. If they are consistent tablemates offers Sapphire an eraser, and Lourdes artic-
and persistent in their attention to the peace process, ulates the lesson they have demonstrated: “See, when
Lourdes says, they will be astounded by the changes we ask our friends, they help us.”
they’ll see.
Having watched other teachers put the peace princi- Listening for Solutions
ples to work, Lourdes concludes that the key to success The idea of helping and asking for help is a theme that
is the teacher’s willingness to try. “The teacher has to will come up again and again throughout the day. And
be the role model. Sometimes, teachers who are trying at story time, they will talk about it in some detail.
this ask me, ‘When is it going to work?’ and I tell them The tales that occupy story time in Lourdes’ class-
‘It’s going to work as long as you do it. But you have to room are chosen specifically to teach peacemaking
do it every day. And lf your attitude is negative, it’s not skills. After reading stories like “The Three Billy Goats
going to work.’” Gruff” or “The Little Red Hen,” Lourdes leads a role-play
Lourdes has a chance to demonstrate her new and discussion about how the characters in the story
approach as she is talking to a visitor in the classroom. could have solved their problems.
Her 30 students are coloring and chattering at their By imagining solutions to problems in familiar
tables, and the longer Lourdes spends with the visi- stories, even very young children can begin to view
tor, the louder the children get. After a few minutes, themselves as problem-solvers. “They see that there
the background noise is a low roar. Then a piercing is something wrong and that even though they are
squeal is heard, and Lourdes turns quickly around to just five or six years old, they can make it better,”
face the class. For a moment, her face reflects frustra- Lourdes says.
tion. She doesn’t speak right away but looks intently After reading “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” Lourdes
around the room. draws her children’s attention to the life-or-death prob-
It takes only seconds for her face to relax into a smile. lem that the billy goats face: In order to find grass to
“You know, you guys at Table One are doing so great, graze on, they must cross over a bridge where a threat-
you’re using your manners and being polite and you’re ening troll lies waiting to eat them. “How could the billy
making me so happy! Thank you!” goats solve their problem?” she asks, and the kinder-
The room gets quiet. “Should we count our points, gartners offer their suggestions:
Table One?” “The goats could help the troll find some other food.”
Aloud together, the students count the checkmarks “They could take him to the store.”
beside their table number on the chalkboard and dis- “They could take him to McDonald’s.”
cover that they’ve earned 10 — enough for a happy face “They could invite the troll to their house and cook
sticker. “Yea!” the students cheer together. him dinner.”
Building peace means giving children a chance “They could build another bridge.”
to be boisterous once in a while. Lourdes asks the “They could build a boat!”
class to stand up and sing one of their favorite move- Finally, one child suggests: “The goats don’t really
ment songs. They jump up, clap their hands over their need to go anywhere. They could just stay there and
heads, turn around and around. The song’s refrain is, wait for the grass to grow.
“Whatever way I move, I do it in a very safe way.” Two Lourdes shares the children’s pride in their creative
boys knock into each other and one falls down. When thinking. Adults usually underestimate the power of
the song ends, Lourdes speaks very quietly. “It makes children’s imagination to help them solve problems,
me sad if somebody is silly and doing something that is she says. Through discussions and role-play exercises,
not safe. I know you don’t want to hurt yourself or hurt children begin to develop the skills and confidence
your friends.” to resolve routine classroom conflicts: pushing, line-
Lourdes routinely refers to the students as “your breaking, grabbing someone’s crayon, stepping on a
friends.” When Sapphire can’t find an eraser and classmate’s shoes.
becomes frustrated, she complains to her teacher. “In the beginning, our goal is to identify the prob-
Rather than finding an eraser for her, Lourdes suggests lem, rather than blaming or tattling,” says Lourdes.
that Sapphire ask a friend to share theirs. One of her “They know that when I say, ‘What’s the problem?’ they
should talk about the problem instead of talking about At story time, discussions often begin with the chil-
the person.” dren pointing out that someone is not following the I
So they learn that instead of shouting “He took my Care Rules. In the case of the Little Red Hen, the talk
crayon!” in the role-play situation, they can keep the peace centers on the requirements of friendship.
by saying calmly, “That was my crayon.” Lourdes stresses The children quickly become familiar with stories
that most offenses are unintentional: “Did he know it was like “The Little Red Hen,” but in Lourdes’ class they
your crayon? Maybe you can explain that to him.” always find new ways to think about the tales. As their
They talk about how important peace is, not just in teacher once again reads the first few pages, the chil-
their classroom, but in the world outside. “I encourage dren listen as if for the first time. The LittIe Red Hen
them to think about the future and tell them that they wants someone to help her plant seeds to grow wheat to
will be responsible in the future for what will happen. I make flour to bake bread. “Who’ll help me?” she asks in
let them know that even though they’re five, when they a rather demanding tone.
grow up, they can be anything they want. But if they And all of her friends decline. The children eagerly
don’t learn to talk about problems now, they won’t be recite the uncooperative characters’ responses in uni-
able to solve their problems when they grow up.” son: “’Not I!’ said the cat. ‘Not I!’ said the dog. ‘Not I!’
In this classroom, there’s no pretending that said the duck.”
grownups are better problem-solvers than children. They let their teacher read Ms. Hen’s hmmphy “Then
Sometimes they talk frankly about bad examples that I’ll do it myself!”’ and offer their loudest chorus yet for
adults set. “We talk about what we see on the news, the the final declaration: “And she did!”
violence. We talk about how grownups go to jail for Just as they enjoy repeating the words they’ve
shooting each other over silly problems.” learned by heart, they take pride in knowing the famil-
Sometimes the violence comes very close to home. iar lesson of the story, which Lourdes stops occasionally
“Not long ago, there was an eighth grader who shot to reinforce. “How do you think Little Red Hen feels?”
another child because he was bothering him after she asks.
school, and we talked about that.” “Sad,” says George, “because they’re not going to
The world doesn’t have to be this way, Lourdes tells help her plant her wheat or water it or cut it or help her
the children. As they learn how to solve problems peace- take care of it.”
fully, they can take those lessons home and practice But Little Red Hen doesn’t get away with martyrdom in
them with their families, neighbors and friends. this classroom. She has a responsibility as a friend, too.
“They see they have a reason to learn to solve prob- “What could Little Red Hen say to the cat, who was
lems both in the classroom and at home. And they learn too busy eating to help?” Lourdes asks.
that the I Care Rules are not just rules for kids but are “Please stop eating the apple,” offers Jacquese in a
good rules for everybody.” soft voice.
The I Care Rules are the core of the Peaceworks cur- “Did the Little Red Hen ask the cat to stop eating
riculum. Typically, they are first introduced through a the apple?”
hand puppet, the “I Care Cat,” who explains what they “Noooo!” they all answer.
mean and demonstrates how they are used. Lourdes turns the page. “Let’s find out if she learns to
The I Care Cat comes with a package of materials talk to her friends.”
supplied to PEF-trained teachers that also includes sto- When, predictably, all of Ms. Hen’s friends reappear
rybooks, posters, activity sheets and lesson plans. The just as the bread emerges hot from the oven, the chil-
use of the cat puppet strengthens children’s involve- dren scrutinize the situation again.
ment with the I Care concepts, explains PEF’s Diane “Why didn’t Little Red Hen want to share her bread?
Carlebach. “For children, the I Care Cat is such a nurtur- Those were her friends!” Lourdes asks.
ing and accepting entity. It’s like magic. The cat comes “’Cause they didn’t help her do nothing!” Jason offers.
in and teaches the I Care Rules — which are so simple They decide that, while Ms. Hen’s decision not to share
— and they listen. And when they use the cat puppet her bread might be technically fair, it isn’t very nice.
at the Peace Table, it gives children the language they “So what’s the Little Red Hen’s problem?” Lourdes
need to express themselves.” asks. “She has a big problem.”
Her problem, in fact, is one of the biggest that chil- to try them herself. Since then, her second child has had
dren can imagine: She has no friends. Hen’s rejection Lourdes’ class. “Now when we have problems we know
of the others, though she could justify it in theory, had how to talk it out instead of fighting,” Gina reports. The
miserable results. The children would advise her that rules don’t always work, but they do offer a constructive
it’s fine to have fresh bread, but it’s better to have friends alternative to hurtful habits.
to share it with. Among skeptical parents, the word has spread that
Certain that they have the solution, the children take the peace strategy can change patterns of behavior.
turns enacting various ways that Hen could have kept After her daughter Paula had Lourdes’ class, Alma
her friends by asking respectfully for help and sharing Capuozzo requested that her younger son Joey be
her bread. assigned to Lourdes when he was ready for kindergar-
Speaking through cat and dog puppets, the chil- ten. Joey was a sensitive child who took offense quickly
dren demonstrate how friends ask friends for help. The and could become overwhelmed with anger.
exercise helps them practice the language of peace “When he didn’t get his way, or he wanted something
with problems that don’t involve them personally, so and couldn’t get it, he’d just stand there and clench
that when real conflicts do arise, they will have an idea his fists like he was going to explode,” Joey’s mother
of the alternatives available to them. Lourdes points remembers. And sometimes he did explode, pushing
out that they are following I Care Rules and using I and hitting other children. Alma says she felt Lourdes
Care language. could help her son control his emotional outbursts.
“Once we start talking about it, and we role-play and The help Joey got came mostly from other chil-
I read them stories, they get the whole concept of car- dren, Lourdes remembers. “A lot of times Joey had
ing and the I Care Rules. I don’t want kids to memorize a hard time expressing himself. The kids knew that
them like class rules, I want kids to live by them, to go when he got angry, he didn’t want to be touched. They
home and implement these rules in their house.” knew there was a special way of helping him, and two
The more people in a child’s life who are practic- of them would lead him to the Peace Table and then
ing peace, the quicker a child learns to make and keep leave him alone for a little while. Then they would go
friends, Lourdes says. She introduces parents to the pro- talk to him.”
cess early. “I have an open house and send home a list By the end of the year, Joey discovered that he had
of materials and the I Care Rules. I suggest they hang options when he was angry. And Alma has seen the dif-
them up in their house, and I encourage them to use the ference in his behavior. “The other day he was telling me
rules at home.” that someone in school was teasing him because some-
She tells parents in very specific terms what the rules thing fell out of his book bag. I asked, ‘What did you do?’
will mean about their child’s life at school. “I tell them I thought he’d gotten in trouble again. He said, ‘I turned
I don’t allow hitting. A lot of parents tell their children around and ignored him.’ In the past, that would have
that if someone hits them, they should hit back. I let par- been impossible. He would have pushed the kid down
ents know that I don’t allow hitting back. Sometimes without thinking about it.”
they get upset, but I tell them about the Peace Table Kindergartners respond well to the idea of rules.
and show them how it works. Later on, they see children They have strong notions of right and wrong, fair and
using the I Care Rules at home, expressing their feel- unfair, and they are quick to spot violations. The rules
ings more and not fighting as much. They see it work- help them identify’ such violations and address them
ing, and they start using them, too.” appropriately. Once the rules become commonplace in
Gina Blanchard, the mother of two of Lourdes’ for- the class, the children themselves enforce them.
mer students, was 5 when she arrived in Florida from “It’s funny,” Lourdes notes, “because they start to
Haiti. Her parents, like many other refugees, believed see differences between how kids act. They see the way
that America offered a chance for prosperity and safety. other children play on the playground, and they play
And like many, they found that violence and poverty too rougher, and the way they speak is rude, and they don’t
often go hand-in-hand on the streets of South Florida. want to share. They’ll come up to me and ask why, and I
When her daughter Regine brought home the I Care say, ‘Why don’t you teach them? You know how to be a
Rules from kindergarten a few years ago, Gina was eager peacemaker; why don’t you help them?’”
The Peace Table less of the teacher’s time. Children take matters to the
Conflict is, of course, inevitable. While the I Care Rules Peace Table on their own. Or they ask another student
provide broad parameters for appropriate behaviors, to mediate for them. Lourdes stresses, “They know it’s
children still need specific help in dealing with hurt always OK to ask for help.”
feelings and unfairness. When a conflict arises in The ordinary traumas of daily life for 5-year-olds
Lourdes’ classroom, her typical response is to ask the provide Lourdes with plenty of opportunities to help
children involved, “Would it help if you went to the children negotiate their disputes. As she is talking to a
Peace Table?” visitor, the children are drawing pictures of animals at
At the beginning of each year, Lourdes introduc- their desks. Out of the corner of her eye, Lourdes sees
es the Peace Table and the children talk about what that Danieile is crying.
peace means. On the wall is posted a list of their defi- “What happened?” she asks.
nitions: “Peace means to love everybody in the class,” “Brittany turned my picture around,” says Danielle,
wrote Jacquese. “Peace means playing together,” wrote pointing to the girl across from her. “I had it like this
Serge. “Peace means don’t throw garbage on the floor,” and then she did like this,” she demonstrates.
wrote Julio. “Peace means don’t kill anybody,” wrote “Did you ask her why she did that?” Danielle looks
Samantha. down at the table and shakes her head “no.”
Lourdes explains the purpose of the Peace Table to a “Would you like to go to the Peace Table and talk to
visitor: “The Peace Table is somewhere you feel comfort- Brittany about it?”
able, where you can talk to your friends if they do some- They both nod, then get up and walk to the table,
thing that makes you sad or mad. It’s close to my desk, where Lourdes helps them get started: “What are you
because they’re more comfortable there. It’s away from going to ask Brittany?”
the rest of the class, but they’re not alone, and they’re Danielle looks at Brittany and asks, “Why did you do
close to the [pet] rabbit, too. It’s a friendly place.” that to my picture?”
Posted at the Peace Table are the Rules for Fighting Brittany is silent. Lourdes prompts, “Did you
Fair: want to see her drawing? Did you want to look at it?”
1. Identify the problem. Brittany is now eager to explain: “I just wanted to look
2. Focus on the problem. at her house.”
3. Attack the problem, not the person. “You can tell Danielle that,” says Lourdes. “I’m not
4. Listen with an open mind. mad at you. We’re just talking about it.”
5. Treat a person’s feelings with respect. “I just wanted to look at your house,” Brittany says,
6. Take responsibility for your actions. softly now, to Danielle.
To help them learn how to use the Peace Table, “Does that make you feel a little bit better?” Lourdes
Lourdes invents role-plays at the beginning of the year, asks, and Danielle nods.
first with hand puppets, then with children themselves “Did you know that she just wanted to look at your
going to the table. “I might say, ‘Let’s pretend that’s your house?”
toy and Billy has it.’” When children first go to the Peace “No.”
Table, Lourdes helps guide their discussion, in tones “So maybe next time what can you do, Brittany?”
the rest of the class cannot hear. “I ask ‘What’s the prob- Brittany replies: “I could ask her to let me look at it.”
lem?’ Usually the first thing they say is ‘Why? Why did “So you can agree next time to ask her?”
you do that?’ They know not to blame or to interrupt. I Both girls nod, then hurriedly return to their seats.
emphasize that no one is in trouble. We always say we The whole process, from offense to resolution, takes
want to know the truth so we can solve our problem.” only a couple of minutes.
Then, to shift the focus from problem to solution, Later, the children are gathered on the floor for a
Lourdes asks, “What do you think you could do to be class discussion, and Lourdes glimpses a ripple of con-
happy?” She repeats their responses, checks for agree- flict. She directs her gaze at two children who are argu-
ment and sends the children back to their places. As the ing in whispers.
year goes on and the procedure becomes more famil- “Would you like to go to the Peace Table, George and
iar to everyone, classroom conflicts require less and Cassandra? Would that make you more comfortable?”
References
Polakow,V. (1993). Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers
and Their Children in the Other America. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Encouraging Self-Discipline
In classrooms where the cultural backgrounds, fam- and encourage cooperation in child-teacher and
ily life and individual attributes of all children are child-child interactions (e.g., make “cooperation
respected and affirmed, teachers, children and families punch” or soup or salad, participate in group art
can collaborate to develop behavior guidelines that projects, sew a quilt).
benefit everyone. Exemplary classroom discipline pro- »» Change membership in assigned groups frequent-
grams also take into account the developmental level of ly and allow children to choose their own groups
young children and emphasize modeling, coaching and to encourage them to “practice” their developing
reinforcement of desired behavior over punishment for social skills.
infractions.
The following activities are designed to help teach- Incorporate comprehensive, coordinated strategies for
ers promote self-discipline in young children. As you children who are “at risk” behaviorally. For example:
adapt these activities to your particular needs, evalu- »» Work together with families, churches and avail-
ate your program’s success by monitoring changes in able community services to create a multidis-
interpersonal conflict on the one hand and classroom ciplinary team to achieve long-term goals (e.g.,
cooperation on the other. coordinate behavior guidelines, rewards and con-
sequences; emphasize the role of caring adults in
Involve children in establishing a positive classroom the child’s life).
climate that includes mutually acceptable rules and »» Design and implement nontraditional family sup-
guidelines. For example: port programs for children whose parents find
»» Develop class rules and behavior contracts through traditional services intimidating or confusing
consensus and discussion. (e.g., reading classes for parents with low literacy,
»» Discuss how “grumpy” and uncooperative behav- English classes for native speakers of languages
ior affects everybody. other than English, transportation options for
»» Create “Peace Tables” where children can work out parents who have transportation problems, or eve-
their own conflicts. ning conferences for parents with conflicting work
»» Role-play conflict situations and include a variety schedules).
of ways to solve problems.
»» Incorporate social skills as part of the curriculum
and allow time for practicing them.
Little Utopias
The physical environment that classmates share is distributed in open than in traditional classrooms. A
a critical resource of the early childhood curriculum. flexible room plan is also more accommodating to vari-
Before the children even enter the classroom, it is the ations in children’s learning styles and physical needs.
teacher’s job to create an appropriate setting for work, And when conflicts arise, the open setting seems to offer
play and the practice of equity, respect and tolerance. greater opportunity for independent problem-solving.
While no amount of “design” can substitute for caring, Certain standard features such as play and read-
nurturing relationships, thoughtful attention to con- ing areas explicitly address the social significance of
crete details can enhance these essential interactions. classroom layout. Within these settings, teachers can
For the classroom community, the room itself serves arrange major elements to enhance children’s interac-
as a model town or neighborhood. The obvious paral- tion. Placing the block or construction area next to the
lels are plentiful: Children’s desks or table spaces, stor- kitchen or dress-up area, for example, can encourage
age cubbies and nap cots, along with kitchen and toilet cross-gender and nonstereotypical play.
facilities, provide the comforts of home. ‘Public” spaces The neighborhood model offers rich possibilities
such as play areas, reading nooks, bulletin boards and for cultivating particular social and emotional skills. A
art displays are miniature versions of the park, the “Welcome Center” for example, may provide opportu-
library, the billboard and the museum. Some classrooms nities for practicing hospitality toward new classmates
contain window-box “gardens” and tabletop “zoos.” or invited guests. A park bench might furnish a “Quiet
Beyond the obvious considerations of safety, cleanli- Corner” for private reflection. A “Peace Table” can lend
ness and comfort, the constructed environment has psy- structure and importance to resolving disputes.
chological and emotional dimensions, as well. A model An infinite variety of objects and materials “flesh
neighborhood is pleasing to the eye, easy to get around out” the basic spatial design into a classroom ambi-
in and distinguishable from other neighborhoods. A ence. Posters, dolls, artifacts and multilingual signs are
place with a strong “sense of place” promotes pride in obvious tools for emphasizing cultural pluralism. Items
its inhabitants and cements their group identity. And that reflect the home cultures, parental occupations
with its rich textures of use, modification and loving and shared history of class members promote a sense
care, it also affirms their unique needs and preferences of belonging and provide reference points for building
as individuals. relationships. As classroom neighbors customize their
Any neighborhood — big or small — can convey clear work spaces or cubbies with decoration, they express
messages of exclusion or acceptance, rigidity or adapt- their individuality, discover group diversity and devel-
ability, fear or friendliness. Here, the classroom neighbor- op “pride of ownership.” By extension, teachers can
hood has a distinct advantage over most full-fledged ones: include diverse examples in any category of classroom
a benevolent designer who ensures that the environment materials — such as chairs of various sizes and shapes,
welcomes, accommodates and nurtures every member or blocks made of different kinds of wood — to enrich
of the community. In small ways, the teacher’s decisions children’s conceptions of similarity and difference.
about classroom design can offer a vision of Utopia. Research indicates that some kinds of play
The layout of furniture within the classroom space resources are better than others at promoting posi-
reveals much about how the resident community works. tive social behavior. Pairs or groups of children play-
Many primary classrooms today have abandoned the ing with miniatures like doll houses and toy trucks, for
traditional “linear” organization in favor of clustered example — which “concentrate” control over a small
desks or work tables, with learning centers reflecting a domain — appear to experience relatively high levels
high degree of flexibility in the curriculum. of peer conflict, while those playing with child-scale
Research suggests that an “open” arrangement pro- or full-size objects like dress-up clothes and workshop
motes peer equity in a number of ways (Hallinan, 1976). tools seem to interact more freely. On a larger scale,
For example, popularity appears to be more evenly play structures that permit simultaneous use by several
References
Frost, J. L., & Talbot. (1989). “Magical Playscapes.”
Childhood Education, 66 (I) 11-19.
Layers of Meaning
H
ere and there along the avenue, the windows of stereotyping. With the help of consulting psychologist
old stone row houses display potted plants, col- Holly Johnston, they continuously monitor what Liz
orful curtains and lamplight. Interspersed with Hurtig calls the “emotional climate” of the school. They
these signs of life are shattered panes, gaping doorways set aside one lunch period each week for a focused dis-
and nailed-up plywood sheets. Graffiti climbs the walls cussion of classroom concerns. Whenever possible, they
like dead vines. take part in anti-bias workshops around the city. Hurtig,
In the shadow of an abandoned 16-story apartment who has been teaching for 25 years, adds, “I often say
building (one of a half-dozen public housing facilities that what we’re demonstrating here is that we have a
ordered closed in Chicago’s Oakland neighborhood 10 lifetime of learning to do.”
years ago) sits a little four-room school. A plain, insti- Students at the Center — predominantly African
tutional exterior belies the oasis within, where bright, American, with Arab American and Latino minorities,
clean corridors and classrooms hum with the vitality representing four Chicago neighborhoods — are chil-
of 68 preschoolers. The State Pre-K Demonstration dren identified by state criteria as being at risk of fail-
Center is so cheerful and well cared for, in fact, that one ure in elementary school. By the age of 3 or 4, many of
visitor recently opened the front door, glanced around them are already familiar with harsh realities that most
and said, “I’m in the wrong building. I’m looking for a people only see on television.
public school.” Four-year-old Cedric came into teacher Cathy Main’s
For the past seven years, it’s been head teacher Liz room one day anxious to tell a story. The night before,
Hurtig’s business to defy expectations. At a time when he told his classmates at Circle Time, his dad took him
budget crises dictate “leaner and meaner” programs riding in the car. His dad’s friend was in the front seat,
nationwide, she scrimps to retain the services of a child Cedric and his mom in back. Cedric’s dad and his friend
psychologist. As an alternative to bureaucracy and for- were drinking and smoking reefer. The cops started
mality, Hurtig offers harried parents a couch to “crash” chasing them, so his dad got on the expressway and
on. And instead of despairing at the neighborhood’s drove really fast. His mom was yelling, “Stop! Stop!”
chronic poverty and violence, she justifies her optimism Finally the cops pulled them over. They yanked his
one hug at a time. father out of the car and threw him onto the hood. Then
The Demo Center, as it’s called for short, was estab- they cuffed him and dragged him to the police car.
lished in 1986 to showcase quality practices for prospec- “He described the whole incident in detail,” recalls
tive and experienced teachers and others who work Main. “The end of the story was, ‘And then my mom had
with young children. Since 1990, the staff has commit- to drive the car home.’”
ted itself to celebrating diversity, eliminating bias and Over the next few days, Cedric spent his free time
nurturing relationships based on mutual respect. re-enacting the chase in a “car” made of four chairs. His
The goals of this exemplary program begin with the classmates took turns pretending to drink and drive,
development of children’s “emotional literacy,” or capac- smoke marijuana, pull each other from the vehicle. “All
ity to recognize and deal with a wide range of feelings in the kids wanted to experience it and have their turn,”
themselves and others. Social skills such as group play, says Main. “They rotated being the cops and the driver,
sharing and problem-solving build on this inner foun- and some of them had it down pat. They would put a
dation. And, concurrently, the exploration of similarities block on the floor for the gas pedal.”
and differences among classmates as well as among She realized that her first impulse — simply to ter-
cultural groups fosters the children’s sense of both indi- minate the frightening and overstimulating behavior —
vidual worth and connection to a larger world. was not necessarily the most constructive response. But
Demo Center teachers make self-scrutiny a part neither her training nor her instincts offered a better
of the daily routine, regularly taking stock of their solution. So she took the problem to psychologist Holly
classrooms and their thought processes for signs of Johnston. Johnston proposed that Main intervene as
the “good guy” by explaining, “I’m here to be the family When conflict arises in the classroom, Cathy Main’s
protector. I won’t let this family drink and drive because initial response is to find out what’s happening, to deter-
that’s not safe.” mine whether anyone is hurt, and to identify and affirm
The strategy turned the play around. At Main’s sug- the feelings of each party involved. Getting the children
gestion, the thrill ride became a drive to a pizza place, to recognize each other’s feelings is an extension of the
an amusement park, a bowling alley. The accompany- same process. “I might say, ‘Look at her face. Her face
ing emotions that had troubled Cedric seemed to lose is angry.’”
their treacherous edge. But Main wonders if the mes- Pointing out the connection between inner states
sages of such an activity really sink in. and their outward expression helps to cultivate both
She has noticed that “for the kids who come from personal responsibility and empathy for others. A post-
more violent homes, there is a difference in how they er in Laura Lopez Campbell’s room displays 21 multicul-
interact with others and what methods they use to solve tural faces labeled Scared, Anxious, Surprised, Lonely
problems. They know what they’re supposed to do to and so forth, with the caption “All feelings are OK. It’s
conform to this environment. When I say to them, ‘What what you do with them that counts.”
should you do when someone snatches your toy or hits Amidst an array of upbeat signs and artwork on
you?’ they say, ‘Use your words. Tell them I don’t like Deneita Jo Farmer’s walls is a photograph of a crying
that. Tell the teacher.’ They have all the pat answers, but girl. Its purpose, Farmer says, is to suggest that the so-
when something happens to them, when they get angry called negative emotions such as anger and frustration
and frustrated, they can’t do it because their home envi- and fear are nothing to be ashamed of.
ronment is so overwhelming.” “The child in that picture happens to be a White girl,”
Play scenarios like the expressway chase, says Hurtig, says Farmer, herself African American. “I used to have
“give us an incomparable window into the child’s con- a picture of an African American boy who was crying.
cerns. Cedric’s play showed us how scary it is to chil- That image was very important to one of my children.
dren when the adults they count on to protect them are Ricardo was angry about a lot of stuff and didn’t know
themselves in danger.” how to use language to express his feelings. But when
he felt like he needed to hit somebody or curse at some-
Safe and Secure body, I told him he could go get that picture and bring
Deneita Jo Farmer, whose room is across the hall from it to me, and then I would help him. This year, when we
Main’s, feels that teachers cannot overemphasize the look at the crying girl and talk about why she’s upset, it
basic message of security and trust. “Kids this age need helps the children bring up their own issues.”
to know that there is somebody who will keep them safe,” As Farmer and her colleagues see it, the ebb and flow
Farmer says. In the expressway incident, “the police of private emotions governs all aspects of classroom
came to keep them safe. In this place, it’s the teachers.” activity, from individual behavior to social interaction
Last year, after hearing several children in her class to learning and fun. One child’s inner turmoil that goes
express their fear of police officers, Farmer invited an unaddressed, or merely gets stifled, will eventually
African American policeman who had a son at the affect the whole group.
school to come and talk to them. For the first visit, she Stress, Hurtig points out, is an inevitable part of
asked him to wear his “at-home” clothes. By the time he human development. Difficulties for young children
came again, in uniform, the kids knew the caring person may arise from such seemingly innocuous events as
behind the badge. the arrival of a new sibling, a long family vacation or a
The increasingly random hazards of contemporary parent returning to work. The more responsive teachers
life, however, can shake the credibility of such assur- can be to the feelings that underlie behaviors, the more
ances. Liz Hurtig thinks the recurring nightmares of skillful and confident children can become in navigat-
inner-city schools and parents became palpably real ing their own ups and downs.
on a national scale with the Oklahoma City bombing In cases of emotional trauma, which these teachers
in 1995. Says Hurtig, “I think what happens is adults are see frequently, the challenge is more acute. At another
not convinced they can keep kids safe. But — until they preschool, 5-year-old Jeffrey might be considered the
rebuild that confidence — they have to say they can.” classic bully. He commandeers his classmates’ toys and
tricycles. He uses “power language,” talking back to But this time they actually sat and were intrigued by what
adults and calling other children “wimps” and “sissies.” each other had to say. They were comparing notes. It was
He resists lying down at nap time but is usually the first a topic that went on for 15 or 20 minutes.
to fall asleep. According to Farmer, “He uses so much “I remember feeling, ‘Do I stop this? Do I keep
energy, he’s exhausted.” going?’ and not knowing what to do, because there were
A child like Jeffrey can exhaust a teacher’s patience a couple of kids who were very frightened by the con-
as well, but Farmer remains focused on the bigger pic- versation. They didn’t have guns in their home, couldn’t
ture: Last year, Jeffrey’s sister, Natasha, was wounded in understand about having guns in the home. I felt very
a drive-by shooting. uncomfortable for them, but I didn’t know where to draw
“I think that situation impacts on every single thing the line.”
he does in the classroom,” says Farmer, “and probably Main sought the advice of a more experienced col-
every single thing he does in his life.” Her hope is that league, Deneita Jo Farmer. “Dee-Dee suggested that
the small moments of positive connection she tries to sometimes it’s good to stop a discussion with the whole
bring about will have a cumulative effect to help coun- group but let the kids who still want to talk about it bring
ter the trauma. it up again later in private. That way they still have an
“When he gets angry and starts to snatch and push, opportunity to vent those feelings.”
and I can intervene, I think it has a direct relationship Psychologist Holly Johnston seconds that advice.
with what happened to Natasha. First of all, he has to She frequently leads small-group discussions among
think about how the other child is feeling. When the children troubled by or preoccupied with violence,
other child verbalizes that, and I help Jeffrey think death and other disturbing issues. One girl in a current
about other ways to express his anger, this lets him group routinely makes play dough people and then cuts
know that what happened to Natasha is not the way we them to pieces.
solve problems.” “Not only are these kids being exposed to an intense,
In addition, hearing Jeffrey talk about his sister at chaotic violence in their world at home,” Johnston says,
Circle Time — and hearing the teacher respond — helps “but almost universally they’re being exposed through
the other children put his behavior in perspective. TV. They’re overstimulated, confused about what’s real
Familiarity with each other’s lives outside of school and isn’t real. They don’t have the wherewithal to defend
extends the ties of community. themselves against it, much less to make sense of it.”
While the policy of open discussion sounds healthy Occasionally, teachers find their own defenses shak-
in theory, the teachers repeatedly question its limits: en. Liz Hurtig remembers one fall morning a few years
How much “outside reality” can we safely allow in? Liz ago. As the children filed into the building, teacher
Hurtig notes that “crossing the threshold away from Laura Lopez Campbell pointed to 4-year-old Kamal,
home at the age of three or four, when you’re so vulner- getting out of a woman’s car. “I just found out that’s not
able and dependent, is a tremendous act of courage.” his mom,” Lopez Campbell told Hurtig. “That’s his aunt.
Kids may see firebombs and body bags on television at His mom died a year and a half ago.”
that tender age, but should they be allowed to hear their “But he’s always talking about ‘Mom,”’ Hurtig said.
classmates’ firsthand accounts of such horrors? Lopez Campbell said she had just told the aunt the
Cathy Main recently faced this dilemma when she same thing: He’s always talking about “Mom.”
noticed that several children were pretending to shoot The aunt had explained, “We felt so bad about it that
each other. “At group time, I decided to talk about guns, we told him she was at the store, but we never told him
hoping that they would come to the consensus that we she was dead. When I leave, Kamal says, ‘Where are you
don’t even want pretend guns in our classroom, that going?’ And if I say ‘I’m going to the store,’ he says, ‘Will
guns aren’t safe. What happened was they began telling you tell Mom I said hi?’”
me whose dads had guns, where each gun was, and when Still astonished by the revelation, Hurtig recalls,
they saw their dad using that gun. I was overwhelmed.” “With that sentence, Laura [Lopez Campbell] teared up
Another revealing aspect of the discussion was the fact and put her hand out, and I teared up and took her hand,
that it was a discussion. “Up to that point,” Main says, “I had and I thought, ‘Let me out of here.’ I don’t get that feel-
not been able to get this group to sit and discuss anything. ing very often. We each took a tissue and a deep breath,
without saying anything. She walked back down and “Culture is defined in so many ways. All African
was there for those children again.” Americans are not the same. Children growing up on
The teachers arranged for a social worker to help the South Side of Chicago are different from children
the family. “They were able to accept help,” Hurtig says. growing up on the West Side. Family structures are dif-
“Some aren’t.” With professional counseling to help ferent. Neighborhoods are different.”
with their grief and with guidance on child develop- Hurtig and her staff are careful to avoid the “multicul-
ment issues and communication skills, Kamal’s family tural tourist” approach that, however well-intentioned,
learned that, in the long run, the truth is less damaging often verges on stereotyping. A common temptation
than deception. for teachers, in Hurtig’s view, is to use isolated artifacts
But the process was slow. Every morning for weeks, to impart bits of information about different cultures.
Hurtig remembers, “Kamal would come in with no look She feels that piecemeal exposure does little to build
on his face — no pain, no anger, nothing. I would watch, cultural knowledge or cultivate a true appreciation for
and by the time he reached the other end of the hall he diversity. Nor, she adds, does the practice make much
would have a smile. Sometimes you have to make do sense from a developmental standpoint.
with that to keep going.” “Young children,” Hurtig says, “are so focused on
finding out who they and their friends are and what their
Common Denominators families are like. If you have a friend in preschool whose
At the community literacy center where head teacher family is a little different but a little the same, that’s a
Liz Hurtig volunteers several hours a week, an elderly real, concrete issue. To talk in an abstract way about what
African American grandmother browsed through a a child does in Japan doesn’t serve this age group.”
stack of newly donated books. A children’s book about Deneita Jo Farmer makes sure that the pictures and
a Black family caught her eye, and she studied each objects in her classroom do not emphasize the “foreign”
page carefully. Turning to show Hurtig one of the illus- or “unusual” but rather reveal common denominators.
trations, she said, “Somebody finally found out how to Instead of highlighting cultural differences, she treats
draw us.” them as variations on familiar themes. On the wall of
That change was a long time coming. “When I grew the housekeeping area, for instance, there are photo-
up,” teacher Deneita Jo Farmer recalls, “there were no graphs of people around the world preparing food and
Black people on television. There was no Black litera- doing other chores. The music shelf features well-worn
ture that I knew of. There were no Black children in the percussion instruments — maracas, finger cymbals, a
books that were presented to me. I had no Black dolls. I rain stick — that attest to the universal love of rhythm.
want an African American child in my class to be able She tries to resist using cultural overlays — events,
to say, ‘This little girl in this book has beads in her hair materials or themes intended to “cover” a whole seg-
just like I do.’” ment of the population. “I take it from the standpoint of
Liz Hurtig believes that seeing themselves and the individual person. I may play a jazz tape and let the
their personal experience reflected in art and litera- kids know that one of my favorite jazz artists, Najee, has
ture helps children develop their sense of identity and brown skin, and here’s a picture of him.” But she won’t
belonging. “Skin color isn’t the only attribute we need use his music as part of an isolated lesson on African
to acknowledge in the curriculum,” she says, “but that American culture.
goes a long way toward saying there’s a place for every- By talking about culture as an aspect of real people’s
one here.” lives, Farmer hopes to show children that many things
Multiculturalism at the Demo Center emphasizes they do at home are also forms of cultural expression,
first and foremost the diversity within the school fam- both different from and similar to those of other fami-
ily. The current ethnic mix is roughly 55 percent African lies. She envisions her classroom as a place where not
American, 35 percent Latino and 10 percent Arab just individual children but all of their home cultures
American — no White children attend this year. But can mingle.
such numbers are deceptive, says Farmer. She consid- Three years ago, when the first Arab American chil-
ers it a mistake to lump children into broad categories dren came to the school, their families maintained a
like language group and race. very formal, reserved manner toward the teachers. This
year, Farmer reports, “the mothers are so comfortable “When I started doing my anti-bias work several years
that they’ve brought feasts in to share with us.” Four- ago and started looking at who I was as an individual, I
year-old Abdul found true common ground among his came to realize that I didn’t know much about where I
classmates when he declared his dislike for certain tra- came from and what it means to be a Black American.
ditional dishes his mom had made and then gleefully “I started thinking about why I’m glad to be me, and
pointed out his favorites. it led me to develop this very rich library of children’s
On several occasions Nina, an African American literature and books particularly by African American
mother, has come in to bake banana bread in the school women, a collection of artwork by African Americans.
oven. For Farmer, the lessons of such an ordinary act That is something I’ll leave to my children when I leave
are simple but profound. “This is something she does this Earth.
at home with Harold all the time. Here is a Black wom- “I want kids to know that they’re special, that they
an who is promoting this sense of family, while soci- matter, that there are adults like them, who have the
ety would suggest that she’s not supposed to do that same skin color and same hair, that also matter. It helps
because she had children early, or she’s on welfare, or to promote a sense of cultural pride: ‘I know something
whatever. But here is a mom who has hot cookies and about me. Now I’d like to know something about you.’”
chocolate milk for her kids when they come home from Learning to respect oneself, Farmer says, is a prereq-
school, and her skin is very brown.” uisite for learning to respect others. The process can
Early childhood teachers, Farmer believes, have a require some unlearning, as well. “If they use a deroga-
unique opportunity to “immunize” children against tory word, like ‘nigger,’ I’ll stop there and say, ‘Do you
stereotypes before they take hold on young minds. By know what that means?’” Usually, she finds, they don’t.
exposing children to the similarities and differences “Then I explain that it’s a hurtful word that some people
that all people possess, she hopes to prove that blanket use when they’re mad. But I tell them, ‘Instead of using
assumptions about any group are unfair. a word like that, you can talk about why you’re mad.’”
At an earlier job in a Head Start program, Farmer was The process of learning to talk appropriately about
told by her coordinator that she should have play food differences calls for a willingness to experiment. Liz
stamps in the housekeeping area instead of play money, Hurtig, whose heritage is European Jewish, recalls the
because food stamps were what the children would be experience of being described by students a few years
using in real life. Farmer refused. “I told her I wanted back. “I had a whole classroom full of African American
to expose this group of children to something besides kids. One of them said, ‘She White,’ and another kid
the stereotypical view that all they see is food stamps. said, ‘No. She light.’ I don’t think they were really think-
I want them to understand the currency system so that ing about exclusion or inclusion at all. They were just
they’re not limited when they get out into the world. I observing something. But I was touched.”
can’t box kids up like that.” Joyce Acker, the teacher next door to Farmer, empha-
Farmer considers childhood stereotyping a natural sizes that there is often a considerable gap between
process gone wrong — an unhealthy extension of the what young children understand about race and what
labeling and pigeonholing that all children use to map they say about it. Acker, who is African American, had
their world. “Young people look at things by classify- a White boy in her room whose favorite place to sit was
ing and categorizing. They begin to say, ‘I’m Black, she’s her lap. Yet one day he refused to hold a Black class-
White.’ They come to me and say, ‘You’re White,’ and I mate’s hand because, he said, “I might turn black.”
tell them, ‘No, I’m a fair-skinned Black person.’ Another time, the White child told the African
“Sometimes I hear a child say, ‘I don’t want to be American assistant teacher, who was wiping the tables
Black. I want to be White.’ I try to find out how they view with disinfectant, that “Black people don’t use that.”
themselves, what the child understands about being From parent conferences and home visits, Acker learned
Black or being White. Whoopi Goldberg does this skit that some family members openly expressed bigoted
about wanting light skin and long blonde hair when she views in front of the child.
was a little girl. She would fasten a sweater around her When students bring prejudices from home into the
head and let it flow down her back, and that would be classroom, Hurtig advocates a pragmatic but respect-
her hair. I can remember doing that. ful strategy: “We may be able to say to the family,
‘Some of the feelings that you express in the presence from school with paint on her clothes. Never mind that
of your child are putting that child in some jeopardy at the paint was water-soluble. From now on, the mom
school.’” This approach works, she finds, because, rath- said, the child was not to participate in painting.
er than alienating parents with criticism, it provides Hurtig couldn’t imagine saying to a child, “You can’t
a meaningful incentive to evaluate and modify their paint.” She knew that the school-issue plastic smock
own behavior. didn’t cover as much as an adult’s shirt would. But she
During breakfast at school one morning, Deneita Jo knew better than to suggest that the mom send one.
Farmer reminded Alia, who is Iranian Muslim, to skip Asking an upset parent to do more, Hurtig has learned,
the sausage because it was made from pork. When is a bad idea. The best policy for a teacher, she says,
Jasmine, the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, is to “set aside your own reactions and quick fixes and
asked, “Why don’t you eat pork sausage?” Alia replied, simply listen.”
“You eat pork because you’re Black.” Paint on clothes was not a new issue in Hurtig’s
“This wasn’t a stereotype,” says Farmer. “It wasn’t to experience. “But this woman was so highly emotional,”
say, ‘All Black people eat pork.’ Alia’s not sophisticat- she recalls. “I said to myself, ‘I’m not understanding
ed enough intellectually to suggest that. It was to say, something here.’” It took several conversations for the
‘We’re not the same in one obvious way, so it must con- real concern to surface. One day the mother told Hurtig,
nect with this other way we’re not the same.’” “If she [the child] looks dirty, she’s no good.”
Whenever a moment like this arises, Farmer uses Despite the staff’s extensive diversity training, this sin-
simple questions to explore the tricky concepts of simi- gle statement stopped them in their tracks. Here was an
larity and difference. “This is something we continue issue the guidebooks didn’t cover, yet a problem as simple
to discuss. There was even a suggestion that maybe we as dirty clothes made the anti-bias concept come alive.
need to have a breakfast table where there is no pork “I grew up working-class,” Hurtig says. “My dad was
and another where there is pork. But the goal of that a Baltimore cab driver, so I sometimes make the mistake
would be to stop the conversation.” of thinking that I can readily identify with our working-
In Liz Hurtig’s view, any hope of helping children class families, even if I’m not working-class right now.
avoid the pitfalls of prejudice requires a burning fasci- We didn’t feel that way about getting dirty. But some
nation with how they people do feel that way.”
think. While a statement or an action may defy adult A few years ago, she points out, it would have been
logic, “teasing out” the ideas behind it can reveal sur- possible for a Demo Center teacher to react harshly to
prising connections. this mother’s complaint, not to listen to all of her con-
Laura Lopez Campbell, who is second-generation cerns, not to discover that she herself was attempting to
Mexican American, uses Spanish with several of her protect her daughter from a stereotype.
students from non-English-speaking families. One Hurtig urges, “If we can somehow ally with that par-
African American boy is especially interested in the fact ent instead of becoming adversaries, we just might be
that there are two languages being spoken in the room. able to do something together for the child.” In this
One day he was working a jigsaw puzzle that had geo- case, the mom agreed to let the girl continue painting
metrically shaped pieces rather than the usual irregular as long as she wore one of Hurtig’s husband’s shirts and
ones. After examining the array of circles, triangles and cleaned up more carefully.
squares, he said, “This is a Spanish puzzle.” “I’m as sure as I can be about paint,” Hurtig says.
Lopez Campbell couldn’t detect anything Latino- “I’m not so sure about some other things. If you just
looking about the “Sesame Street” characters the puzzle read about these issues — ‘Be open to all views’ and so
depicted. She asked him why he’d called it that. forth — that’s easier said than done.”
The boy traced his finger along the straight edges One matter currently under discussion is that of holi-
and perfect curves. “Because it’s different,” he said. day celebrations at school. Every December, Deneita Jo
Farmer’s heart goes out to all the children whose par-
Gray Areas ents are too poor or disspirited to buy them Santa Claus
A couple of years ago, Liz Hurtig got a call from a par- presents. For a long time, her own emotional response
ent who was angry that her daughter had come home to the issue reinforced her assumption that the secular
observance of Christmas is appropriate for the class- areas. The gray areas you see will be different from the
room. “I was going to be the one to save the world,” she ones I see.’”
remembers, “and provide Christmas for all my little “Reflection is the ingredient that’s lacking in the edu-
children who couldn’t celebrate it at home.” cation of teachers,” says Laura Lopez Campbell. “There’s
Liz Hurtig recalls her own parents “doing Hanukkah no value placed on that in the system. There’s no time in
in a Christmas garb,” so low-key festivities at school the school day for teachers to come together.” The week-
didn’t strike her as a problem. The dozens of Christmas ly lunch meeting is an adaptation she and her colleagues
trees in the offices of the Chicago Board of Education work hard to preserve.
suggested a similar attitude among school adminis- As Harold’s mother, Nina, sees it, “This school is like
trators. As a courtesy, the teachers asked the Muslim an extension of our family. I can come in and help out.
families for their opinions, and none objected. Some I can come and talk to Dee-Dee about my problems. As
Jehovah’s Witnesses parents asked that their children a parent, you think you have to have all the answers,
be excused from any Christmas activities. but you don’t. Sometimes you just have to say, ‘Baby, I
When Hurtig and her colleagues began examining don’t know.’”
their holiday policy as part of their anti-bias program, Hurtig emphasizes that no one has all the answers.
they made some discoveries that challenged their own “We know we don’t know things. But I’m convinced
best intentions. Jehovah’s Witnesses, they learned, that there are no skills that teachers can’t learn if they’re
receive strong group support for asserting their beliefs motivated to learn them and provided with the training
at school or at work. Cultural and personal factors pre- opportunities. We’re all still in this field because we’ve
vent many other people, however, from taking issue managed to hang on to the belief that one person can
with authority figures. Some, for example, respect the make a difference.” v
teacher’s opinion as the last word. Others fear that
parental “interference” will put their child in a vulner-
able position in the classroom.
Closer parent-teacher relationships gradually
revealed that many Muslim parents did object to
the school policy but were reluctant to say so, and
that some of the African American families didn’t
observe Christmas either. But the decision has not
been to eliminate holiday celebrations altogether.
Particularly for young children, Hurtig believes, cul-
tural observances help maintain continuity between
home and school.
Now, the teachers approach the issue in a much more
open-ended way. At registration, they ask each parent,
“What kinds of things do you celebrate in your family?”
And throughout the year, students share special occa-
sions like Ramadan, Christmas, Kwanzaa and birthdays
not as teacher-directed, official observances but as
opportunities to learn about one another’s lives.
As the holiday issue suggests, teachers at the Demo
Center find that their work with children entails many
more ambiguities than certainties. Liz Hurtig observes,
“It would be nice if in training they would say, ‘We’re
going to make this sound very simple and straightfor-
ward. We’re going to give you activities to start and fin-
ish. But once you go in the classroom door, you’re going
to see gray areas, and we’ll be here to discuss these gray
Childhood Losses
One of the most painful lessons of childhood is that other stresses can evoke powerful, unfamiliar feelings
we sometimes lose things that we love. Childhood loss of sadness, anger and guilt that affect children’s behav-
comes in many forms: relocation to a new country or a ior and perception of their place in the family and the
new city separates friends or family members; a class- classroom community. Close observation and careful
mate becomes seriously ill; a grandmother dies; par- listening will alert teachers to signs of emotional pain,
ents divorce; a drive-by shooting cripples a neighbor. which can include changes in eating habits, attempts to
Whether they experience such stresses firsthand, witness get attention, and withdrawal. Any suspicion of abuse
the grief of friends or observe traumatic events through should, of course, be reported to the proper authorities.
the media, all children sooner or later feel the emotional The grieving child’s classmates may also experi-
pain that accompanies actual or perceived loss. ence a range of troubled emotions in response to their
Teachers learn of children’s stressful experiences in friend’s distress. A teacher’s acknowledgment of these
a number of ways: by listening to their stories, by com- feelings and expression of concern may offer a valuable
municating with their parents, or by observing physical emotional anchor. Just as it is important not to ignore
or behavioral signs. Although traumatic events them- or diminish children’s grief, teachers should be equally
selves are beyond the teacher’s control and often dif- careful not to overreact. Age-appropriate facts can be
ficult to talk about, an honest, caring response serves aimed at fostering compassion rather than alarm. For
not only to comfort children but also to reinforce their example, “Shaundra’s mother died today. Shaundra is
connection to the classroom community. staying with her grandmother She is OK, and she knows
Children are able to withstand profound hardships as we miss her. When she comes back to school in a few
long as there is at least one caring adult who helps them days, she’ll need all of us to be her friends.” Without suf-
through the transition period (Cohn, 1996; Greenberg, ficient knowledge, children may imagine a far worse
1996). Some child development experts maintain that scenario, and, with incorrect information, they often
the most valuable contribution teachers can make is sense that they are not being told the truth.
being a consistent, nurturing and responsive adult in No caregiver can protect children from all trauma
children’s lives. and loss. But when these realities strike, the school com-
When a loved one dies, children may be disturbed munity can be an important source of support. Open,
more immediately by the behavior of others — disrup- age-appropriate communication about stressful events
tion of routine, emotional display, unfamiliar rituals — can help young children develop into compassionate,
than by the death itself. Confused about cause and helpful and hopeful individuals.
effect, children may think that something they said or
did caused the death or that, by association, they or oth- References
er loved ones also may die. Cohn, J. (1996). Raising Compassionate, Courageous
Children ages 3 to 6 often think death is reversible or Children. Atlanta: Longstreet Press.
that it is only a deep sleep.They may express curiosity
about what happens after death. Since children often Goldman, L E. (1996). “We Can Help Children Grieve:
interpret adults’ explanations literally, clichés such as A Child Oriented Model for Memorializing.” Young
“Your grandfather has gone on a long trip” serve only to Children, 51 (6) 69-73.
delay the grieving process. Children are able to experi-
ence grief as they grasp the idea of death’s permanence Greenberg, J. (1996). “Seeing ChildrenThrough
(Goldman, 1996). Tragedy. My Mother Died Today -When Is She
Profound loss of any kind can compromise a child’s Coming Back?” Young Children, 51 (6) 76-77.
sense of security, belonging and self-esteem. The pres-
ence of physical or emotional violence, for example,
parental illness or depression, family breakups and
New Visions
The purpose of this book has been to explore the mul- programs offer special courses in psychology to assist
tiple layers of feeling, knowledge and skill that under- new teachers in developing healthy responses to their
lie equitable, culturally sensitive work with young racial-ethnic heritage. Research suggests that self-ac-
children. Some teachers, as we have seen, possess a ceptance is essential for responding positively to the
natural gift for accommodating children’s similarities race and ethnicity of others (Helms, 1990).
and differences. Others intuitively seek guidance as A related approach is to enlist trained psychologists
challenges arise. In many cases, however, children’s or counselors to engage pre-service teachers in individ-
school experiences of acceptance or rejection, equity ual or small-group discussions about a broad spectrum
or bias, and cooperation or conflict depend on the of identity components, such as race, ethnicity, gender,
vision of classroom community that teachers acquire sexual orientation, ability, language and religion. By
in pre-service programs. Few institutions hold as much examining the “filters” through which they view critical
potential for positive social change as those that pre- diversity issues, teachers can take deliberate steps to
pare new teachers. prevent any such perspective from harming a child. The
The one attribute traditionally considered indispens- teacher’s response to differences in any of these dimen-
able for effective early childhood teaching is caring. The sions in a child or a family can nurture or hinder the
assumption often follows that a caring teacher will cre- child’s formation of a healthy identity.
ate opportunities for play learning and self-expression Another essential step in the reflection process
that serve children’s present developmental needs and involves recognizing that the world outside the class-
future school success. In this view, pre-service pro- room — mainstream U.S. culture — in many ways perpet-
grams provide the intellectual and practical framework uates a hierarchy of physical and social traits, valuing
necessary to support the teacher’s instinctive concern the light-skinned over the dark-skinned, the affluent
for each child’s well-being. over the underprivileged, the able over the disabled, the
The preceding stories suggest that this familiar familiar over the different. Despite ongoing efforts to
model is incomplete. As essential as caring may be, it is realize the equity promised in our national creed, many
not sufficient to guarantee every child equal importance institutions that prepare new teachers likewise suffer
and equal access to the teacher’s expertise. Neither does from a limited vision of community.
the amount or quality of knowledge teachers gain in For example, programs that draw heavily from the
education classes ensure that their best intentions will works of European psychologist Jean Piaget on child
equitably serve each child. development may leave the impression that his “clas-
Preparing educators to meet the needs of children sic” theories apply universally to all children. In the
of diverse backgrounds and experiences requires more predominantly White middle class world of early child-
than increasing “multicultural” course requirements hood instruction, teachers may expect children from
(Sheets & Hollins, in press). Such content knowledge, other cultural backgrounds to hide their home learning
while fundamental, becomes meaningful only when it in order to master an unfamiliar style without adequate
helps teachers promote acceptance, equity and commu- assistance or even recognition of this arduous task
nity in their own classrooms. (Hollins, 1996).
The most effective pre-service programs go beyond It is arguable that the growing number of racial-
the caring-plus-knowledge formula to instill in their ethnic minority children in U.S. schools would be most
graduates the habit of continual reflection — on them- equitably served by a corresponding increase in racial-
selves, on the children and on the curriculum. ethnic minority teachers. While role models are vitally
Teachers who strive to support the positive devel- important, such a solution fails to address the crux of
opment of children’s identities and relationships must the problem for culturally diverse classrooms. Through
first be willing to scrutinize their own self-image and its inclusive, relevant preparation and rigorous, ongoing
potential influence on classroom life. Some preparation self-scrutiny any teacher, regardless of group identity
References
Helms, J. E. (1990). Black and White Racial Identity.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
O
n the pages that follow, you will find annotated resource lists focusing on di-
versity education in early childhood settings. The first list, Bookshelf Basics,
features 10 exceptional titles to help you in creating a curriculum and environ-
ment that promotes peace, tolerance and community. Following Bookshelf Basics are
additional lists that are organized thematically. These resources expand upon ideas pre-
sented in the classroom profiles and related sidebars. Each list also includes suggestions
for literature to share with children.
You’ll find that the Bookshelf categories listed below are not rigidly defined. Since
many of the themes are interrelated, there is considerable overlap in the resources’ con-
tents, as well as in their usefulness for dealing with various issues. Also, the lists are
not intended to be definitive; rather, they offer a starting point for helping children to
develop positive self-concepts and to appreciate differences.
Families.............................................................................................................. 93–96
Getting Along...................................................................................................99–101
Developing Values..........................................................................................102–104
Kids With Special Needs, by Veronica Getskow and If you can only buy one book for your classroom, consid-
Dee Konczal, is a comprehensive resource that famil- er the oversized color photo-and-text volume Children
iarizes teachers, students and parents with various Just Like Me. Photographer Barnabas Kindersley and
disabilities and health conditions, and explores ways teacher/author Anabel Kindersley spent two years visit-
to reduce children’s fears about differences. Adept at ing 30 countries to record the lives of children around
helping readers handle sensitive subjects, the authors the world. Each page is a stunning personal visit to a
present questions that children — and adults — may ask child’s home. Information about environments, foods,
about people with special needs. The book concludes toys, clothing and daily activities is as captivating as
with a useful “bibliotherapy” of resources organized by the smiles on the children’s faces.
condition. Darling Kindersley
The Learning Works 7800 Southland Blvd., Suite 200
P.O.Box 6187 Orlando, FL 32809
Santa Barbara, CA 93160 (800) 352-6651
(800) 235-5767 Fax (800) 260-7658
Looking In, Looking Out: Redefining Child Care and Racial and Ethnic Diversity
Early Education in a Diverse Society outlines five prin- Useful to classroom teachers, teacher educators and
ciples for child care that fosters positive racial/ethnic research scholars alike, these resources offer in-depth
identities in children and builds cross-cultural under- examinations of and multiple perspectives on issues
standing. The authors include ideas for putting the related to racial and ethnic identity. Titles for adults will
principles into action and point out potential hurdles help educators better understand a pluralistic student
to implementation, as well as strategies for overcom- population; children’s titles will help foster an apprecia-
ing them. Self-reflective and pragmatic, this resource tion of cultural diversity both within the U.S. and around
offers a comprehensive vision of quality childcare in the world. (Note: Many of the books in Bookshelf Basics
our increasingly multiracial, multicultural and multilin- address cultural diversity.)
gual society.
California Tomorrow Culture in School Learning: Revealing the Deep
Fort Mason Center, Bldg. B Meaning, by Etta R. Hollins, is designed for pre-service
San Francisco, CA 94123 teachers and can be used as a basic course text. This
(415) 441-7631 book contains foundational information on racial iden-
Fax (415) 441-7635 tity formation, culture and learning theory. Each chap-
ter begins with focus questions and concludes with a
summary and suggested learning activities.
Vivian Gussin Paley, a classroom teacher for 37 years, Lawrence Erlbaum
received the Erikson Institute Award for Service to 10 Industrial Ave.
Children in 1987 and was named a MacArthur Fellow in Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262
1989. In Kwanzaa and Me, Paley examines the impact (800) 926-6579
of integration on young Black children. Throughout
the book, the author has candid conversations with col-
leagues, parents and students which, in turn, lead to rev- Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development,
elations about the experiences of minority children in edited by Patricia M. Greenfield and Rodney R. Cocking,
our schools. Paley’s other books include White Teacher, examines the cultural heritage of diverse racial-ethnic
Wally’s Stories and You Can’t Say You Can’t Play. minority groups. The contributing authors describe
Harvard University Press the cognitive strengths and learning preferences that
79 Garden St. children develop as a result of home child-rearing
Cambridge, MA 02138 practices.
(800) 448-2242 Lawrence Erlbaum
Fax (800) 962-4983 10 Industrial Ave.
Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262
(800) 926-6579
Early Childhood Education in American Indian Author Robyn M. Holmes spent six years in kindergar-
and Alaska Native Communities, by Alice S. Paul, ten classrooms studying How Young Children Perceive
describes the history of forced assimilation through the Race. Holmes interpreted children’s words and draw-
U.S. government’s Native schooling policies and offers ings to determine their ideas about race and ethnicity
a framework for effective contemporary early childhood and examined how these perceptions informed their
programs serving Native children. Paul includes strate- self-concepts and social interactions.
gies for linking home and school learning, involving the Sage Publications
community, maintaining Native language and training 2455 Teller Rd.
Native teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA 91320
ERIC Document Reproduction Service (805) 499-0721
7420 Fullerton Rd. Fax (805) 499-0871
Springfield, VA 22153-2852
(800) 443-3742
Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World, by Patricia
Ramsey, connects child development theory and
Meeting the Challenge of Linguistic and Cultural research with multicultural education and provides
Diversity in Early Childhood Education, edited by examples of how to implement multicultural educa-
Eugene E. Garcia and Barry McLaughlin, is an invalu- tion in early learning settings. Ramsey also presents
able resource for teachers dealing with bilingual research and reflections concerning the ways in which
and English as a Second Language instruction. The teachers’ behaviors and attitudes influence children.
authors examine how preschool children acquire a Teachers College Press
second language and describe the developmental attri- P.O.Box20
butes that characterize children raised in multilingual Williston, VT 05495-0020
environments. (800) 575-6566
Teachers College Press Fax (802) 864-7626
P.O.Box 20
Williston, VT 05495-0020
(800) 575-6566 Children’s Books
Fax (802) 864-7626 From the “whispering golds of late summer grasses” to
“the roaring browns of bears and soaring eagles,” chil-
dren come in All the Colors of the Earth. In lyric text
The Need for Story: Cultural Diversity in Classroom and rich oil paintings, Sheila Hamanaka likens different
and Community, edited by Anne Haas Dyson and Celia skin colors and hair textures to things found in nature
Genishi, advocates the use of narrative to reflect chil- and, in the process, affirms the beauty of every child.
dren’s diverse backgrounds and experiences. The con- Morrow Junior Books
tributors emphasize that storytelling is a form of power 39 Plymouth St.
in the classroom. As such, it reveals complex relation- Fairfield, NJ 07004
ships among the racial, ethnic and gender identities of (800) 843-9389
students and teachers.
Teachers College Press
P.O. Box20 All the Colors We Are/Todos los Colores de Nuestra
Williston, VT 05495-0020 Piel, a bilingual book by Katie Kissinger, explains in
(800) 575-6566 simple language how we get our skin color. Photographs
Fax (802) 864-7626 by Wernher Krutein present a rich array of skin hues.
Redleaf Press
450 N. Syndicate, Suite S
St. Paul, MN 55104-4125
(800) 423-8309
Fax (800) 641-0115
W. Nikola-Lisa’s Bein’ With You This Way has an irre- Author Margy Burns Knight and illustrator Anne Sibley
sistible beat that is matched by Michael Bryant’s exu- O’Brien have produced a book rich in family, tradition
berant oil crayon illustrations. The cast of characters and color in Welcoming Babies. The book introduces
enjoying fun and games in New York’s Central Park us to families around the world as they celebrate the
have lots of differences, but they share the universal joy births of their children. Notes at the end of the book
of friendship. elaborate on the symbols and rituals of the celebra-
Publishers Group West tions. Talking Walls and Who Belongs Here? are two
4065 Hollis St. other books with multicultural themes that this collab-
Emeryville, CA 94662 orative team has produced.
(800) 788-3123 Tilbury House Publishers
132 Water St.
Gardiner, ME 04345
Mary Ann Hoberman culled 15 poetic gems from differ- (800) 582-1899
ent cultures to create My Song Is Beautiful: Poems and Fax (207) 582-8227
Pictures in Many Voices. Each poem is a celebration of
self, told from the point of view of a child. Well-known
children’s artists used a range of techniques to make Families
kaleidoscopic illustrations that reflect the diversity of The following books can assist early childhood educators
the poets’ voices. in working harmoniously with families of varying compo-
Little, Brown and Co. sitions, backgrounds and value systems. These resources
200 West St. are also intended to promote in children an understand-
Waltham, MA 02154 ing of and appreciation for diverse family structures and
(800) 759-0190 other variable characteristics. (Note: Many of the books
Fax (800) 286-9471 in Bookshelf Basics address family issues.)
Author Laura Benkov examines the legal and social Roots and Wings: Affirming Culture in Early Childhood
history of lesbian and gay parents in Reinventing the Programs, by Stacey York, is an excellent general reference
Family. Particularly helpful is a chapter focusing on on multicultural education that devotes a chapter to fami-
the experiences of children of gay and lesbian par- ly influences. The author encourages educators to respect,
ents as they face homophobia in their schools and without judging, parental values that differ from their own
communities. and to adopt a flexible teaching style that accommodates
Crown Publishers both teachers’ and families’ child-rearing beliefs.
400 Hahn Rd. Redleaf Press
Westminster, MD 21157 450 N. Syndicate, Suite S
(800) 726-0600 St. Paul, MN 55104-4125
Fax (800) 659-2436 (800) 423-8309
Fax (800) 641-0115
In Dounia, by Zidrou, a little girl travels to a different Two Lands, One Heart, by Jeremy Schmidt, is the true
country to meet her adoptive parents and is happily story of TJ’s journey from Colorado to Vietnam, the
overwhelmed by the unusual sights and sounds of her country where his mother was born. Vivid photographs
new home. Natacha Karvoskaia’s soft, colorful drawings by Ted Wood let the reader glimpse the sights that greet
send a positive message about interracial adoption. TJ as he learns about the big city market, his grandfa-
Kane/Miller Publishers ther’s farm, silk worms and rice paddies.
P.O. Box 310529 Walker and Co.
Brooklyn, NY 11231 435 Hudson St.
(718) 624-5120 New York, NY 10014
(800) 289-2553
Fax (212) 727-0984
Mary Ann Hoberman pays homage to all kinds of
families — adoptive, blended, extended and more —
in Fathers, Mothers, Sisters, Brothers: A Collection Organizations
of Family Poems. Her trademark rollicking rhymes, The Clearinghouse for Immigrant Education (CHIME)
accompanied by Marylin Hafner’s multicultural illus- is a toll-free hot line for information on foreign-born
trations, proclaim that whether it’s 10 members or two, children, their parents and the public schools. CHIME
a family is made up of people who love each other. staff members not only help with problem-solving but
Little, Brown and Co. offer reproductions of research, literature and teaching
200 West St. materials at a nominal cost.
Waltham, MA 02154 Clearinghouse for Immigrant Education
(800) 759-0190 100 Boylston St., Suite 737
Fax (800) 286-9471 Boston, MA 02116
(800) 441-7192
Sanu, Eric and April all have a parent who was born out-
side of the U.S. — one in Senegal, one in Puerto Rico and The Center for the Study of Biracial Children offers
one in China. Author/photographer Susan Kuklin helps information and resources related to interracial fami-
each child tell us How My Family Lives in America in lies. Training, consultation and articles that address
this nonfiction book. Recipes for “the things we eat” are how teachers can best serve the needs of multiracial
included. children are all available.
Simon & Schuster CSBC
200 Old Tappan Rd. 2300 S. Krameria St.
Old Tappan, NJ 07675 Denver, CO
(800) 223-2336 (303) 692-9008
Fax (800) 445-6991
Father Gander’s Nursery Thymes, written by Dr. Doug Willie’s Not the Hugging Kind after a friend teases him
Larche and illustrated by Carolyn Marie Blattel, gives for being affectionate. In this story written by Joyce D.
boys and girls equal time in rhyme. In these snappy Barrett and illustrated by Pat Cummings, Willie decides
retellings of traditional Mother Goose verses, “Jill-Be- he’s going to stop hugging his family — until he misses
Nimble” is every bit as agile as Jack, and “Larry, Larry it so much that he finally reconciles his love for them
Quite Contrary” enjoys tending the garden as much as with his desire to win his friend’s approval.
Mary. The retooled rhymes retain all of their original Great Owl Books
music and charm. 33 Watchung Plaza
Advocacy Press Montclair, NJ 07042-4111
P.O. Box 236 (800) 299-3181
Santa Barbara, CA 93102 Fax (201) 783-5899
(800) 676-1480
Ability Differences
The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars retells a story dis- These resources provide support for including children
covered on a 12th-century Japanese scroll. Author Jean with special needs in the classroom community. They
Merrill and artist Floyd Cooper create a vivid portrait of also suggest strategies for increasing awareness and
Izumi, a free-spirited girl who refuses to give in to her acceptance of people with disabilities. (Note: See also
society’s strict notions of women’s roles. Kids With Special Needs in Bookshelf Basics.)
The Putnam & Grossett Group
One Grossett Dr.
Kirkwood, NY 13795 Creating an Inclusive School, edited by Richard A.
(800) 847-5515 Villa and Jacqueline S. Thousand, offers an overview
of the history of educating children with disabilities
and presents compelling rationales for the inclusive
The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch, turns the classroom. Essays, which describe promising practices
traditional fairy tale on its head as the brave and spirited in K-12 schools, also put a human face on the issue by
title character rescues a prince from an irksome dragon. including reflections from parents and teachers of chil-
The prince and princess part ways after the adventure, dren who have been mainstreamed.
since a wedding isn’t necessary to achieve “happily Association for Supervision and
ever after” in this unconventional fairy tale. Pictures by Curriculum Development
Michael Martchenko bring the story to life. 1250 N.Pitt St.
Phoenix Learning Resources Alexandria,VA 22314
2349 Chaffee Dr. (800) 933-2723
St. Louis, MO 63146
(800) 221-1274
Toward Inclusive Classrooms, by Mary Dalheim, The title character in Stay Away from Simon! is a men-
focuses on how to create a classroom environment that tally disabled boy who helps two children find their
successfully integrates students with special needs. Six way home during a snowstorm. Set in 1830 in Martha’s
innovative inclusion programs from elementary, middle Vineyard, this chapter book by Carol and Donald
and high schools across the country are described by Carrick is useful for helping children overcome their
the teachers who use them. The resource lists, reproduc- fears about people who seem “different.”
ible pages and teaching tips offer guidance for practical Clarion Books
application. 181 Ballardville St.
NEA Professional Library Wilmington, MA 01887-7050
P.O. Box 509 (800) 225-3362
West Haven, CT 06516
(800) 229-4200
Through love and empathy, the artist-narrator in Early Violence Prevention: Tools for Teachers of Young
Talking to Angels learns to hear and appreciate her Children, edited by Ronald G. Slaby, describes practical
autistic sister’s “sound of silence.” Sparse text and sim- ways to respond to children’s aggression, encourage
ple, childlike art by Esther Watson convey the need to cooperation, and enhance empathy and social skills.
honor, respect and accept difference. By reviewing research and telling stories of classroom
Harcourt Brace & Co. experiences, this book skillfully illustrates that children
6277 Sea Harbor Dr. can be taught to become nonviolent problem-solvers.
Orlando, FL 32887 NAEYC
(800) 543-1918 1509 16th St. N.W.
Washington. DC 20036-1426
(800) 424-2460
Organizations
The Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted Education
is a division of ERIC that acquires, indexes and distrib- Diane Levin’s Teaching Young Children in Violent
utes relevant professional literature and educational Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom addresses the
information on disabilities across all age groups. challenges of teaching children who are bombarded
ERIC Clearinghouse on Disabilities and Gifted with acts and images of violence. The author’s lucid
Education Council for Exceptional Children presentation of the issues — appreciating diversity, the
1920 Association Dr. negative impact of media, teaching conflict resolution
Reston, VA 20191 — is paired with simple, effective ideas for creating a
(800) 328-0272 peaceable classroom. Levin clearly delineates develop-
mental issues and takes them into consideration for all
teaching suggestions.
The Special Needs Project is a unique organization that Educators for Social Responsibility
maintains a diverse and thorough list of books, resourc- 23 Garden St.
es and organizations addressing the special needs of Cambridge, MA 02138
young children. The staff is helpful and highly knowl- (800) 370-2515
edgeable about the topic. Fax (617) 864-5164
Special Needs Project
3463 State St., Suite 282
Santa Barbara, CA 93105 Ways We Want Our Class to Be: Class Meetings That
(805) 683-9633 Build Commitment to Kindness and Learning, a pub-
Fax (805) 962-5087 lication of The Child Development Project (CDP),
provides a glimpse of the way school can be — when
students use class meetings to establish their own
Getting Along rules, solve problems, set goals and develop a sense
These resources are designed to promote harmony in of community. Outlines of discussion and facilitation
the classroom, from helping children establish friend- techniques supplement descriptions of class meet-
ships to resolving conflicts peacefully. (Note: Many of ings. Another CDP resource for building community
the titles in Bookshelf Basics address classroom com- in the classroom is Among Friends: Classrooms Where
munity-building and conflict resolution.) Caring and Learning Prevail.
Developmental Studies Center
In Children as Peacemakers, by Joan Baer et al., three 2000 Embarcadero, Suite 305
teachers tell the story of how they developed a con- Oakland, CA 94606-5300
flict resolution program at a small Canadian elemen- (800) 666-7270
tary school. Thanks to the peacemaking curriculum, the
atmosphere at the school improved, and making peace -
as well as respecting others — became a common goal.
Heinemann
361 Hanover St.
Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912
(800) 541-2086
Dealing With Feelings Edited by Janet Brown McCracken and first published
The following resources offer guidance in helping chil- in 1979, Unsmiling Faces: How Preschools Can Heal,
dren understand and express their emotions. They also edited by Lesley Koplow, creates a framework for pay-
address how to cope with a variety of stresses, including ing attention to and addressing the emotional lives of
family problems, illness, violence and death, and how to preschool children. Practical child psychology is inte-
support children’s emotional healing. (Note: See also grated into curriculum development, therapeutic activi-
The Crisis Manual for Early Childhood Teachers and ties and evaluations of adult/child relationships.
The Inner World of the Immigrant Child in Bookshelf Teachers College Press
Basics.) P.O. Box20
Williston, VT 05495-0020
(800) 575-6566
Bad Guys Don’t Have Birthdays, by Vivian Gussin Fax (802) 864-7626
Paley, explores how children work through their fears
during fantasy play and storytelling. Paley’s close
observations of children’s play enable her to discern Richard Weissbourd challenges conventional assump-
their deepest concerns and support play as an intuitive tions about what factors put children at risk in The
coping strategy. Vulnerable Child. The book helps the reader move
University of Chicago Press beyond stereotypes about poverty, single parenthood
11030 S. Langley and racial background to consider the broad range of
Chicago, IL 60628 problems — including chronic stress and depression
(800) 621-2736 — that can undermine parents and, consequently, their
Fax (800) 621-8476 children.
Addison-Wesley
One Jacob Way
Reducing Stress in Young Children’s Lives remains Reading, MA 01867
one of the most thorough discussions of stresses chil- (800) 552-2259
dren face in both daily and extreme forms. The authors
address — among other subjects —divorce, child abuse
and sex education with realism, insight and sensitiv- Children’s Books
ity. A table highlighting the manifestations of stress is A young immigrant from Vietnam tries hard to be the
especially helpful for learning to recognize and respond sweet and brave Angel Child, Dragon Child that her
to telltale signs of difficulties. mother wants her to be, but the stresses of adapting to
NAEYC a new school in a new country make it difficult. Author
1509 16th St. N.W. Michele Maria Surat and illustrator Vo Dinh Mai sensi-
Washington, DC 20036-1426 tively chronicle the little girl’s struggle to fit in.
(800) 424-2460 Scholastic
P.O. Box 7502
Jefferson City, MO 65102
Children in Danger: Coping with the Consequences (800) 325-6149
of Community Violence, by James Garbarino et al.,
deals with the issue of chronic violence and its impact
on child development. Chapters address the school
as a refuge and the use of art and play in the healing
process.
Jossey-Bass
350 Sansome St.
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 433-1740
Candid and poignant black-and-white photographs A little girl’s orderly world is upset when her mother
capture the tender relationship between tennis great takes a job outside the home in Marge Blame’s The
Arthur Ashe, who died of AIDS in 1993, and his daugh- Terrible Thing That Happened at Our House. But
ter, Camera, in Daddy and Me. The photos, taken by together, her family come up with some coping strate-
acclaimed photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe gies that help the stressed-out narrator realize “the ter-
(Camera’s mom) and accompanied by Camera’s own rible thing” isn’t so bad after all. Energetic watercolors
words, provide a simple but meaningful way to discuss by Hohn C. Wallace add to the humor.
AIDS with young children. Scholastic
Random House P.O. Box 7502
400 Hahn Rd. Jefferson City, MO 65102
Westminster, MD 21557 (800) 325-6149
(800) 726-0600
Stereotypes come under scrutiny in the book Paul and Hands, Ears and Eyes On
Sebastian, written by René Escudié and illustrated by The following activity books, art materials, posters,
Ulises Wensell. Parents refuse to allow their sons to puppets, dolls, songbooks and other items can help you
play together because one lives in an apartment and the create an environment and curriculum that celebrate
other in a trailer, until a minor crisis makes them realize diversity and foster caring and unity among young
they have more in common than they thought. children.
Kane/Miller Book Publishers
P.O. Box 310529 Activity Books and Curricula
Brooklyn, NY 11231-0529 The Best Self Esteem Activities for the Elementary
(718) 624-5120 Grades offers an excellent overview of the theory
behind self-esteem and emotion management for chil-
dren, as well as strategies for promoting children’s
Organizations sense of personal agency and self-fulfillment. By the
The Anti-Defamation League offers educational out- same publisher, the book Everybody Wins! includes 100
reach programs and publications aimed at prejudice games that focus on inclusion, cooperation and cross-
awareness/reduction relating to race, ethnicity, dis- cultural interaction.
ability, gender, religion and other issues. Teacher, they Innerchoice Publishing
called me a ________! is an anti-bias activity book P.O. Box 2476
geared toward elementary-aged children. Spring Valley, CA 91979
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith (619) 698-2437
823 United Nations Plaza Fax (619) 698-3348
New York, NY 10017
(212) 490-2525
Feeling Strong, Feeling Free provides dozens of activi-
ties that allow children to explore the joys of movement
The human rights organization Amnesty International and enhance feelings of trust and togetherness in the
produces materials designed to promote intercultural classroom.
understanding and a commitment to justice. Among NAEYC
the resources it provides are the book Human Rights 1509 16th St. N.W.
for Children, which helps kids ages 3 to 12 develop an Washington, DC 20036-1462
awareness of their own rights and the rights of oth- (800) 424-2460
ers, and The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
a 20-minute video that portrays the 30 articles of this
document in an innovative animated form. First Time, Circle Time: Shared Group Experiences for
Amnesty International Three-, Four- and Five-Year-Olds abounds with song
322 Eighth Ave. lyrics, reading, art and movement suggestions designed
New York, NY 10001 to bring (and keep) children together at Circle Time.
(212) 807-8400 Globe/Fearon Educational Publishers
P.O. Box 2649
Columbus, OH 43216
Texts of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (800) 848-9500
and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well Fax (614) 771-7361
as a variety of posters, books and lesson plans, are avail-
able from the United Nations.
U.N. Publications
2 United Nations Plaza
Room DC2-853
New York, NY 10017
(800) 253-9646
Need an idea for a multicultural project? This appeal- More than 160 preschool activities that revolve around
ing trio of activity books can help: Hands Around the feelings, respect, encouragement and negotiation can
World: 365 Ways to Build Cultural Awareness and be found in The Peaceful Classroom.
Global Respect; The Kids’ Multicultural Art Book; and Gryphon House
The Kids’ Multicultural Cookbook. Unlike many other P.O. Box 207
activity books, these provide important background Beltsville, MD 20705
information about suggested projects. (800) 638-0928
Williamson Publishing Co. Fax (301) 595-0051
P.O. Box 185
Charlotte,VT 05445
(800) 234-8791 Ready to Use Multicultural Activities for Primary
Children divides its riches into three parts: self-es-
teem, mutual respect and multicultural contributions.
Learning the Skills of Peacemaking includes 56 lesson Activities are printed on reproducible pages and pre-
plans for teaching “peace skills.” The book emphasizes ceded by discussion guidelines and annotated “litera-
the responsibility of individuals in promoting peace, ture connection” suggestions.
a theme that is reinforced with creative activities and The People’s Publishing Group
insightful discussion guidelines. P.O. Box 70
Jalmar Press Rochelle Park, NJ 07662
24426 S. Main St., Suite 702 (800) 822-1080
Carson, CA 90745
(800) 662-9622
Fax (310) 816-3092 The first volume of Thinking, Feeling, Behaving: An
Emotional Education Curriculum for Children, by
Ann Vernon, is a compendium of classroom activities
Making It Better: Activities for Children Living in a based on the principle that thinking things through
Stressful World offers art, play and storytelling activi- rationally is one of the best ways to overcome problems.
ties to promote healing and recovery in children who The activities focus on developing children’s emotional
are experiencing upset or trauma. Activities are sup- intelligence.
ported by background information describing how chil- Research Press
dren cope with loss. 1612 N. Mattis Ave.
Redleaf Press Champaign, IL 61821
450 N. Syndicate, Suite S (217) 352-3273
St. Paul, MN 55104-4125
(800) 423-8309
Fax (800) 641-0115 Words Can Hurt You, a book which features dozens of
anti-bias activities, will help teachers infuse tolerance
themes throughout the curriculum.
The Multicultural Game Book brings together more Addison-Wesley
than 70 games from 30 countries for children ages 6 One Jacob Way
and up. The book includes background information as Reading, MA 01867
well as extension activities. (800) 552-2259
Scholastic
P.O. Box 7502
Jefferson City, MO 65102
(800) 325-6149
Posters and Displays The Getty Center for Education in the Arts presents four
Flowers of One Garden is a beautiful poster designed different sets of multicultural art prints to help students
to promote unity among people from different ethnic gain a deeper understanding of the way art reflects cul-
and racial backgrounds. A teaching guide that includes tural values. The large laminated prints depict African
tips for using the poster, as well as additional resources, American, Asian-Pacific, Mexican American and Native
accompanies the artwork. American art. Discussion questions and art activities
Sharon Firooz are printed on the back of each full-color reproduction.
749 5. Lemay, Suite A3-319 Crystal Productions
Fort Collins, CO 80524 P.O. Box 2159
(970) 226-2059 Glenview, IL 60025
(800) 255-8629
Contributors
Sara Bullard (Chapter 6) was founding director of the
Teaching Tolerance project. She is the author of Free
at Last: A History of the Civil Rights Movement and
Those Who Died in the Struggle (Oxford) and Teaching
Tolerance: Raising Open-Minded, Empathetic Children
(Doubleday).