Start Seeing Diversity Week 6 EDUC 6357

Start Seeing Diversity 

It is natural for children to notice the differences around them. It is their way of figuring out the world around them and where they fit in. It is often our reactions to their questions that send them the wrong messages about what they see.

I witnessed a child asking her mother why another child was in a wheelchair. The mother did not answer her, Instead of answering her, she told her child not to stare at the child in the wheelchair. I had my youngest daughter with me and she immediately asked me why that mother did that. I told that my daughter that some people are not sure how to handle those types of situations. My daughter looked at the child in the wheelchair and the mother, smiled, then said and waved hello to them.

What I know from this experience is that children learn about our differences through what they learn from the adults around them. The child who asked why the other child was in a wheelchair was just noticing these differences and trying to make sense between what she knows and what she sees. The child had not yet formed any judgments/biases about these differences until the mother confirmed that noticing differences is shameful or wrong. It also marginalizes the group of people who are differently-abled by making them seem not “normal” and dehumanizes them.

If this child were one of my students and told me about this situation, I would have used what I have learned through my experiences and through what I have learned about anti-bias education to guide the child to better understand the differences around us and that it is okay to explore these differences. I would let this child know that he was not wrong in noticing that the child in the wheelchair was different from him (Laureate Education, n.d.). Instead of noticing differences as something shameful, we could begin to explore people with varying abilities through books, picture cards (Laureate Education, n.d.), and through answering children’s questions (Hall, 2008). Through my experiences with working with people with varying disabilities, I would be able to explain to my students how much they have in common with them. All children want to learn, play, and to be loved and appreciated. They have family, friends, and classmates. I feel by making these connections would help children see them as people rather than something taboo that they should not notice or talk about. We want children to feel that they are free to ask questions in order to create a world with less bias and prejudice. Until we show children we need to change how we value others, we will not be able to move towards creating change (Harro, 2010).

References

Hall, K. W. (2008). Reflecting on our read-aloud practices: The importance of including

culturally authentic literature. Young Children, 63(1), 80–86.

Harro, B. (2010). The cycle of liberation. In M. Adams, W. Blumenfeld, C. Castaneda, H.

W. Hackman, M. L. Peters, & X. Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for diversity and social

justice (Figure 7.1 on p. 53, 2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Physical ability and characteristics [Video

            file]. Retrieved from:

https://class.waldenu.edu

Laureate Education (Producer). (n.d.). Start seeing diversity: Race/ethnicity [Video file]. Retrieved from:

https://class.waldenu.edu