Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/a-personal-journey-implementing-an-anti-bias-curriculum/5011874/
I don't think I had even heard the term "anti-bias curriculum." What I did was just a gut reaction. It would be a few years before there was a name for it. Yet now when I am teaching anti-bias curriculum to adults, it is always the story I tell. It best illustrates that anti-bias is not just a cognitive approach with orderly lesson plans, but it includes feelings and actions - and lots of trial and error. I also tell the story because I feel it is the most important work I've done in my 23 years of teaching.About eleven years ago, I was transferred to teach the after-school program (five to nine year olds). Other than the new kindergartners, all the other children had been in the class for either one or two years.
One of the older children was Sophie, an eight year old with Down's syndrome. I was shocked the first day to see the other children make fun of Sophie. They mimicked her actions and laughed at her. Children would move away if she sat next to them, even at the snack table. No one played with her. Other than to be ridiculed, she was ignored.
It was ...